Spanish Translator Researches Race Issues in Follow

The racial make-up of American prisons is a source of both frustration and controversy.  According to a Spanish translator researching the phenomenon, African-Americans account for 12 percent of the U.S. population, but represent almost 40 percent of felony convictions.  Nearly one out of every ten black males between 20 and 34 is in prison.  Among adults serving life sentences sixty-six percent are black or Latino.  There is no clear single reason about the causes of this racial disparity. Democrats cite a racist judicial system, poverty in minority neighborhoods, and unequal sentences for drug crimes.  Conservatives blame the high incidence of violent crime in many inner-city black neighborhoods, most of which is black on black crime.