In her award-winning article, “Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History,” author Heather Ann Thompson writes that “historians have largely ignored the mass incarceration of the late twentieth century and have not yet begun to sort out its impact on the social, economic, and political evolution of the postwar period.” Historian Elizabeth Hinton’s book, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime, is one response to Thompson’s article in that Hinton traces the birth of the War on Poverty as a culmination of government policies. As her central thesis, Hinton posits that “the expansion of the carceral state should be understood as the federal government’s response to the demographic…
Did you know that 40% of students expelled from public schools are from the African American decent? Black students are three times more likely to be expelled than their fellow white classmates. Of that 40% half of them are more or less likely to never graduate or even receive their high school diploma and are sent on the road to join the already 68% of inmates in prison that also did not receive their diploma or GED. This is what society now calls the “school-to-prison pipeline”, it refers to the policies and practices that pushes children out of the classroom and into the juvenile justice system, and later the criminal justice system. One main reason this is so common is because of the “zero-tolerance” policy schools practice.…
In the 2nd section of the book it discusses a topic known as prisoner's dilemma on p. 92- 95. The prisoner's dilemma is the example that two people are given choices. They are arrested and put into separate rooms. They are given a couple of choices; they can rat on each other and get 10 years in jail, I can rat on the other and get no years in jail but the other prisoner has to clam up.…
Two paths, one choice. People often get misdirected and take on another path that they originally did not plan to take or were not meant to take due to their jealousy or selfishness. They forgot about their original dream and the reasons why they chose that path to reach their specific goal. Maybe they did something that was wrong, something they never intended to do. Regardless, these things cannot be tolerated.…
Jail populations and prison populations differ by the type of crime or crimes that the offender is convicted of. Someone that is sentenced to jail will only serve up to a year or is awaiting their trial date (Danahy, 2017). A person that is sentenced to jail has been convicted of misdemeanor charges. Misdemeanor charges are charges that are minor offenses of the law and usually are non-violent in nature. Some examples of offenses that people get sentenced to jail are check fraud, disorderly conduct, breaking and entering, and filing a false police report (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015).…
" Acquisition of an education is important and can go a long way in helping end all disparities effecting this population. It can mend almost all issues bearing the weight on those African Americans in…
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…
The African American society has benefitted extremely well due to the rise of awareness that education is a crucial tool to reach your ultimate potential. Education is what now helps and helped the African American man strive in daily life. Education is defined as, “the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction.” This process was thought of to be not needed or for African Americans, as the south thought an educated man was considered “dangerous.” This “dangerous” is good for the African American people, though, as it brought stability and reassurance to the community for the men to strive.…
I did this paper on the overuse of solidarity confinement within the correctional facility and the impact it has of the mind of inmates. While doing my paper I ran across this story on Khalif Browder, he was a 16 year arrested for allegedly stealing a bag and was held in prison for three years without being charged, also because he would not except a plea deal. Browder spent 2 1/2 years in solitary confinement. While in confinement he attempted to kill himself twice, upon release from prison without being charged Browder killed himself, because of the psychological impact of solitary confinement. Mass incarceration has Lead to prisons further desocialize inmates with solitary confinement to destroy and release them into society.…
Bail before charge was introduced in PACE 1984. It gave the police ability to put someone who was in custody on bail whilst they searched for more evidence. Before bail suspects would be put on prisons whilst police search for evidence. They created bail to free up space in prisons as well as make is better to find evidence that is…
Do people really understand what mass incarceration is? African Americans and Latino’s are the ones being thrown in prisons and jails over white people. Why is that? Who is protecting our society when individuals are being thrown in jails for committing nonviolent crimes? “African Americans are subject to legalized discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, and jury service, just as their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents once were.”…
The Never-Ending Story One Topic that left me confused, is the conversation about the many issues within the prison system. Particularly whether the prison system works and if we as a country are doing more harm than good. Subsequently, we have an incarceration system, of epidemic proportions, that circumscribes its prisoners. In the same respect, this system also conceives new prisoners as a result of this cycle. These effects are aided by laws like Mandatory Minimum Sentencing, which mandates a mandatory amount of time to be served for certain crimes like drug possession.…
"I realized that a man who lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison." (Camus 79) The significance of a single day in life without constraint compared to a hundred years in prison is the result of memories, ideas, and thoughts inspired by that single day. Meursault realizes that life is not meant to be meaningful, but memories and experiences give life value and helps get people through the day. For someone who believes life is meaningless, this quote by Meursault shows how the view on life while prison can change.…
Days without end Doing time in prison is difficult for any individual. It’s the hardest thing they face mentally. Separated from their families, friends, and loved ones, these individuals face problems such as violence, assault and the possibility of serving life without parole. Records of close to 160,000 in 2012 are serving life behind bars and 49,000 are serving life without the possibility of parole.…
During the Great Depression whites people were still discriminate against colors people. African American started to fight back with racial riots, protest on civil right movement. White people had another thing coming, African American were building a union to let other know that we are human and should be treated equally. Each movement of African American union leaders inspire young and old our brother and sister to do better for themselves. In 1935 in little small town Marshall, Texas the Wiley college powerhouse debate team, related to the movie “The Great Debaters”, discussion of issue directed by union finders motivating our culture, education out of poverty.…