While slavery in America was ended by the US Civil War, racial discrimination was legally retained in the Jim Crow Laws. These laws, which were prevalent in all southern states, separating black and white Americans in all social settings. The Jim Crow Laws were turned over in the 1960s heavily due to the Civil Rights Movement. However, despite the trends in law enforcement allow discrimination to continue in other forms. Mass incarceration refers to America’s experimentation in incarceration, defined by historically extreme rates of imprisonment and by the concentration of imprisonment among young, African American men living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.…
Richard Nixon’s law and order discourse laid the groundwork for mass incarceration, though the tangible public policy began in 1982 with Ronald Regan’s War On Drugs. The movement was political plea, intended to garner white working class conservative support by playing into racial fears. And it had devastating results. From 1982 to the present the “U.S. penal system exploded, from around 300,000 [inmates] to more than 2 million… with drug convictions accounting for the majority of the increase” and young black men accounting for a hugely disproportionate number of those convicted (Alexander, pg. 6). The criminal justice system plays a large role in mass incarceration, but mass incarceration encompasses something much broader and more sinister - the framework of laws, rules, policies and customs that control “those labeled criminals” in and out of formal control in prisons (Alexander, pg. ).…
Michelle Alexander pours out everything from beginning to end within this book. There was nothing that was off limits when she enlightened her audience about the prevalence of the mass incarceration of our African American men that still affects our society. Alexander argues several points and introduces concepts that we still face today. One of these arguments includes the argument with the war on drugs and the systematic issue of mass incarceration being a continual issue that operates on the biases of colorblindness. The essence of her arguments are captured in the concepts within three chapters of her book.…
The United States has the highest rates of incarceration world wide, with more than 1.5 million of the population behind bars and those under correctional supervision bring that number to 7 million (LA times). While mass incarceration does affect all Americans, incarcerations rates suggest it is racially motivated. African-Americans are six times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, constituting almost half the prison/jail population. There has been a rise of Latino, and Mexican arrest due to policies on immigration. Even though the attention has been shifted to other minority, arrest rates for African-Americans are still the most incarcerated minority.…
Hello guys, Our direction is going to head to Mass Incarceration & Black, Blown Females & Community (including family) [The mass incarceration of black and brown women has devastating and lasting impacts on their communities.] might also considering Policing of women Domestic violence abuse Sex work Drug use The reason why chose Mass Incarceration & Black, Blown Females & Community : Fastest growing the U.S prison population Often acting as head of household Strongly affects family, children, and men How/ where we can find the artists Open call: Using Web/ Pages…
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world; 2.3 million inmates which equals a rate of 730 inmates to every 100,000 citizens. As Marc Mauer explains our correctional system began with the premise of rehabilitation but has now evolved into a retributive system. Race to Incarcerate A graphic retelling was the collaborative effort of Sabrina Jones and Marc Mauer. The purpose of this book is to explain why the mass incarceration rate has grown to the extraordinarily high level it has. Bringing into focus the very countless social and political policies that have failed us and if this incarceration rate continues: “1 out of 3 African American and one in 6 Latino males should expect to do time”(xii).…
Have cotton fields been replaced with prisons; mass incarceration is an ambiguous problem minority’s faces today. Over the past decades, the United States has incarcerated over millions of people and minorities make up nearly half of the total. More importantly making the United Stated the highest country with incarceration rates. In 2013, the state of Georgia had 2.6 million people with criminal records; 4.3 percent of the populations were Hispanics, 33 percent were Caucasians and 61 percent of them were African-Americans. Furthermore, making the state the fifth highest prison population in the nation.…
Everyday people are treated with an inferior manner due to the greed possessed by community leaders such as police officers and judges. In today’s society staying silent and complying to injustice seems to be a trend. Police quotas, private prison institution owners, and bystanders of such actions are all guilty of injustice because of the money they are benefiting from the act. The examples above tie in with “The Pardoner's Tale” because of the desire for selfish personal gains, benefits, and money. America, the great land of the free, is a victim of mass incarceration and inequality but that topic is brushed off because the people it affects are, minorities. Every day people of color are targeted by the police enforcement due to police quotas.…
Considering the achievements, and advancements African Americans and Hispanics conveyed, they are still dubbed as second class citizens and through the eyes of the White superiors should receive longer prison sentences, and punishment due to the findings of data which puts their minority group at a high rate of incarceration. In addition, as noted in the above-mentioned subject matter, one can reason that racial disparity in the U.S criminal justice system is considerable, a social issue confronting our public. Most minority groups such as African Americans, and Hispanics encounter the erroneous outcomes of this issue. Accordingly, should greater attempts be made to stop this ongoing issue within minority communities by all race groups, and those working within the system could support the Black and Hispanic populace from encountering disparity in…
The Injustices of Mass Incarceration of African Americans Since 1980, the United States has seen an unprecedented rise in incarceration rates. The United States is only 5% of the world population, yet it has 25% of the world’s prisoners. Currently, the US is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.3 million people currently in jail and prisons. That is a 500 percent increase over the last forty years. These incarceration rates, mostly which runs independent of crime rates, are suggested to be the result of policy changes over the last 30 to 35 years.…
Causes As aforementioned after the 1970’s the rate of incarceration within the United States spiked dramatically. Until recently when trying to explain the cause of racial disparity within the justice system and the effects on rate of incarceration, most viewed the situation as not indicative of just a racial issue but saw it as a problem across the board within the United States. Many became focused on the issue of mass incarceration rather than focusing on the issue of disproportion in incarceration or believed it was a newly developing issue rather than longstanding. According to Muller however, the explanation of racial disparity is not something that can be explained looking at data from the 1970’s and onward but rather one need refer…
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…
A system that affected the entire public turned into a disproportionate system that incarcerate a great deal of African Americans. Mass incarceration mainly impact the poor and minorities which has been disproportionately impacted by drug enforcement strategies. Relating to family and opportunity, a widespread of incarcerated men of low income communities which has a negative impact on social and cultural norms. Legal challenges have arisen since the enactment of the three strikes law in 1994. Twenty-five years to life for non-serious and nonviolent felonies were made possible because of the three Strikes law.…
With recent talks on Capitol Hill of an upcoming criminal justice reform, it is not surprising to see topics on sentencing structure, police ethics and practices, and the future of the criminal justice system in the news headlines. One of the biggest topics is the overwhelming prison population in state and federal prisons. This has been a prominent topic for some time now. While some want to curtail the prison community others seem to think there is not a visible complication. Those who sense the prison population or the amount of people under supervision of the criminal justice system is of no concern, more than likely do not understand the impact the population has on criminal justice professionals or where the funding for these institutions…
Mass Incarceration After the thirteenth amendment was passed in 1865 abolishing slavery, racial tension was still at an all-time high. The idea that white people were still superior to any other race specifically African Americans, this made things even more difficult. Due to this racial tension Jim Crow laws were created.…