Barstow is an average-sized municipality situated in the state of California and has seven constituent districts. As per the year 2010 United States census the population of Barstow stood at 22,639. Consequently, the population density was 546.9 people for every square mile. As per the residents, the makeup of Barstow includes a considerably mixed raced people who include the whites, the African Americans, Asians, Native Americans as well as the Hispanics. Around 98 percent of the residents live in family units while some live in non-institutionalized group squatters and some in institutionalized systems. The San Bernardino High Desert communities have experienced a considerable growth in the regions of Southern California. For instance, the region has experienced incredible growth in the demographic variations within the past two decades. The increase in the number of Hispanic racial group has been rapid over the years and the Latinos now are more than all other ethnic and racial groups (The Press-Enterprise, 2013). Ultimately, Barstow is a leading community being the 295th biggest community in California.
With regard to the apparatus of the criminal system, Barstow boasts of a police department as well as the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. However, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department functions in the jurisdictions which are autonomous around the metropolis. Some of the autonomous areas include the Baker, Ludlow, Trona, and the Newberry Springs zones. The crime rate within Barstow is much higher than the average crime rate in California and even higher than the average crime rate at the national level. This can be attributed to low education level due to high level of school drop outs whereby there are only 59 percent high school graduates, 17 percent bachelor or associated degree holders and only 3 percent graduate degree holders as per a 2013 study (MOVOTO, 2013). Low household income levels and high unemployment rate which is about 14 percent of available workforce that is not in employment are also major causes of high crime rates in Bastow. As regards crime, property related offenses such as burglaries, larceny/theft and motor vehicle thefts are the most reported while most reported violent offenses are aggravated assaults and robbery account for the most reported crimes in Barstow (City-Data. Com, 2013).
With regard to the prosecutions in the criminal justice system, there seem to be ethnic and racial inconsistencies. Such variances can be described by the existence of racial and ethnic discrimination. As such, there are prejudice issues in different phases of the criminal justice system in within the Barstow community. As such, there is an unrelenting perception among the population on the basis of unfair treatment in the criminal justice system. For instance, a suspect from one ethnic group such as the Latino or African American is likely to be denied police bond or bail by the courts and in the alternative court may set bail which the suspect cannot be able to raise. This is because the police and the courts perceive such suspects as flight risk or capable of committing further crimes while out on bail. This shows that there is a perception among the police and courts that Hispanics and African Americans are inclined to commit crimes than the whites. This may be different if the suspect is white. Whites are treated differently and are more likely to be given bail as they are perceived to be ‘more nationals’ than other races hence they are not perceived as flight risks by courts.
Discrimination within the criminal justice system is usually indirect and stem from the magnification of initial shortcomings over time. For instance, the war on drugs stemming from 1980s and 90s increased significantly the black representation in state as well as federal prisons. Consequently, the crimes related to violence and unfair treatment bring to the fore the ethnic and racial disparities. As such, Hispanics and to a greater extent the African Americans are more likely to suffer victimization in robbery and homicide instances than the whites. Consequently, blacks and Hispanics who face prosecution for crimes are more likely to be convicted of the crimes for which they are charged than the whites.
In addition, homicide has become a major cause of death among the youthful black males and females. As such, homicide is more likely to draw attention to racial differences hence black men and women and to a lesser extent Hispanics are more likely to be killed in their lifetime than white men and women. As regards gender, women have a higher probability of suffering sexual assault than males. Accordingly, black women are highly likely to be sexually assaulted and raped in their lifetime than the Hispanic and the non-Hispanic whites. With regard to sentencing, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be handed harsh punishments than the non-Hispanic whites for the same crimes. Such discriminatory tendencies usually emerge as social beliefs that associate certain races and ethnicities with poverty and other societal misconceptions. The criminal justice system is likely to discriminate individuals based on their belonging to the members of a demographic group that has a disproportionately higher percentage of offenders. In this regard, individuals from the black and Hispanic ethnicities are likely to suffer criminal justice discrimination due to their higher state and federal jail representations.
Consequently, people who are underprivileged are more likely to be discriminated by the criminal justice system than the middle and upper class. Hence the poor are likely to undergo increased social controls with regard to interdiction and intensified formal processing by the criminal justice system. The poor and the unemployed are also more likely to be subjected to increased incarceration because they are perceived as a threat to the existing state of affairs that benefit the middle and the upper class.
The aspect of racial discrimination against blacks and Hispanics who have become a large part of the population in Barstow has the potential to demoralize and disconnect these races from the rest of the population. High incarceration rates of these races are counterproductive taking into consideration the high costs involved (American Sociological Association, 2007). This form of discrimination also increases the racial and social inequalities in Barstow. Prolonged removal of members of certain communities has a negative economic impact on those communities and only ensures that after their long absence, detainees return to an even more deprived community than they left. Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system also disrupts familial structures hence accelerating the likelihood of increasing crime rate in future.
Two proposals for reforming the criminal justice system in Barstow are: one, making the population regardless of their racial, ethnic, gender, or class background experience a sense of belonging. This can be done by reforming the mindset of the police and other law enforcement agencies through enlightening them on the importance of fairness in their investigations. Enlightening judges also on the dangers of stereotyping and the importance of objectivity in all cases to ensure that justice is not only done but is also seen to be done.
The second proposal is to ensure that there are no mass incarcerations of some races. This can be done by beseeching judges not to issue fixed term sentences where a prisoner cannot be released until they serve their full sentence. Further educating judges on the importance of handing community service sentences to avoid large subtraction of members of community members in order to preserve the health and economic viability of communities.
The perception of fairness among races, ethnicities, gender, and class is necessary to ensure acceptance and support of laws and law enforcement agencies. Voluntarily accepting the laws in a democratic society is an essential condition to realizing and preserving societal order. In the absence of fairness in the justice system the contribution of certain races and ethnicities in the labor market as well as the civic and social life of the community is greatly diminished.
Implementing the foregoing proposals would be beneficial to beneficial to individuals in that family units would largely remain unaffected in the absence of long incarcerations and in the event that a breadwinner who is found guilty of a crime and handed a community service sentence that member is able to continue providing for the family. Implementation of the proposals would also benefit the community because where there are more community service sentences and less fixed term sentences, the economic activities within the community are not severely affected as prisoners continue with their economic activities after a short while. Further, the costs that would have been expended to sustain the prisoners while serving their sentences in prison facilities can be used in other economically viable activities. With regard to own experiences, flawed social beliefs against other races and ethnicities would be greatly diminished and one would be able to freely accept laws and also respect the criminal justice system as a member of the Barstow community.
References
American Sociological Association-Department of Research and Development (2007). ASA
Series on How Race and Ethnicity Matter: Race, Ethnicity, and the Criminal Justice System. American Sociological Asociation, p. 19.
assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, arson, law enforcement employees, police officers, crime map. City-Data.com. retrieved From http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Barstow-California.html
MOVOTO, (2013). Neighborhood Information for Barstow, CA, 92311. Retrieved From
http://www.movoto.com/neighborhood/ca/barstow/92311.htm
The Press-Enterprise (2013). SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY: Latinos now a majority.
Enterprise Media. Retrieved From http://www.pe.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20130613-san-bernardino-county-latinos-now-a-majority.ece
