Latinos Disproportionately Jailed in Arpaio’s Arizona on Immigration Violations

America's Voice Blog

Posted 07/07/09 at 11:16am

Latinos Disproportionately Jailed in Arpaio’s Arizona on Immigration Violations

Latinos Jailed Disproportionately We've been tracking the injustices of Sheriff Joe Arpaio for some time now. Here's the latest, from blogger Erin Rosa of Gabacha.com:

Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff who has made a career out of targeting undocumented immigrants and using dehumanizing tactics on jail inmates, has now achieved another accomplishment. The majority of inmates locked up in his jails are Latino males.

Rosa cites today's Arizona Republic exposé on the increasing percentage of Latino inmates being locked away in Sheriff Joe's jurisdiction. It comes as no surprise when one scratches the ugly surface of the Sheriff's policing tactics, for which he is now undergoing federal investigation. (Thanks, in part to our outraged supporters who helped send 38,000 petition signatures to the Justice Department!).

Rosa's post ties today's news to a recent Pew Hispanic report on the changing demographics in U.S. prisons- due in large part to the growing but apallingly under-regulated industry of jailing immigrants:

In April, the nonprofit Pews Hispanic Center reported that more than one-in-ten Latinos claimed that they or someone in their immediate family served time in jail or prison in the past five years, continuing a growing trend of racial disproportions in corrections Interestingly enough, the study also found that native-born individuals were twice as likely as immigrants to say they or members of their household had been incarcerated.

Who thinks we, as a nation, can do better than this?