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3 Ways the 1994 Crime Bill Continues to Hurt Communities of Color [1]

['Ranya Shannon', 'Vice President', 'Director', 'Federal Affairs', 'Senior Director', 'Safety', 'Justice Campaign', 'State', 'Local Government Affairs']

Date: 2024-07

This year marks the 25-year anniversary of the passage of the most sweeping crime bill in U.S. history—the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, also known as the crime bill. In many ways, this 350-page bill’s passage characterized the bipartisan tough-on-crime movement of the late 20th century. While the bill contained a handful of positive provisions such as increased accountability for law enforcement and new protections for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, it was also responsible for exacerbating racial disparities in criminal justice involvement.

As previous CAP work has pointed out, the bill contributed to ongoing rampant police misconduct and racial profiling by deploying hundreds of thousands of officers into neighborhoods of color, and it jeopardized reentry for returning people of color by eliminating their Pell Grant eligibility while in prison. The bill also expanded the use of the death penalty; imposed mandatory life sentences for individuals with three or more felony convictions; and levied harsh new penalties for justice-involved youth. Many of these harmful provisions remain in effect today and continue to target and destabilize communities of color. Here are three ways the 1994 crime bill continues to undermine the safety and well-being of communities of color:

1. Authorized the death penalty for 60 new federal offenses

Known as a “direct descendant of lynching,” the death penalty has always targeted and terrorized black and Latinx communities. The crime bill’s Federal Death Penalty Act permitted the use of the death penalty for 60 new federal offenses, including certain drug offences not related to a homicide. In the five years following the bill’s passage, 74 percent of defendants with death penalty recommendations from federal prosecutors were people of color. Notably, 44 percent were black and 21 percent were Hispanic.

74% Percentage of defendants recommended for the death penalty by federal prosecutors who were people of color

Racial disparities in capital punishment persist to this day. While black and Hispanic people represent just 31 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 53 percent of death row inmates, at 41.9 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively. Furthermore, the death penalty is more likely to be recommended when the victim of the crime is white rather than black, despite the fact that black men are the most likely victims of homicide. Last year, the Trump administration called upon federal prosecutors to pursue the death penalty in cases “dealing in extremely large quantities of drugs.” If this directive survives litigation, it is expected to worsen racial disparities in the application of the death penalty, as black people are far more likely than white people to be arrested, charged, convicted, and incarcerated for drug crimes—even though they use and sell drugs at similar rates.

2. Imposed mandatory life sentences for individuals with three or more felony convictions

The crime bill implemented a rash of new three-strikes laws—laws that impose automatic life sentences for people convicted of certain felony offenses if they already have two convictions on their record. Dozens of states followed suit and enacted three-strikes laws, resulting in a ballooning of the incarceration rate in certain states, especially for black and Latinx Americans.

78.5% Percentage of Americans serving life sentences in 2016 who were people of color

Imposing life sentences simply because an individual has a criminal record disproportionately targets people of color, who are more likely to have a record in the first place because of unequal contact with police and the justice system. Harsh collateral consequences limit employment opportunities for returning people, especially people of color, and increase the likelihood of recidivism. The crime bill’s three-strikes provision sent thousands of Americans to prison for life based on previous offenses for minor crimes such as stealing loose change from a parked car. In 2016, 78.5 percent of Americans serving life sentences in federal prison were people of color.

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[1] Url: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/3-ways-1994-crime-bill-continues-hurt-communities-color/

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