Documentary Summary: Race And The Criminal Justice System

Primarily highlighted in the documentary is the idea of mass incarceration as “The New Jim Crow”, a phrase popularly used by author and civil rights advocate, Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. As many already know with it being a significant part of American history, the Jim Crow era was a time of intense racial segregation of African Americans from whites with the former having drastically inferior positions in society. Many of the discriminatory practices that were upheld in the Jim Crow era, including discrimination in housing, jobs, and voting are illegal now if applied to blacks, but are perfectly legal when applied to prisoners, many of whom are

The 13th characterize our criminal justice system and political institution as unfair and a racist system of oppression for certain color of race. This film gave me a better understanding of how the prisons were treating their prisoners. I was not aware that prisoners were forced into being treated and considered to be slaves. While watching this documentary I was able to understand that the country in which people called land of the free, it's not really the land of the freedom if this system treats prisoners as slaves. While watching the 13th I saw a particular case in which a group of African-American tennagers were arrested and accused of a crime that the system did not have concrete evidence of, but they were still arrested and spent

After closely analyzing Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th, my eyes were opened as to how black people feel vs. the way white people may feel about the criminal justice system and the unfair treatment of African Americans. I was honestly disappointed with both sides because of the way the race card is used to justify our actions towards one another.

Historically Americans are taught that prisons are a place to incarcerate people who pose the greatest threat to society: however, with so many minorities being incarcerated is this really true? After watching the documentary, 13th, one can assert that the effects of mass incarceration are systemically imposed on people of color, and felt throughout generations. Incarcerating African-Americans prevents them from the education system, jobs and families. The inheritance of the 13th amendment and slavery are still visible in black communities today, in terms of the education system, jobs, and family structures.

The most striking thing that I’ve learned from the documentary is the exponential increase of African-American incarcerated every year since the end of slavery

Race and crime are interwoven with how justice and criminology are handled. Police have a racial bias against blacks and incarcerate them in larger numbers than any other race. Statistically, blacks have a higher arrest and incarceration rate than other races do. Due to police being taught that racial profiling is a necessary part of the job, blacks have now become a prime target for many false arrests and often serve jail time for a crime they may not have committed. The black community often expresses their distaste with the criminal justice system, and how their community is handled, but encounter opposition from a group of people who believe nothing is wrong. With justice and bias, there are many improvements that need to be made regarding how criminals are arrested and charged, especially when race is a factor.

This paper provides an analysis of Ava DuVernay’s 2016 film, 13th. To begin, it provides a high-level overview of the film plot. Next, this exploration introduces the key characters and contributors of the film. Lastly, it provides a synthesis of the film’s story through making direct connections to course concepts. In general, 13th is a thought-provoking documentary providing an in-depth look at the United States prison system and its relation to the exploitation of the criminal clause loophole in the 13th Amendment. Accordingly, this film exposes how the 13th Amendment provides legal cover for our court and prison systems to effectively relegate criminals as second class citizens. Moreover, the film provides thoughtful interviews with

The unfair and unjust of racial disparity within the criminal justice system has been an ongoing topic. This topic is important as it can enlighten people with research that racism and discrimination still exist in America although the law states African Americans are free. This may be able to shape previous research by introducing new information not mentioned before and new studies that support the topic. The topic was based on the film 13th: From Slave to Criminal with One Amendment. Research suggest that although the 13th amendment was established to abolish slavery of African Americans in the United States, there were laws and loopholes implemented that legalized slavery by arresting African Americans and making them criminals. Criminals in America are stripped of rights similar to the rights that African Americans were without as slaves. The criminal justice system has

The impact of race on criminal justice and inequality: How much of a role does race play in the criminal justice and inequality equation? Vincent Toi Lai Lee 1001333586 October 2, 2015 Word count: 1452 For this essay topic, we will be discussing about different issues surrounding race within criminal justice and inequality; furthermore looking at the different factors and determinants that influences one’s perception of racial profiling, coming to the decision that race is not the sole factor in this problem. With so many news and incidents surrounding race and the police these days, it is not surprising for people to come to the conclusion that just because you are a certain race, you will be automatically treated differently than others, but that is not the case in reality. We will be taking a deeper look into the problem to find out what other possible determinants play a role in deciding how an officer makes an arrest or stop and continue to analyze what is happening in those contexts.

Mass incarceration and systemic oppression is hurting our society. Bryan Stevenson demonstrates mass incarceration in our generation by constantly stating the statistics. He said, “ Most of the hundred or so death row prisoners who had been sentenced to execution in Alabama since capital punishment was restored in 1975 were black, although to Walter’s surprise nearly 40 percent of them were white”(53). He continues to add the increase in prison population has been from less than 300,000 in 1972 to 2.3 million today(15). Through this facts, I was exposed to the deeper issues of inequality in the US. The poor and black are being marginalized and mistreated. Like historical slavery, numerous lawful and legal structures have the immediate effect of constraining the energy of African Americans and isolating out poor and minority populaces from whites. As Bryan states, “... Monroe County, who was 40 percent black, it was not uncommon for prosecutors to exclude all African American from jury service”(59). This stood out to me because now I am reading this from a person, who is witnessing the inequality personally and knows the ins and outs of the Justice System. This issues are not only on the News in which we watch one day and ignore it the second day. By laying the facts down, it's a wake-up call that the poor and marginalized are being mistreated. This mistreatments could be a response to fear. Meaning, the white community feels unsafe or threatened by the “uncivilized”

The social problem between race and the justice system is a serious issue that is conflicting with the obtainable goal of the common good for society. Although slavery and the Civil Rights Movement have been long in the past, the words “inequality” and “racism” still headline everyday incidents that occur. Recent stories between African Americans and the legal justice system, illustrates that the United States has yet moved away from the idea of “racism” and that the minorities believe they are being under looked and being treated less than the average white American. Despite all the arguing and protesting that has been recently going on due to the Ferguson and Gardner cases, maybe there is a flaw in the justice system, which we call

“13th”, directed by Ava DuVernay, is a film that showcases the history and evolution of race relations in the United States. Using the 13th Amendment and the Law and Order objectives put forth by many different Presidential Administrations, the documentary questions the concept of slavery in the United States. The film begins with the fact that the United States incarcerates twenty five percent of the world’s incarcerated people. This number is astounding due to fact that the United States only contains about five percent of the world's population. The documentary stems further by not only charting America’s escalating incarceration rate, but by showing the history behind the growing rate during each escalation. The main purpose of“13th” is

In The United States of America there has been discrimination against black people since the 17th century. Americans continue to face this in the 21st century. There is a documentary about the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom. The documentary 13th directed by Ava DuVernay is about how african americans were treated as criminals and also about the mass incarceration and used as slaves while the people at the top make money. In the documentary 13th the director Ava DuVernay used different tactics to truly support her thesis about the legacy of racial inequality in the United States. Additionally she engage and educated the audience by using film techniques to further attract the viewers attention.

As I watched this film I was just really surprised by the fact that in today’s society the reason for prison have taken a total different path than it should be. Today, prisons are now being seen as a way to make money instead of what they are made for, send a message that prevents people from committing crimes. As I watched this film I even started thinking that the government and the people that profit from prisons are actually glad anytime that crime rate increases. Before I watched this documentary, I agreed that people should be put away for committing related to drugs; but now, after realizing how unfair the system is, and how the system always finds the way to find blacks and hispanics guilty, I do not agree with such a discriminatory

Throughout my life, I believed that everyone is equal. Since America is known as the perfect nation of freedom, growing up I thought that every person gets a fair chance to pursue whatever he/she would like. It was not until the Trayvon Martin travesty that I had an epiphany; we, as African American, are not equal to other citizens of this nation. No, it was much more beyond that; black people were considered subpar to the “superior” white citizens of our so-called “perfect” country. Once I found this out, I researched more information because the situation we are currently in is one we must know more about if we want to move forward. Joining the Black Lives Matter group through social media truly educated me more about the race problem our nation is in. The police brutality, the constant way the media portrays black people, redlining and gentrification, etcetera, was an eyeopening experience for me. However, my true shock was watching a documentary on Netflix, titled The 13th. It was a documentary explaining mass incarceration within the United States and A.L.E.C. becoming exposed for their ways. Before that documentary, I was aware of the mass incarceration dilemma, but I never fully grasped the severity of the situation. It was at that moment after watching the documentary, The 13th, the weight of this issue sank in, allowing me to understand the role our own government played in this and became my introduction on mass incarceration and its hold on the black