In her article Why Mass Incarceration Matters; Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and
Transformation in Postwar American History, Heather Thompson discusses how mass
incarceration lead to the decline of poor African American’s economic and social standing, in
some cases took jobs from white rural areas, raised profits of businesses in the prison industry,
and increased the amount of prisoners performing full time labor. She argues that the greater
increase of disparity between African Americans and Whites arose during the New Deal era,
which eliminated most of the unfavorable assumptions based on Whites’ social standing. This
further divergence eventually allowed greater prejudice to be more narrowly focused on poor
African Americans rather than the …show more content…
Sadly, mass incarceration only worsened the gap. Blacks that were freed
from prison experienced an average 10 percent drop in their wage earnings compared to their
employment before going to prison. Now poor blacks had little hope of making enough money to
escape the environment that was persecuting them through a large more militarized police force,
harsh legislation, and a biased justice system that could send anyone to jail for committing
crimes that would previously have resulted in a fine or a citation.
The Democratic party’s politics regarding crime helped to fuel the public on society shift
to the right and to a more conservative mindset. Historians cannot agree what necessarily agree
on what caused this rightward shift but it partially involved the Democratic party’s approach to a
rising crime rate. Some argue that American citizens believed that the left was not treating the
growing urban crime problem with enough seriousness and therefore sought a more harsh
attitude toward crime. There was a growing concern in both the white middle class and
Transformation in Postwar American History, Heather Thompson discusses how mass
incarceration lead to the decline of poor African American’s economic and social standing, in
some cases took jobs from white rural areas, raised profits of businesses in the prison industry,
and increased the amount of prisoners performing full time labor. She argues that the greater
increase of disparity between African Americans and Whites arose during the New Deal era,
which eliminated most of the unfavorable assumptions based on Whites’ social standing. This
further divergence eventually allowed greater prejudice to be more narrowly focused on poor
African Americans rather than the …show more content…
Sadly, mass incarceration only worsened the gap. Blacks that were freed
from prison experienced an average 10 percent drop in their wage earnings compared to their
employment before going to prison. Now poor blacks had little hope of making enough money to
escape the environment that was persecuting them through a large more militarized police force,
harsh legislation, and a biased justice system that could send anyone to jail for committing
crimes that would previously have resulted in a fine or a citation.
The Democratic party’s politics regarding crime helped to fuel the public on society shift
to the right and to a more conservative mindset. Historians cannot agree what necessarily agree
on what caused this rightward shift but it partially involved the Democratic party’s approach to a
rising crime rate. Some argue that American citizens believed that the left was not treating the
growing urban crime problem with enough seriousness and therefore sought a more harsh
attitude toward crime. There was a growing concern in both the white middle class and