10 Dark Truths About the American Justice System

Top 10 Dark Truths About the Justice System

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Dark Truths About the Criminal Justice System.

For this list, we’ll be looking at facts and statistics about the U.S. justice system that may shake your faith in law and order.

There are too many realities to cover in just ten entries, so please contribute to the conversation in the comments below.

#10: Prison Is Expensive

American taxpayers spend $80 billion a year to keep people in prison. On average, imprisonment costs around $31,000 per convict per year. Advocates for criminal justice reform have pointed out that in many states, that’s far more than goes into public education. California, for example, pays 50,000 dollars more per convict than per student. The fact that the U.S. has one of the highest rates of recidivism in the world raises further questions about how that money is spent. Three out of four prisoners are rearrested within five years. Compare that to a rate of 20% in Norway, where the prison system is designed around rehabilitation and reintegration.

#9: Violence Is Common

The data we have on violence in prisons is incomplete, due to a code of silence among inmates. As the saying goes, ‘snitches get stitches.’ What we do know is that one-in-five male prisoners say they’ve been assaulted by a fellow inmate. Roughly the same number report violence from prison staff. Overcrowding increases rates of violence. Sexual assault is also a major problem. Figures vary, but in 2008, it was estimated that 216,000 inmates were sexually assaulted. In the last two decades, the rate of people taking their own lives in state prisons has almost doubled, and the homicide rate has tripled. Drug overdose rates are seven times higher. For many inmates, the violent conditions in prisons make rehabilitation an unlikely goal.

#8: Punishing the Innocent

There’s no way to sugarcoat it: prisons contain far too many innocent people. Solid numbers on this topic aren’t easy to come by. According to nonprofit organization the Innocence Project, if we extrapolate the number of DNA exonerations to the total population, one percent of all prisoners are innocent. That’s more than 20,000 people. Other studies indicate as many as six percent of inmates are not guilty. That's upwards of 115,000 people, roughly the same population as Springfield, Illinois. Race, too, plays a role here. For example, Black people are far more likely to be wrongfully convicted than white people.

#7: Release Can Be a Kafkaesque Nightmare

Around 95% of inmates will eventually be released. That doesn’t end their troubles, however. Former felons face considerable obstacles to making a fresh start - including restrictions on housing, civic participation, and employment. Many are denied housing, or return home only for their families to be evicted. Once you leave prison, you’re 10 times more likely to be homeless than the average American. As for employment, it’s one of the most common conditions of parole. But seven out of eight employers won’t hire ex-felons. Over a quarter are unemployed - feeding into recidivism. Even though there are three times as many former prisoners as current prisoners, states spend 10 times more on prisons than on parole, so resources are limited.

#6: Trials Are Going Extinct

From “Perry Mason” to “Law & Order,” dramatic courtroom moments are a staple of American television. Most people would be shocked to learn that very few cases ever reach a courtroom. The U.S. faces a major public defender crisis, made worse after the Covid-19 pandemic. While Americans technically have a right to representation, that doesn’t always pan out. The threat of long prison sentences and large legal fees scare many people into just taking plea deals. 94% of convictions at the state level and 97% at the federal level come from plea deals, not from trials.

#5: Children in Lockup

‘Tried as an adult’ is a phrase that has become normalized in the US to a startling degree. In 22 states and Washington, D.C., children can be tried as an adult as young as age seven. According to Human Rights Watch, U.S. prisons contain more than 2,500 minors locked up for life without parole. There are around 10,000 children incarcerated in adult prisons. There are another 34,000 imprisoned in youth facilities. One in five aren’t guilty of crimes. They’re locked up for ‘offenses’ like truancy and ‘incorrigibility.’ What is incorrigibility? Disobeying their parents one-too many times. There are a further 20,000 kids in residential facilities waiting for prison beds to open up for them.

#4: Capital Punishment

The controversies around capital punishment have led most countries to abolish it. The United States is one of the holdouts, along with countries such as China, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan. One problem is that some executed inmates are likely innocent. The exact number is uncertain, but at least 190 death row inmates have been exonerated since 1973. Another is that many executions are botched. In 2022, a third of executions were mishandled, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. One executioner in Alabama took three hours to find a vein. There is also continued debate over whether lethal injection is painful. Drug companies are trying to pull their drugs from execution protocols, leaving states to find new drugs with little transparency.

#3: Crime & Poverty

Advocates for criminal justice reform have highlighted the link between poverty and crime for years. Almost 40% of people in state prison were jobless the month before getting arrested. A majority of women in prison were jobless in that same timeframe. That struggle doesn’t end at arrest and isn’t limited to the prisoners themselves. One third of families of inmates go into debt for visitation or phone calls. Two thirds of families of inmates can’t meet their own basic needs. In the U.S., there’s a widespread practice called “pay to stay.” Many jails across the country charge inmates a daily fee while they are in holding. That often leads to massive debt on top of their everyday struggles.

#2: The Prisoner Capital of the World

The United States makes up just 4.25% of the world’s total population. Yet, it has 22% of the world’s prisoners. There are around two million incarcerated Americans. Based on 2020 census data, that's almost 7 out of every 1,000 people. If the prison population were a state, it would rank 36th in total population. Despite a huge drop in violent crime over the last 40 years, the number of people incarcerated has surged by 500% - an increase largely linked to the War on Drugs.

#1: Racism

The criminal justice system is the poster child for systemic racism in the US. People of color are imprisoned at a wildly disproportionate rate. One third of Black males and one sixth of Latino males born today will likely go to prison. Compare that to one out of 17 white males. This difference is reflected in the War on Drugs. White and Black people use and sell drugs at similar rates - although white people are somewhat more likely to sell. Yet, Black people are far more likely to be arrested for drug offenses. In fact, one third of people imprisoned on drug charges are Black. When it comes to sentencing, it’s more bad news; Black men receive 19% longer sentences than white men who commit the same offense.