Poverty, Ethnicity, and Incarceration: How it Affects Society
Kristie Hurley
SOC 203 Social Problems
Instructor: Jennifer Maves
October 7, 2013

Poverty, Ethnicity, and Incarceration: How it Affects Society
The overlapping of crime, punishment, race, and poverty, are all social problems that our society has to deal with as a whole problem. People in minority groups such as African Americans, are stereotyped into a group that people see as being at higher risk of becoming criminals and being more at risk of becoming poverty stricken. Their incarceration levels are as high as seven times higher as white people. This happens because they are unable to get the education they need, because they cannot get student loans, housing assistance, or any other government assistance to help them because of their criminal background. The punishments that are put on people that commit felonies do affect everyone around them as well. It takes the convicted person away from their families, also, takes them out of the communities that they live in therefore making it impossible for them become active, contributing members of society, even if they can’t get the higher paying jobs, they would still be members of a community that they would still contribute to. The way they are punished strictly depends are the economic resources that available. To keep the cost down on a high rate of incarcerated people, it takes other cheaper programs to become available, therefore not necessarily getting the people the help needed to not reoffend. Convicted felons pose high risk of reoffended due to the collateral sanctions that are imposed upon them. With the a higher degree of them living in places that make it almost impossible to for them to live full lives without relying on the illegal actions that most of them have to take to help them survive after being convicted.
The rates of incarceration of colored men compared to white men are at an all-time higher rate. Colored men make up about 30% of the country’s population, but they make up about 60% of our prison population. This means that about 1 in every 15 African American men are incarcerated. Compare this to a lower rate of about 1 in every 106 white males are incarcerated. They have a higher rate of not just incarceration, but also of being sentenced to the death penalty, that a white male. It is known that if a child offends as youth from a low-income family, they are at higher risk of offending when they become an adult. “According to the Sentencing Project, even though African American juvenile youth are about 16% of the youth population, 37 % of their cases are moved to criminal court and 58 % of African American youth are sent to adult prisons.” (Kerby, 2012). African American males usually receive longer sentences then while males of the same age grouping and of the same crime, although it is unconstitutional to the offender to be judged upon their race. . Their sentences are usually longer my about 10% then of a white offender. Making them unable to become a more active member of society and to be able to hold a paying job to support not just their families, but help the communities that they live in. This makes it harder, as well, for them to acquire, student loans for proper and higher education, and public housing assistance to help relieve them from the a poverty that they encounter. “Wages grow at a 21 percent slower rate for black former inmates compared to white ex-convicts. A number of states have bans on people with certain convictions working in domestic health-service industries such as nursing, child care, and home health care—areas in which many poor women and women of color are disproportionately concentrated.” (Kerby, 2012).
Collateral sanctions follow the convicted felon throughout the whole rehabilitation process, which makes it more difficult for a felon to readjust their lifestyle. Collateral Sanctions are the legal penalties, disabilities, or disadvantages that