New Deal Argumentative Analysis

Due to the tight labor market, companies are relying on prisoners to provide them with labor. As of now, private prisons have become one of the largest powers in the “prison-industrial complex.” There are approximately 18 private prison corporations, which guard 10,000 prisoners, and more than 37 states have legalized the contracting of prisoners by private companies (Prison Slave Labor: Fascism U.S. – Style). For both the prisons, and the companies, it’s a good deal. Whyte and Baker list the benefits for those who utilize prison labor: no unions, strikes, health benefits, unemployment

The United States spends nearly $81 billion per year on corrections, but where is this money coming from, where is it going, and is it actually reducing crime rates? Crime rates in the United States have fallen since 1991 and murder rates have also fallen by half in last 25 years, however the prison population has increased by 500% in the last 40 years. Increase in the number of incarcerated citizens also lead to an increase in new prisons around the country and also the crippling of the american justice system. As the author of Wages of Rebellion describes, the prison-industrial-system as the most

In his book “Punishment and Inequality in America” Western discusses the underlying racial disparities that have lead to a mass incarceration in the United States. He states that incarceration rates have increased by a substantial amount. The race and class disparities viewed in impromesment are very large and class disparities have grown by a dramatic amount. In his book he argues that an increase in mass incarceration occured due to a significant increase in crime. The increase in mass incarceration can also be correlated with urban street crime that proliferated as joblessness in inner-city communities increased (Western, 2006). He also states that an increase in incarceration rates may be due to the changes in politics and policy which have intensified criminal punishment even though criminal offending did not increase. Although these are substantial reasons as to why incarceration has increased significantly in the US there are many underlying issues. The incarceration rates amongst young black men have increased the most in the United states, black men are more likely to go to prison than white and Hispanic men (Western, 2006). This may be largely due to factors such as unemployment, family instability, and neighborhood disorder which combine to produce especially high rates of violence among young black men in the United States (Western, 2006). A rise in incarceration rates may also be largely due to to increased drug arrests which represent the racial disparity.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”- President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This words were announced to the American public by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his Inaugural Address, where he tried to reassure the people that everything would be fine. Having just experienced the prosperous era of the Roaring Twenties, not many people thought good times would ever end. However, this proved to be incorrects as pandemonium and turmoil overcame the people in October 29, 1929 with the Stock Market Crash. With the economy sliding downhill, Americans faced many problems that would change the government’s role in the economy. Nevertheless, many actions were also taken by both individuals and groups alike in response to this economic depression.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book written by Michelle Alexander. This book explains the mass incarceration that African-American males faced in the United States. Alexander uses many examples of discrimination throughout the book, but the most prevailing one to me was how the criminal justice system used to the War on Drugs. Alexander describes a “racial caste system” as a way that African-Americans are kept at a lower social standing then the white people. The way that Alexander presents her arguments allows we the reader to see the true racism that was faced by African- Americans. This book gives many arguments but there are some main arguments that Alexander stresses throughout the book that

President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried the solve the problems if fear, chaos, hysteria, and decline of the American economy that came with the Great Depression. Roosevelt used relief, reform, and recovery to help the people. His plan was the “New Deal” which is seen as controversial. Although Roosevelt worked hard to improve the lives of American, there were still negative interactions between the different races and classes of the time.

This “war on drugs,” which all subsequent presidents have embraced, has created a behemoth of courts, jails, and prisons that have done little to decrease the use of drugs while doing much to create confusion and hardship in families of color and urban communities.1,2Since 1972, the number of people incarcerated has increased 5-fold without a comparable decrease in crime or drug use.1,3 In fact, the decreased costs of opiates and stimulants and the increased potency of cannabis might lead one to an opposing conclusion.4 Given the politics of the war on drugs, skyrocketing incarceration rates are deemed a sign of success, not failure. I don’t totally agree with the book (I think linking crime and black struggle is even older than she does, for instance) but I think The New Jim Crow pursues the right line of questioning. “The prison boom is not the main cause of inequality between blacks and whites in America, but it did foreclose upward mobility

Throughout the years following World War I, the United States suffered from an economic panic that would have lasting effects around the globe. The Great Depression was a result poor economic strategies and ultimately, the stock market crash. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created a New Deal plan in order to guide his natin out of this panic. FDR was able to combat the issues at hand with an arsenal of new programs that would effectively aid the nation and change the role of the government for the better.

In Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander approaches the touchy subject of how although African Americans have gained many freedoms through the civil rights movement, they are still undermined in the ‘mass incarceration’ with the war on drugs. With this being said, it is often hard to remember how hard the African Americans had to fight for their civil rights when we constantly see riots of African Americans in the streets, and black Americans portrayed as drug dealers and ‘thugs’ in pop culture. On the other hand, you have people making jokes out of African Americans being poor fathers, not being around, and mothers having to raise children on their own living on welfare and food stamps.

Racial discrimination in the United States has been a radical issue plaguing African Americans from as early as slavery to the more liberal society we see today. Slavery is one of the oldest forms of oppression against African Americans. Slaves were brought in from Africa at increasingly high numbers to do the so-called dirty work or manual labor of their white owners. Many years later, after the abolishment of slavery came the Jim Crow era. In the 1880s, acts known as the Jim Crow laws were enacted by Southern states to keep oppression of African Americans alive. These laws helped to legalize segregation between blacks and whites. Slavery and Jim Crow were created to regulate how African Americans functioned in society. Slaves were refused the right to vote, refused citizenship, refused education, and labeled as incompetent as a way for whites to keep what Author Michelle Alexander of the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness calls “social control”. Alexander argues that mass incarceration is the new modern “racial caste system” of social control. She further goes on to claim that this new system of mass incarceration has replaced the old social systems that were used to oppress African Americans such as slavery and Jim Crow. The system of mass incarceration fueled by the War on Drugs was established as a form of racial control. This new system puts people of color into an endless cycle of

In the 80 's, the rising number of people locked up as a result of the War on Drugs and the wave of privatization that occurred under the Reagan Administration saw the rise of the for-profit industry. Prior to the 80 's, private prisons did not exist is the US. In a 2011 report by the ACLU, it is claimed that the rise of profit prison industry is a "major contributor" to mass incarceration, along with the stuffed state budgets. Louisiana, for example, has the highest rate of incarceration I in the world with the majority of its prisoners being privatized prisons, profit facilities. Such institutions could face economic failure without a steady influx of prisoners. A 2013 Bloomberg report states that in the past decade the number of inmates in for-profit prisons through the U.S. Rose 44 percent. Corporations who operate prisons,

Currently, many prisons are beginning to be run by private corporations. If a company is running a prison then they need prisoners to stay in business. Around 1 in every 107 Americans is currently being housed in a prison. The United States has about 5 percent of the world’s population yet 25 percent of its prisoners(ACA, 2008). This is the easiest way to maintain a large prison population is by maintaining the current drug war. The largest private prison company in the United States is Corrections Corp. of America(ACA, 2008). In the last twenty years, CCA has donated nearly $5 million dollars to certain political

Thompson’s essay discusses the social, economic, political impact postwar in the American society. Thompson provides a detailed account of the urban crisis, which African Americans living in the urban area were the targets of police policing, such as the offender during the war on drugs. In the meantime, there was a decline in the American labor movement. The incarceration rate went up and many, especially minorities became prisoners and were subject to do labor. Similarly, in Chase’s article, he mentions the increasing number of people put in prison because of the war on drugs in the 1970s and 80s. He also listed numbers of court cases to demonstrate that minorities, especially African Americans sought for justice when they were unjustly incarcerated

Building a prison obviously creates jobs, both for construction workers and correctional officers. King, Maurer and Huling name a number of requirements for construction workers employed at a prison. Besides being a member in a trade union (14), they usually need to have a very specific skill set. Most locals do not meet these two conditions, thus leaving only “low-skill and low-wage laborer jobs” (15) for them. According to Schlosser, the highly desirable jobs in corrections do not demand college education, often pay more than the county’s average salary, and provide “health benefits and a pension.” Therefore, he argues, less young people move away from their hometowns. However, studies show that the majority of correctional officials do

Throughout mankind, the ideas of avarice and prosperity have pushed companies to work harder, although sometimes this can come with a price. Corruption infiltrates all manners of society like government and industries and the American prison system is no different. Since America must provide housing for those who are incarcerated, they build one prison per week due to the increased rate of criminals (Franklin). Many peoples’ crimes do not fit their punishment and additionally the duration of the punishment does not match the crime committed. Why is that? The corruption of state and local governments have an incentive to maintain a certain population within prisons. This is a current conflict within the United States. Therefore, state and local governments should not have the power to dictate the amount people who reside in America’s prisons. Further, financial incentives from companies should be banned from influencing the population of prisons.