The Seeds of Toby: The Continual Imperative of Holistic Criminal Justice Reform

Why is there continued racial disparity within the American criminal justice system?

Is it a natural propensity for crime?

Is it a racist criminal justice system?

Is it a culture of poverty?

Is it the war on drugs?

Is it dysfunctional family structures?

Is it choices?

Is it economics?

Is it spiritual issues?

Is it a lack of education?

Is it mental health?

Is it identity?

Among the various issues within crime and punishment and the fact that African Americans and other minorities disproportionately engulf the prisons, jails, and probation caseloads, why is it that so many are in the criminal justice system and continue to be at rates that continuously plague American communities? How about the aspects of historical trauma and improper identity paradigms? How about the fact that criminality has become normality? How about the old biblical adage that "as a man thinks, so is he"?

There is a cultural identity crisis in many that frequent the criminal justice system and amid the various efforts to correct and change behavior, address therapeutic measures, and ensure that the criminal justice system yields evidence-based practices and strength-based treatment modalities. The system sadly lacks the cultural competence that would change The New Jim Crow and the face of crime in America.

As much as activism and advocacy have rightfully focused on the racist aspects of a criminal justice system that has improperly and historically overloaded the system, the movement must be more thorough after generations of minorities were incarcerated and overwhelmed by the collateral consequences of imprisonment. There must be a more in-depth focus on keeping minorities out of the system, breaking a historical trauma that has grown over centuries. The system must incorporate ethnocentric treatment components focused on changing identity paradigms. What would that mean, and why is this important?