Incarceration in the United States, a practice becoming expansive and critical, has abused the rights and ideals of fundamental American democracy for some of its populations. This democracy, coupled with the stipulation of the thirteenth amendment, includes the opportunity for all American citizens, regardless of whether they are inherently placed or chose to be in any subgroupings, to a set of unalienable rights in life. Unfortunately, certain subgroups are targeted by U.S. institutions and, thereby, stripped of their rights through both direct, systematic means and indirect, hidden practices of marginalization. The United States’ incarceration and judicial systems have had consequences of “premature death” on incarcerated peoples physical,
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In April of 1972, three African American inmates from Angola prison were put into solitary confinement after being falsely convicted of killing a correctional officer. The extralegal marginalization of these three men, Robert Hillary King, Herman Wallace, and Albert Woodfox, occurred when it was uncovered that, during the murder investigation and subsequent trial, prison officials conveniently lost DNA evidence that may have been exculpatory for the three men. Moreover, the state witnesses that claimed they saw King, Wallace, and Woodfox commit the murder were paid to lie under oath with various rewards and gifts. Hezekiah Brown, the star witness of the case, was paid off by getting to live free of supervision in the Angola dog pens, and receiving a carton of cigarettes a week, among many other small gifts. While Brown received these luxuries, the Angola 3 spent the next several decades in solitary confinement, defined as the isolation of a prisoner in a small separate cell with no human contact for twenty to twenty-two hours a day. People in solitary confinement are rarely allowed phone calls and are banned from having personal property. Shrouding evidence and paying witnesses are practices that are, in theory, illegal; but because the court and law enforcement systems ignored and allowed these occurrences by complacency, they represent extralegal oppression faced by many other black people (Lecture 7 &
In April of 1972, three African American inmates from Angola prison were put into solitary confinement after being falsely convicted of killing a correctional officer. The extralegal marginalization of these three men, Robert Hillary King, Herman Wallace, and Albert Woodfox, occurred when it was uncovered that, during the murder investigation and subsequent trial, prison officials conveniently lost DNA evidence that may have been exculpatory for the three men. Moreover, the state witnesses that claimed they saw King, Wallace, and Woodfox commit the murder were paid to lie under oath with various rewards and gifts. Hezekiah Brown, the star witness of the case, was paid off by getting to live free of supervision in the Angola dog pens, and receiving a carton of cigarettes a week, among many other small gifts. While Brown received these luxuries, the Angola 3 spent the next several decades in solitary confinement, defined as the isolation of a prisoner in a small separate cell with no human contact for twenty to twenty-two hours a day. People in solitary confinement are rarely allowed phone calls and are banned from having personal property. Shrouding evidence and paying witnesses are practices that are, in theory, illegal; but because the court and law enforcement systems ignored and allowed these occurrences by complacency, they represent extralegal oppression faced by many other black people (Lecture 7 &