The Effects Of Mass Incarceration In The New Jim Crow

Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, examines mass incarceration in the United States, why the criminal justice system works the way it does towards minorities, the detriments associated with mass incarceration as it relates to offenders, and much more. In the introduction of her book, Alexander immediately paints the harsh reality of mass incarceration with the story of Jarvious Cotton who is denied the right to vote among other rights because he, “has been labeled as a felon and is currently on parole” (1). Other information Alexander presents in her introduction are her qualifications as an author of the book, and gives a brief summary of each chapter and how each one is laid out. Her qualifications are she is African-American civil rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and is also an Associate Professor at the University of Stanford Law School. From a critical standpoint, Alexander seems very qualified to write on the topic, being part of the marginalized group and also being an expert in the legal field of which the topic covers, enhances her ethos to where one could consider her an expert in mass incarceration topics, as they relate to African-Americans. Overall, the introduction of her book does a great job starting out giving a stark reality of topic at hand, giving brief statistical references about mass incarceration in the United States, and giving an outline for her book.

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 The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander develops a compelling analogy on how mass incarceration is similar to the Jim Crow era, and is a “race-making institution.” She begins her work with the question, “Where have all the black men gone?” (Alexander, 178) She demonstrates how the media and Obama have failed to give an honest answer to this question, that the large majority of them or in prison. She argues that in order to address this problem, we must be honest about the fact that this is happening, and the discrimination with the African American communities that is putting them there.

Though most citizens in the United States would agree that the prison system in the U.S. needs to be amended, do they see the prison system as a way to enforce the racial caste system? At first Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, did not see the prison systems as racially motivated until doing further research. After researching the issue, Alexander found the prison system was a way to oppress African Americans and wrote the novel The New Jim Crow. The New Jim Crow follows the history of the racial caste system and in the novel Alexander comes to the conclusion that the mass incarceration of African American is the New Jim Crow, or in other words a new system of black oppression. Though some might try to refute the idea of mass incarceration of African Americans, Alexander offers a well thought out argument with substantial evidence and data to compellingly link Jim Crow and mass incarceration and proves that it is an issue that should be on the radar of all U.S. citizens.

The criminal justice system in America is a system designed to work in three distinct steps. The first being to fairly identify those breaking the law, second, create a process through which to both punish and rehabilitate criminals, and lastly integrate them back into society. The current system typically goes unquestioned, as those in the system seem to be deserving of what ever happens while they are in it, even once they have served their prison sentence. It is only upon deeper inspection that we begin to realize the discrimination and unfair tactics used to introduce certain groups of society into the criminal justice system and proceed to trap them there. This is the issue addressed in Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, and it is through arrests, sentencing and further upon release from jail that this oppressive system is created and maintained.

Research Question #1: Why do we have a higher rate of incarcerated Blacks in the United States?

Mass incarceration is a term used by historians and sociologists to describe the substantial increase in the number of incarcerated people in the United States' prisons over the past forty years. Mass incarceration comparatively and historically have extreme rates of imprisonment among young African Americans. The united states imprisons more of its people than any of its country in the world. It has became a giant industry in the US. Mass incarceration has has been going on for decades amongst blacks and Latinos. People like rapper Meek Mill, and Kalief Browder are just a few that were arrested for petty crimes and sent to solitary confinement and or/sent to prison for petty crimes.

Michelle Alexander is a civil rights litigator and legal scholar whose 2010 book New Jim Crow who shined a light on mass incarceration. Alexander 's New Jim Crow is a very informative book on what Alexander 's calls America’s latest racial system. The newest racial system to Alexander is mass incarceration.

The video we were asked to write a reflection on discussed The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness which is a book written by Michelle Alexander a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate and Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State University. Michelle Alexander states that although we made tremendous progress with Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s by unifying as a race and fought to seemingly ended the old Jim Crow era by the passing of laws such as the 1965 voting act and Brown V.S Board Of Education which overturned Plessey V.S Ferguson; African Americans went through horrifying ordeals to destroy the old Jim Crow system but it was never eructated but in actuality redesigned in the form of our criminal justice system; but before expounding on Alexander’s New Jim Crow it is essential to discuss what exactly The Old Jim Crow was.

Undoubtedly, race defines nearly aspect of the criminal justice system, from police profiling/targeting, to crimes charged and sentencing, to rates of conviction and incarceration. Blacks and Latinos make up sixty-three percent of the prison population while only making up a quarter of the total population (Hunter & Wagner, 2011). According to Michelle Alexander (in The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, “More black people are in prison or jail, on probation or on parole than were enslaved in 1850”, despite the fact that whites and blacks engage in criminal activities, especially drug offenses, at roughly comparable rates (2010). Historically, there has been a tendency to strip black and brown bodies of their humanity,

The United states has a mass incarceration problem with 1 out of 4 of the total population being incarcerated. With the highest incarceration rate in America makes up five percent of the world's population but holds twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners.The rate of incarceration has increased greatly over the last 50 years and continues to grow .The prison systems have become obstreperous, expensive, and destructive to society. African Americans account for fifty six percent of the people incarcerated. The discrimination of black men in the justice system has escalated in the last 50 years causing mass incarceration, broken family systems with distrust of the government, and increased mental health problems in the black community.

Mass incarceration has had a huge impact in the United States on a multitude of levels. The costs of many people in jail has had a huge impact on the U.S. economy. Using taxpayers money for funding mass incarceration has left less money for other programs much needed in our society, such as higher education and health care. Mass incarceration has broken up families and led to the decay of communities. Without a doubt, mass incarceration has impacted the lives of African Americans. This group of people has been the most affected by this phenomenon. (Human Rights Watch & Golvin, 2008).

“Some things never change” would say an adult after seeing something that reminds them of the ol’ days. It’s like a wave of nostalgia when they see the younger generation going through similar things like kids selling lemonade on the sidewalk, teenagers preparing for their prom, or adults pimpin’ out their Lowriders and 1955 Chevy Bel Air cars. It’s all good memories until they dig deeper into the good ol’ days and uncover some of the ugly truths that lay hidden. It’s also about recognizing that the Jim Crow laws existed and how discriminatory they were to the African American community. Today in age, it seems like nothing has changed because the discrimination hasn’t gone anywhere, but it’s making an especially big comeback with today’s mass incarceration.

When we think about the policies, laws and institutions that make up the criminal justice system we do not really think they could harm any one individual, they are there for all our good. However, when you think about it who made most of these laws? Wealthy white men. What else did wealthy white men control? Black slaves back before the Civil War. It is no wonder, then that there are many comparisons between mass incarceration and slavery. In her book The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander brings up the fact that “We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it” (p.2). I think that quote by itself explains how one becomes entrapped in this sticky web that is that the criminal justice system- that there are circumstances that put us a more risk than others to becoming stuck in this system.

The 1950s was a period of great conflict, particularly when segregation of African Americans was at its prime. Historically and evidently, African Americans have been fighting against segregation for decades. One would think that the 21st century would have a turn-around for African Americans but with all police brutality and prejudice against them, it feels as if America has been taken aback 200 years in history. The rate of progression for African Americans is basically non-existent. African Americans, everyday, have to live in fear of white people. Civil Rights Activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Goodman, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, etc. have dedicated and put their lives on the line in order to pursue equality for African Americans. Even with all the strenuous effort to bring change to the world, groups such as the Klu Klux Klan attacked them physically and mentally--making it more difficult to live in America. African Americans have always been treated as inferior and invisible from the beginning; and their existence was treated as if they did not exist as a real person at all. In her book, The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander’s writing centers and revolves around the claim that the criminal justice system cultivates and preserves a racial hierarchy that is present in America. Statistics derived from her research demonstrate that more than half of young African American men in any large American city are currently under constraints of the criminal justice