Is The Mass Incarceration Of Blacks The New Jim Crow?

Mass incarceration is an issue that defines us as a society. Today, the United States of America makes up about five percent of the world’s population and has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. Also, one of every one hundred adults are locked up, and one in every thirty-seven adults in the United States is under some form of correctional supervision: in addition, African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites. Young black people went through many difficulties; however, they are still called super predators by Hillary Clinton. One of many difficulties is the African slavery, although it was over a century ago, it left a scar and a horrible memory in everyone's mind. All the phenomenons that occurred in our country during the last century gathered thoughts and escalated the problem of mass incarceration which made the people including the police look differently at African American people. I am against the mass incarceration issue. Opposing Donald Trump, I think we should reduce the number of people behind bars with cautions, because It is a complex subject that has many causes and effects in the long term to the people inside and outside the prison.

After 245 years of slavery, the United States consistently tries to redefine itself as an inclusive country in attempt to erase their past. In reality, those who are in power have found new ways to enforce their power on non whites, specifically African-Americans in America, one of which is through the prison system. Eller mentions that although the percentage in the American population of black men are 12 percent, they constitute for 44 percent of arrests for violent crimes (Eller, pg. 280). In addition, African-Americans are given longer prison sentences for the same crime committed by

Racism in the United States has not remained the same over time since its creation. Racism has shifted, changed, and shaped into unrecognizable ways that fit into the fabric of the American society to render it nearly invisible to the majority of Americans. Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness shatters this dominantly held belief. The New Jim Crow makes a reader profoundly question whether the high rates of incarceration in the United States is an attempt to maintain blacks as an underclass. Michelle Alexander makes the assertion that “[w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it” using the criminal justice system and colorblind rhetoric. (Alexander 2). The result is a population of Black and Latino men who face barriers and deprivation of rights as did Blacks during the Jim Crow era. Therefore, mass incarceration has become the new Jim Crow.

In 2009, a survey showed that blacks were arrested for drug possession more than three times as often as whites, and a survey made in 2011 showed that whites have abused drugs more than blacks (The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive). Yet, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one out of every 3 black males can expect to go to prison in their lifetime, and 225,000 of the people who were serving time in state prisons for drug offenses in 2011, blacks made up 45 percent while whites comprised of just 30 percent. One must question, why is there a disproportionate number of African Americans in the criminal justice system? Well, the majority of Americans are unaware of this mass incarceration and outright racism in the criminal justice system. When we think of racism, we think of the 1930’s-60’s, slavery, and Jim Crow which come to mind, but what

The mass incarceration of African Americans has been for years, racially pushed forward. In recent years this crisis of disproportional inequality has reached farther into the African American community affecting education, housing, and health care. African Americans males specifically, have been victimized in two ways, first by being targeted more highly than another racial group in America and second by having the U.S. Criminal Justice System perpetuate a system that does not allow them to be the ones who have any power to change their unequal treatment. Because of racial inequality and a history of social oppression, African American males have been treated unequally, entering jails at a higher rate than any other racial group.

Americans think they live in a colorblind society and do not discriminate based on race. The fact is Americans have Barack Obama as their president. Some might argue as long as there are exceptional blacks there are no excuses for all blacks to succeed. Although, Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, challenges American’s colorblindness by bringing to light the mass incarceration of African Americans. Jim Crow laws are no longer legal, but there is a new way to segregate: mass incarceration. The mass incarceration of blacks has created a racial underclass; a population with second-class status based on their criminal records (Alexander, 2012).

Today African Americans still continue to deal with unequal opportunities in American society. Compared to other minorities, African Americans have the highest incarceration rate in the U.S; the rate is actually double than any other minority in the United States. “African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population

Two million African Americans are presently under the criminal-justice system, in prison, or on probation. The past few decades, millions of more people have been in and out of the System. To be 100 percent; nearly 70 percent of people released from prison are re-arrested within three years. Most people appreciate that millions of African Americans were locked into a second-class status during slavery and Jim Crow. These earlier systems of racial control made a reminder of Political, social, and economic discrimination that this nation is still haven’t overcome. This non-ending; disturbing issue to this day; has a widely effect many families and communities. Prisoners are released and fear is increased.

“We [the United States] imprison more of our own people than any other country on earth, including China, which has four times our population, or in human history” (Bloom). Due to the decades past between the “war on drugs” and “Get Tough on Crime” which has left a trail of broken tears and a failed system. The mass incarceration boom consisted of several tactics such as just desserts and three strike laws. The model may not have been directed toward the African American community, but the numbers have not lied, a large chunk of inmates are those of color. Surprisingly a lot of people who have been locked up as well as doing time currently are not all violent, actually most of the inmates are incarcerated for nonviolent charges. The guilty,

According to the NAACP, one in six black men had been incarcerated as of 2001 and studies show that if current trends continue, one in three black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime (NAACP). Not only are African Americans being convicted more frequently but they receive harsher sentences for the same crimes. These unequal sentences and convictions are an issue because everyone should be entitled to the same level of justice. This injustice is hurting not only the people being sentenced but is affecting society as a whole.

Ernesto Aguilar and Melissa Chiprin’s article “Criminalization of Culture and the Rise of Dissent” examines the U.S. justice system’s use of discriminatory treatment towards African American citizens in order to maintain social order (41). The state oppresses minority races through the use of racism and criminal injustice (42). Furthermore, the majority of the population has limited knowledge on the history of enslavement; thus, they are unaware of past events that have led to an increase in the number of incarcerated African Americans (43). The present U.S. criminal justice system is a reflection of European colonialism and imperialism (44). Moreover, the article illustrates the immense amount of racism that exists within current American

Mass Incarceration in the age of Colored Blindness by Michelle Alexander , Skin Color and Criminal Justice System: Beyond black – disparities in sentencing by Traci Burch , Black Prisoners, White Law by Robert Chrisman, Racial Profiling: A Persistent Civil Rights Challenge Even in the Twenty-First Century by Robert Dunn, and America has locked up so many black people it has warped our sense of reality by Jeff Guo speaks about the many reasons why African Americans are the highest ethnicity in the United States jail system, and their readings help their audience understand that their needs to be a change in America immediately. Maybe one day if this country could see something besides skin color and money , and learn how to see opportunity, second chances, and potential, then there would be less African Americans behind metal

At first, the purpose of the mass incarceration of African- Americans was to re-enslave them. The thirteenth amendment states that ¨Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” This means that if someone is arrested they become a slave of the state. But then as time passed, it wasn 't just about enslaving African- Americans, it became about all of the stereotypes about Black people that still exist today. For a long time Black men were seen as violent, overly sexual animals. There were tons of Black men that went to jail just because someone accused them of rape or sexual harassment. But today the most common stereotype is that black men are “thugs” or drug dealers. In at least fifteen states, Black men are sent to prison for drug charges are arrested at a 20-57% higher rate than white men (Alexander 98). Yes, there are black men that are drug dealers, but there are men of all races that are drug dealers. In fact, majority of illegal drug dealers and drug users are White and this includes children. The majority of drug users and dealers are White, but three-fourths of all people imprisoned for drug offenses are Black or Latino, (Alexander 98). And also, White youth between the ages of 12 and 17 are more likely

The first fact that proves how the justice system has failed is the fact that more African Americans are sentenced to longer time in jail compared to Caucasians. According to an article on The Wall Street Journal webpage, “Between December 2007 and September 2011, the most recent period covered in the report, sentences of black males were 19.5% longer than those for whites” (Journalist Resource). This reveals that the US justice system has truly failed and shows that African Americans are imprisoned for longer times than Whites with the same crime. Other facts are the sentences of between African Americans and Caucasian in the late nineteen hundreds, “conducted in Georgia back in the 1980s, found that more than 20 percent of

This is supposedly the chief proof for the unfairness in the justice system.  With numbers like “1-in-3 black men will be incarcerated… and the outlook improves only nominally if you are a hispanic male (1-in-6 men)”, the idea of a biased system seems very plausible (Macarow 1).  Not only does this look unfair, but it also seems to over represent the black population specifically, especially when considering that “in 2006, blacks were 37.5 percent of all state and federal prisoners, though they’re under 13 percent of the national population” (MacDonald, “Criminal Justice System” 1).  This misrepresentation does not only apply to african americans, however.  Hispanic men are also incarcerated at a much higher rate than whites with one in every 79 being jailed at one point in their life (MacDonald. “Criminal Justice System” 1).  Clearly, the men are in prison for a reason and saying that the system is biased does not excuse their crimes.  Advocates for the awareness of racism are simply proving that the rates of confinement seem unbelievably high when compared to those of the caucasian race and therefore add to the belief that law enforcement not only neglect to arrest and punish whites accordingly, but are intentionally harsher on other