Essay On Mass Incarceration

The mass incarceration of minority and impoverished communities around the globe, but most specifically in the U.S. is the subtle, yet active form of racism that we use today to discriminate, separate, and hinder the opportunities of those who become trapped behind bars. The incarceration system around the globe has a deep history that differs from country to country, some being more violent and unfair, like that of Latin America, to others being more successful in treating prisoners like human beings, like those in Europe. This paper examines how the United States seems to fall somewhere in the middle, with being the leading nation in incarcerating their citizens per capita, yet not treating them as inhumane as the prison systems in Latin America. It will often compare and refer to these other systems around the globe to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of where our country lies on the spectrum. This trend of rising incarceration rates in the United States is a path to violating even the most basic human rights and putting an end to the discrimination and mistreatment of individuals stuck in the prison loophole is fundamental in promoting the equality and happiness of all citizens. As anthropologists, we must discover how and why these systems came to be, and what needs to be done in order to change the way things are being done. By looking at the history and mistakes of our own incarceration system and evaluating a few systems used around the globe can be the answer to inflicting change in our country and communities. . As mentioned above, the institutions and laws used today to put people behind bars, mainly those of color, are products of the history on criminalization. They often shifted due to economic and political paradigms that would benefit those politicians and large corporations in power at different points in time. The history of criminalization in the United States is a long one, but crucial in understanding why most of the prison population is unproportionately black and brown. After the collapse of the slave system …show more content…
They used the ideas of public safety and the war on crime to their political advantage to gain the white, working class votes in the South. During this period, policies such as the three strikes rule, mandatory sentencing, and truth in sentences, damned those convicted and made the prison population boom even more. Building prisons and police expansion was praised even by those of color who had little understanding of the harm it was doing to their communities. “There is no drug exception written into the text of the constitution”(Alexander, p.61), yet it was, and continues to be, the leading factor in sending individuals to jail. Minor crimes like loitering and vagrancy laws were the issues of back then, while today minor criminal offenses like possession of marijuana tend to lead to arrest and conviction. “In 2005 four out of five drug arrests were for possession of minor drugs, and one out of five were for actual sales…[with] most people in state prison for drug offenses having no history of violence or significant selling activity” (Alexander, p. 60). If the prison system was designed to keep out the most dangerous and worst kind of people behind bars, it shouldn’t be a fact that the majority of those in jail are nonviolent offenders of