Black people are almost three times more likely to be killed by police than white people in the U.S. In 2023, officers killed over 1,250 civilians. Across the country, racial profiling is a persistent problem, with investigations and studies repeatedly showing police stop and search people based on race and that police use disproportionate force against Black, Latine, and Indigenous people. This results in widespread and preventable harm to people of color.
People who survive unconstitutional policing encounters must contend with a criminal legal system that, due to its own racial and other biases, wrongfully convicts them or forces them to plead out to charges regardless of guilt because they lack resources or options to fight back.
Each year, more than 10 million people in the U.S are locked into local jails, and, as of 2015, there were roughly 700,000 people locked up on any given day. Most of them have not been convicted of a crime but instead can’t sufficiently afford to pay their way to freedom. Bail systems can result in wealth-based detention that force people who are poorer, often people of color, to remain locked up while awaiting trial.
Nearly 4 million people in the United States are on some form of supervision, like probation or parole. Supervision is promoted as an alternative to incarceration that helps people get back on their feet, but in reality, it drives people into jail and prison, feeding mass incarceration. Supervision requires strict adherence to dozens of wide ranging, often vague, and conflicting rules, including paying fines and fees that many people cannot afford; attending frequent meetings, which may be far from home or conflict with work or caregiving responsibilities; reporting any address change, even if they are houseless; and staying away from people with criminal records — even though one in 12 people in the U.S., and one in three Black men has a felony conviction.