Mass Incarceration: Mass incarceration is a criminal sanction carried out by the justice system that results in nearly invisible punishment including the diminution of rights and privileges of citizenship and legal residency in the United States (Mauer & Chesney-Lind, 2002). Mass incarceration provides one of the largest and most influential examples of institutionalized racism in the contemporary U.S. because of the way that african americans are systematically singled out to be searched, tried, and convicted of drug crimes and other felony offenses. In the United States there are a disproportionate number of minorities in prison when compared to those who identify as whites, the majority of whom being African American. This is a direct
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In the last forty years incarceration rates have grown measurably as the number of incarcerated people in the U.S. now tops the list of developed nations with 716 per every 100,000 people incarcerated, far above the global midpoint of about 145 per 100,000 according to World Prison Brief. The NAACP has found that over fifty percent of those incarcerated are serving drug related sentences and that there is a 10:1 ratio of African Americans to whites incarcerated for drug crime. Understanding mass incarceration is crucial to fully grasping race relations and the current racial dynamics in the United States. As a result of racialized policing and harsh punishment, mass incarceration in the US is very harmful to opportunities available for african americans in their futures. Felony drug charges entail the harshest repercussions of all nonviolent crime and severely restrict employment, housing, and many other opportunities for the rest of a person 's future as they are very highly stigmatized and prejudiced. This creates major racial inequality that is not as obvious as it might …show more content…
First, after the civil rights movement and the abolition of the Jim Crow laws, a new form of institutionalized discrimination prevented housing loans to be granted for african americans inside of designated areas. This practice, called redlining, worked by giving color coded ratings to neighborhoods based on the racial diversity or lack thereof contained within them, and primarily preventing houses in neighborhoods designated as white to be sold to african americans. Often times this practice served to relegate african americans to the inner city and attempt to preserve the suburbs exclusively for white people and prevented equal opportunities in housing. As the inner city became increasingly populated by minorities, it came to be portrayed also as a dangerous area and therefore was increasingly policed most noticeably so in the number of drug crimes within the city. After Richard Nixon’s 1971 declaration of a “war on drugs” incarceration rates skyrocketed due to the rapid criminalization of marijuana and other drugs. Under Nixon, federal drug control agencies received a significant increase in funds and mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes were enacted. These laws however held an underlying
In the last forty years incarceration rates have grown measurably as the number of incarcerated people in the U.S. now tops the list of developed nations with 716 per every 100,000 people incarcerated, far above the global midpoint of about 145 per 100,000 according to World Prison Brief. The NAACP has found that over fifty percent of those incarcerated are serving drug related sentences and that there is a 10:1 ratio of African Americans to whites incarcerated for drug crime. Understanding mass incarceration is crucial to fully grasping race relations and the current racial dynamics in the United States. As a result of racialized policing and harsh punishment, mass incarceration in the US is very harmful to opportunities available for african americans in their futures. Felony drug charges entail the harshest repercussions of all nonviolent crime and severely restrict employment, housing, and many other opportunities for the rest of a person 's future as they are very highly stigmatized and prejudiced. This creates major racial inequality that is not as obvious as it might …show more content…
First, after the civil rights movement and the abolition of the Jim Crow laws, a new form of institutionalized discrimination prevented housing loans to be granted for african americans inside of designated areas. This practice, called redlining, worked by giving color coded ratings to neighborhoods based on the racial diversity or lack thereof contained within them, and primarily preventing houses in neighborhoods designated as white to be sold to african americans. Often times this practice served to relegate african americans to the inner city and attempt to preserve the suburbs exclusively for white people and prevented equal opportunities in housing. As the inner city became increasingly populated by minorities, it came to be portrayed also as a dangerous area and therefore was increasingly policed most noticeably so in the number of drug crimes within the city. After Richard Nixon’s 1971 declaration of a “war on drugs” incarceration rates skyrocketed due to the rapid criminalization of marijuana and other drugs. Under Nixon, federal drug control agencies received a significant increase in funds and mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes were enacted. These laws however held an underlying