Essay On Mass Incarceration

The most powerful example of this is the pictures Perkinson put into the book is the picture of the man with a little girl on a horse. The caption under it says “Higher-ranking officers were assigned ‘houseboys’, usually African American trusties who would be used for cooking, cleaning, or even child care”(Perkinson,picture pg.2). The picture helps prove his point that the prison system was used like slavery to control african american because it has the african american prisoner working for his “master” aka his prison warden or prison guard for free. The second picture which is right under it shows prisoners all of which are African American working with some stone and axes. Underneath the picture the caption says “just as slaves built Texas’s first state capitol, leased convicts constructed its replacement”(Perkinson,picture pg.2).

One of the statistics that stands out is that 1 in 3 black men will go to prison in the United States as opposed to 1 in 17 white men. In addition, there was a statistic that states that 97% of black inmates did not take their cases to court because they would be punished more if they did. This is significant because it shows how police and the federal prison system are biased towards the black community, specifically highlighting the point of having a judicial system if it was not used fairly. Over the past 150 years, some historical events that demonstrate racism after the 13th amendment was passed have been the Jim Crow laws, segregation, and most importantly, the “Southern Strategy.” The Southern Strategy was a way for politicians in the 20th century to crack down on crime but create a byproduct that diminished the black community.

Slavery was the driving force for most of the political controversies during the 19th century. Not only has slavery created political controversies in the United States, but throughout the world. The Fugitive Slave Acts, revolts, and a political argument indicating if slavery should be legalized are the main aspects that caused these disputes. The Fugitive Slave Acts produced political tensions because it ordered states to deliver up fugitives from labor [runaway slaves] when they are requested by slaveholders.

The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Alexander (2012) examines the Jim Crow practices post slavery and the correlation to the mass incarceration of African-American. The creation of Jim Crows laws were used as a tool to promote segregation among the minorities and white Americans. Alexander (2012) takes a look at Jim Crow laws and policies that were put into place to block the social progression of African-Americans from post-slavery to the civil rights movement.

In todays’ society does race matter? Who in society thinks that race matters and who thinks it no longer matters? In our daily living we experience different types of racism. Some of us experience racism because of the color of our skin, the country we migrated from or just because we speak a different language. Additionally, people can be judged by the way they dress, or the food they eat.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: The New Press. Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era.

In her book, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander who was a civil rights lawyer and legal scholar, reveals many of America’s harsh truths regarding race within the criminal justice system. Though the Jim Crow laws have long been abolished, a new form has surfaced, a contemporary system of racial control through mass incarceration. In this book, mass incarceration not only refers to the criminal justice system, but also a bigger picture, which controls criminals both in and out of prison through laws, rules, policies and customs. The New Jim Crow that Alexander speaks of has redesigned the racial caste system, by putting millions of mainly blacks, as well as Hispanics and some whites, behind bars

Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.

In the US, incarceration rates disproportionately affect men of color. 1 in 3 black men will go to prison sometime in their life. For every 15 African American men, 1 is imprisoned, while only 1 in every 106 white men is incarcerated. With the 13th amendment to the Constitution, slavery was abolished, but with one condition.

Mass incarceration is the way that the United States has locked up millions of people over the last forty years using unnecessary and disproportionate policies. Contrary to popular belief, this is racially fueled as most of these policies saw to it that blacks and latinos be locked up for longer than their white peers and for smaller crimes. These racist roots within the system can be traced back to when the first slave ship arrived in the US. But our first major prison boom was seen after the American Civil war. I know that the Civil War was far more than forty years ago.

The amount of mass incarceration in the United States as reached an all time high over the years. Mass Incarceration is the incarceration of a person or race based off of them being different and can be identified as a trend among law enforcements. These tensions have reached a certain extent and has received the attention of American citizens and the nation’s government. The laws of the United States seems fair, however with the enforcement of these laws, specific groups are targeted and abused by them daily.

People of all different races and ethnicities are locked behind bars because they have been convicted of committing a crime and they are paying for the consequences. When looking at the racial composition of a prison in the United States, it does not mimic the population. This is because some races and ethnicities are over represented in the correctional system in the U.S. (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). According Walker et al. (2018), African-Americans/Blacks make up less than fifteen percent of the U.S. population, while this race has around thirty-seven percent of the population in the correctional system today.

The “13th” is a documentary about the American system of incarceration and the economic forces behind racism in America especially in people of color. One of the claims that the author mentioned is that today incarceration is an extension of slavery. It is also mentioned that most of the time in society we are defined by race. In the documentary, we can see how African Americans are sentenced for many years since they are too poor to pay their fines or sometimes most of these people plead guilty to get out of jail fast. However, African Americans are separated from their families and also treated inhumanly in prisons just because they are of a particular race.

From the genocides of different ethics, to freedom is taken away in minority nations. Angela Davis expresses her views on political aspects of hard punishment upon human beings Americas’ society. She composed many books supporting her idea on political activism. In chapter 9, “Freedom Is A Constant Struggle,” opens different viewpoints, as a results of a transition in today’s society, starting from the 1960’s to the age of Obama. In addition to the few minority groups, as she relates in this book, the similar of a constant struggle for freedom with in the different ethics groups.

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.