Category Archives: Policy

Racial Disparities in Los Angeles County Jails

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Los Angeles County, in California, has the largest jail system in the countryand is home to some of the jails and prisons with the worst, and most inhumane facilities. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, over 17,000 people in Los Angeles County were incarcerated daily. In this, Black and Latinx identifying people were the most incarcerated, especially Black women. This is at an incredibly disproportionate rate to white counterparts, who have been imprisoned at far lower rates. Amidst the pandemic starting in 2020, a call to action was made to lawmakers, forcing an examination of living conditions in jails in Los Angeles County, in accordance with the safety, health, and wellbeing of those being incarcerated. After some back and forth, the County decided upon establishing a “care-first” initiative, that would work towards reassessing how jail facilities were used, who were being incarcerated, and who deserved compassionate release due to COVID-19 complications. In other efforts in jails across Los Angeles County, the population began to decrease as there were increased efforts in slowing the transmission of the virus. The graph below details the jail population at the beginning of the pandemic until April of 2022 and expresses an extreme decrease in jail population by 30% a few months into the pandemic. Although promising, this change did not last for long as a few months later the population threshold in county jails fell way over the capacity set for the jail systems in the county. Although there have been strong efforts in lowering jail populations in accordance with health standards set by the Jail boards, these capacities continue to be exceeded because many people who are incarcerated do not have the resources to be released on bail. Jails are one institution that continues to disproportionately affect and impact Black and Latinx people in Los Angeles County. Going to jail and staying there for adverse periods of time has strong effects on mental health, and creates extreme obstacles for obtaining jobs and having steady foundations upon one’s release. This treatment continues the cycle of high crime rates and social and economic deterioration in predominantly Black and Latinx communities in Los Angeles. People should contact their city representatives, and fight for changes to be made in the LA county jail system. This is not a problem that will go away soon, as it is a foundational component to maintaining the class and race divide within the country.

Sources:https://www.vera.org/care-first-la-tracking-jail-decarceration

CO2 Emissions by Country

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Of course we know now that emissions of carbon dioxide are incredibly harmful to our earth and the ozone. As one of the most prominent and dangerous green house gasses, limiting carbon dioxide emissions is crucial to saving our planet before it heats up to a point of no return. The graph that I am going to conduct is relatively simple but it will be stats on some of the largest and most industrialized countries in the world and the numbers that relate to their C02 emissions.

 

 

These ten countries make up nearly 70% of the worlds CO2 emissions and of these 10 countries, China make sup 43.6% of the emissions. These countries are all very industrialized and have shown large jumps in population growth. If that growth continues, some policies have to implemented to lower these emissions!

Food Insecurity

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Food insecurity is defined as a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. This is an unfortunate but prevalent problem in our world and nation today. Data also shows that food insecurity happens in some communities more than others. Specifically, data shows that Black and Hispanic Americans are particularly disproportionately affected. Identifying these inequalities/inadequacies is the first step in attempting to correct/fix them. According to USDA data, 19.1% of Black households and 15.6% of Hispanic households experienced food insecurity in 2019. White Americans fell below the national average, with 7.9% experiencing food insecurity.These percentage statistics portray how common food inadequacies are among Americans and how race plays a role. It is difficult for many of us to imagine not having enough food in our stomachs or worrying about our next meal(s), but that is a sad reality facing Americans. Outside of race, food insecurities appear to be directly affected by level of education and ability to work. College graduates experienced food insecurity at a rate of just 5% last year. For those without a high school degree, the rate skyrocketed to 27%. Adults who have a disability — in particular adults who have a disability and are not in the work force — also experience more than two times the rate of food insecurity as adults who do not have a disability. It is interesting to see how a college degree (and lack thereof one) impact rates of food insecurity. I think it is safe to say that there is a direct link between financial situations and food insecurities based on these statistics, with obtaining a job affecting one’s ability to buy and consume food for themselves and their families. I would be interested to know how common food adequacies are in the state of New York and Schenectady. The graph below shows how food insecurity is affected by race.

Works Cited:
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/912486921/food-insecurity-in-the-u-s-by-the-numbers

The for Profit Prison System

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The United States has the largest prison population in the world. Despite being a developed country with countless resources to help the process of rehabilitation, the United States has created a policy of incarcerating people for crimes that many people find to be a problem of our society and not individuals. The war on drugs has been a prime example of this. The US has created a system where non-violent drug offenders can be sentenced to prison for a long time, despite having problems with addiction or mental illness. The problem is that many of the prisons in the United States are private, and designed to make money. When there is such an incentive to have people locked up in order to make money, people who otherwise would not be put in prison, are incarcerated for low-level offenses. This has created a system where people that grow up in low income neighborhoods, that are surrounded by drugs a violence, are extremely susceptible to being put in prison, simply because of the situation that they were born into. We know that people of color are much more likely to be incarcerated for the exact same crimes committed by white people, and this has created and even greater divide in our country.  This for-profit prison system has been one of the main contributors to the racial divide that we have seen in our country.

 

What's the deal with private prisons? | Jacqui Ford Law | Oklahoma City

 

Works Cited:

https://fordlawokc.com/whats-the-deal-with-private-prisons/

Race Wealth Gap and Gentrification

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For this blag post I wanted to focus on something that I have previous knowledge about and that is in part to my Political Science background as a Union College student. Much of the focused in my classes has been on race segregation as well as housing political segregation among races. Gentrification, which is the forceful removal of residents out of their homes in Urban area is what I will discuss in this blog. Much of gentrification is based upon the the wage gap of race in the United States. Here is a graph depicting the wage gap between Black and White Americans..

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As you can see very clearly by this line chart, there is quite the disparity between the average wages between black and white families. Coinciding with this wage gap, is the demographic of people who live in inner city areas which is where gentrification is most prominent. It is on average that 30% of inner city populations is made up of Black citizens. While this is less than the white community, the population of African Americans in the United States is only 13%. Of black people, there is a greater percentage living in inner city, gentrified areas than there is the percentage of white people. Everything in the US’s economy works around the capitalist society that our country was built upon. African Americans make less money on average and are faced with more severe challenges in urban areas than the white urban population is facing.

 

Food Insecurity- Issue of Equity

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As a Sociology major, looking at the ways in which different social justice issues affect individuals isn’t new to me. However, what is new to me is looking at these issues through a mathematical lens. The issue of food insecurity and hunger is not just an issue surrounding food, but an issue surrounding equity. Consider the following chart;

The information on this chart shows that the rate of White college students facing food insecurity is 36%, which is quite high. However, other demographics have even higher percentages. Hispanic college students food insecurity rate is 47%, Black is college students rate is 54% and Indigenous college students rate is 60%. This data shows that food insecurity is an issue of racial equality and equity.

One of the main contributing factors to the difference of food insecurity among demographics is the difference in pay wages. Consider another chart below;

This chart displays that no matter the level of education, White employees will be paid more than Black and Hispanic workers. When an individual is paid more, they have more access to purchase food and avoid food insecurity. Hence, White workers being paid more definitely contributes to White individuals having the lowest rate of food insecurity among college students, compared to Black, Indigenous and Hispanic college students.

Lastly, as we have previously discussed, healthier food options are more expensive than unhealthy food options, such as fast food chains (McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, etc). With this in mind, families of lower income are going to be more likely to eat at fast food restaurants given the low prices. Consider this last data set;

This data shows that the rate of obesity among White students is only 29.3% while it is 35.9% among Black children and 38.2% among Hispanic children. This makes sense given everything that has been discussed thus far in this blog. Eating cheap fast food more often will result in higher obesity rates. The way that poverty can have an affect on so many other factors such as physical and mental health displays how capitalistic our society truly is.

U.S. Health Care Affordability in 2020

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This article looks at health insurance coverage for adults in America during the first half of 2020. This article presents results from the Commonwealth Fund’s latest Biennial Health Insurance Survey, which assesses the extent and quality of coverage for U.S. working-age adults. The survey began in 2001 and has three measures to gauge the adequacy of insurance coverage. The first is whether or not people have insurance. The second is if they have insurance and whether they experienced a gap in coverage in the prior year. The third is whether high out-of-pocket costs and deductibles are causing them to be underinsured, despite having continuous coverage throughout the year.

The survey for this article began in January of 2020. A nationally representative sample of 4,272 adults ages 19 to 64 was interviewed about their health insurance coverage through June 5.

The article gives important highlights of the survey, explains who is underinsured, and gives a graph that shows the percentage change of people that are underinsured over ten years.

The article goes on to present many graphs that present the percentage of ethnic groups who are uninsured, the change over time of adults in employer plans that are underinsured, change over time of the percentage of adults with a share of private insurance with deductibles of $1,000 or more, the percentage of people with inadequate insurance coverage that have more problems paying medical bills, the percentage of medical debt that leaves people with lingering financial problems, the percentage of uninsured or underinsured adults who often avoid or delay getting needed health care and medications, the percentage of people with higher deductibles who report financial problems more frequently because of medical bills or delaying care because of cost, then finally the percentage of adults who look for but do not buy plans in the individual market or marketplaces cite because of affordability.

The article concludes by explaining how the study was conducted.

This article and information relate to Social Injustice by showing the high uninsured rates of ethnic groups. The uninsured rates of black and Latino people are much higher than the uninsured rate of white people.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/aug/looming-crisis-health-coverage-2020-biennial

 

 

Sustainable Fishing

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There are many issues attached to the fishing industry: overfishing, bycatch, pollution, fish farming, and economics. This is why it is so vital to protect the fish and other marine life populations in the ocean. If the IPCC can determine and enforce sustainable fishing quotas the ocean will be well protected. But since the ocean is a global commons and there is no full authority over it regulations are difficult to make. Additionally, since the ocean covers the majority of our planet there is no way to actually enforce these regulations and ensure people/fishing companies are following them. There is one company called Seashepard that acts like a vigilante group which boards boats that are engaging in suspicious activity. Since the ocean is so vast it is also difficult to determine quotas since it is hard to figure out exact population numbers. Scientists often are estimating the population sizes of species and even then fishing companies still push for higher quotas. Even with bycatch and fish farming quotas have to be set. Bycatch because it is the unnecessary catching and killing of marine life while fishing. Fish farming because often fish caught from the ocean are used as feed for the farm bred fish. Additonally, the usage of sustainable fishing methods in terms of techniques used like long lines, and trollers. So in terms of mathematics there is a lot of estimating involved with fishing to establish effective quota levels that protect populations and encourage sustainable economic activity. There is an interesting documentary on Netflix called Seaspiracy that explains all the dynamics of the fishing industry. When buying fish look to see if it was locally sourced or fished sustainably and consumption is the driving force for the fishing industry so it’s important to support environmentally conscious brands.

Environmental racism

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Environmental racism refers to the idea that environmental destruction has a varying impact on individuals with regards to race. According to a research done by the U.S. Congress’s General Accounting Office, in eight distinctive states, ¨75% of the hazardous waste landfill sites were in low-income communities of color.¨(1) This is caused by the fact that communities of higher income tends to live away from environmentally dangerous areas of the city, and those who live in poverty tend to live in places that are more exposed to different kinds of pollutions, including but not limited to air, land, water pollution etc.

Due to this fact, I decided to look at the income of communities of colour and to compare how they might be disproportionately impacted by the environmental racism. ¨In 2019, median household income for Black households was $45,438 compared to $56,113 for Hispanic households, $76,057 for non-Hispanic White households, and $98,174 for Asian households.¨ Black households are 19% more likely to live in places with hazardous waste landfill (56,113 – 45,438)/56113 = 19% than hispanic households. (formula for percentage change)Environmental racism explains to us the urgency to take care of our environment as a means to fight against racism.

Bibliography:

(1) https://www.sustained.kitchen/latest/2020/6/6/fast-facts-on-environmental-racism

(2) https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html

Europes goal climate neutrality

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When I think of sustainability the first that comes to mind is carbon neutrality. “Carbon neutrality means having a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks.”(European parliament).  I am addressing a company named European Green Deal by the European Commission which aims to make Europe climate neutral by 2050 by enforcing laws by the EU Legislations(European parliament). Data shows that the decay factor is 9.5-11 gt while the growth factor is 38 Gt. The percentage change is decreasing by  -.75(9.5-38/38) and -27/28(11-38/38). This decrease is due to the natural carbon sink because no unnatural carbon sinks are able to remove carbon from the atmosphere at a significant scale to fight global warming the co2 emission will increase. Nonetheless, the rate of change demonstrates the amount of co2 released in the atmosphere is 27 and 28.5 annually (27-28.5). 

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20190926STO62270/what-is-carbon-neutrality-and-how-can-it-be-achieved-by-2050