PolicyBridge - Building Bridges:
to Equal Justice for All
Latest Report
Missing In Action Report
These timely and critical questions will be the focus of this analysis. Black Leadership and the Balance of Power
Criminal Justice Reform
In Ohio and across the country, African Americans and other minority groups are disproportionally overrepresented in the criminal justice process and in prison populations. It is PolicyBridge, intent to systematically examination this multi-layered, multi-facet challenge and how policies affect the overall community.
Timed Served
Criminal Justice policies create legal barriers for people living with convictions after serving their time. Long after ex-offenders successfully completed their sentence, approximately 1 in 5 people will face restrictions on jobs, housing, education and other supports that are key to family stability and economic security. Which can lead to repeated offenses.
Plea Bargain Stats
The Constitutional Rights Foundation report cited a U.S. Sentencing Commission study found that 25 percent of White Americans get their sentences reduced via plea bargaining, compared to 18 percent of Blacks and only 12 percent of Latinos.
The Sentencing Project reported more than 90 percent of all cases before the U.S. justice system are settled by plea bargaining rather than exercising the right to trial. The rate of Black felony convictions is overwhelming, the study reported: African Americans constitute 13 percent of all drug users, yet represent 35 percent of arrests, 55 percent of convictions and 74 percent of prison sentences.
3X the Rate
Spending on prisons and jails has increased at triple the rate of spending on PRE-K -12 public education in the last thirty years
Source – NAACP, criminal justice facts
Decline by 40%
If African and Hispanic Americans were incarcerated at the same rates as White Americans, the prison and jail populations would decline by almost 40%
Over 2.2 Million
1980 to 2015, the number of people incarcerated in America increased from roughly from 500,000 to over 2.2 million
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