The Prison Industrial Complex Has Created A System Of Force Free Labor

It is a status that will follow and affect every ex-offender even after they have served their time in jail. In this case, our criminal-justice system is constantly discriminating against African Americans in order to identify them as felons and take away their rights. Currently, more than two million African Americans are under the control of the criminal-justice system--in prison or jail, on probation or parole. Felon-disenfranchisement laws bar thirteen percent of African American men from casting a vote, thus making mass incarceration an effective tool of voter suppression--one reminiscent of the poll taxes and literacy of the Jim Crow era. Employers routinely discriminate against an applicant based on criminal history, as do landlords. In some major urban areas, more than half of working-age African American men have criminal record and are subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. These men are permanently locked into an inferior, second-class status, or caste, bylaw and custom. As Alexander argues, we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.

Mass Incarceration in the United States has been a large topic of choice because rapid growth in the prison and jail populations, the long sentences the inmates face, and the inability for some inmates to incorporate themselves back into society. Since the 1970’s the U.S. prison population quadrupled from 158 to 635 people per 100,000, causing the U.S. to gain the title of country with the highest incarceration rate. (Massoglia, Firebaugh, & Warner, 2013, p. 142; Muller, 2012) As the growth of the U.S prison and jail population rapidly increased, so did the growth of the three major contributors to that population – African Americans, Hispanics, and whites – with African American and

Following release, they lose the right to vote, access to public housing, eligibility for federal grants and loans, and a wide span of career options. While people of any race can be incarcerated, there is a disproportionate impact on low-income communities of color. Additionally, while mass incarceration is not an inherited status, children of inmates are three times more likely than other children to have a run-in with the law (Conway & Jones 2014). In essence, given that mass incarceration exhibits many of the same characteristics and impacts as American slavery, it appears to be an extension of the previous system.

All societal groups are affected by the issue of imprisonment, but it is a far more likely occurrence among marginalized cultural groups, particularly African Americans. As the United States celebrates the nation's triumph over race with the selection of Barack Obama as the first African American male president, a majority of young black males in major American cities are locked behind bars, or categorized felons for life (Alexander, 2010, p. 1). Bonczar and Beck (1997) report that:

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.

In the life of previously incarcerated African Americans includes the involvement with old forms of discrimination such as: “employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps, and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service---suddenly are legal” (Alexander, 24). It is obvious that race plays a pivotal role in mass incarceration. African American ex-prisoners have a lower chance or not even a chance at all to obtain a job in comparison of a citizen who has proper education and experience. The opportunity of equal education as a prisoner compared to someone outside of prison, is nearly impossible. Due to the lack of education fundings in the prison system, prisoners can not receive the proper knowledge needed when released. Thus, leading to problems obtaining a job. Along with the refusal from landlords to accept or rather consider the chance of renting out housing to those previously incarcerated. Within public benefits, those who are incarcerated can no longer receive most public benefits which included but not limited to: social security, federal financial aid, food stamps, and healthcare. “As a ‘criminal’ you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow” (Alexander, 24). Meaning a black man living in

Race, Incarceration and American Values explains how incarceration is a legalized form of genocide that is slowly destroying the fiber of African American communities. Glenn Loury, along with Pamela Karian, Tommie Shelby and Loic Wacquant discuss how America has let fear and greed cause a inequitable landscape for its inhabitants who have unfortunately been born on the wrong side of the hill. The principals of equality and freedom on which America was founded on has become nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Maybe the pride America displays to the World as a Global power, incapable of wrong doing is what is holding it back from recognizing the mistakes it made and undergoing to process of change. Or maybe it 's what we fear most, it 's what we thought in our head but never dare to say. That it 's a careful crafted system to keep those with power in power.

In recent decades, low-income Americans have been facing the consequences of living in a country whose criminal justice system is greatly influenced by skewed prosecution dynamics, and whose structural discrepancies continue to encourage the mass incarceration phenomenon that affects millions of individuals today. At rates higher than Russia and China, the U.S is incarcerating an entire portion of its population based on irrelevant criteria such as affluence and race. The harsh reality that both, poverty-stricken individuals and prison inmates face today, indicate a dire need for systematic change, and should encourage citizens to become informed members of society. As citizens have come together, and government officials become involved, many reforms have been introduced and passed which are conducive to a more restorative approach to justice.

Although the majority of Americans preaches that the days of racism are far behind, it is clear that institutional racism still exists in this country. One way to look at this institutional racism is to examine at the United States prison system and the gap of incarceration rates among African Americans, Hispanics, and White males. According to a research by Prison Policy Initiative both African Americans and Hispanics are imprisoned at 5.1 times and 1.8 times higher than the rate of White Americans for every 100,000 incarcerations, respectively. Throughout the history of the United States, it is obvious that the reasons for the disparity of the incarceration rate are related to policies, irregularities, and implicit prejudices. Families and children of the incarcerated are adversely affected due to the discrimination. However, many white Americans don’t see how racism affects incarceration rates and they would argue that the economic situation and past arrest patterns are responsible for the sustainable increase in the incarceration rate for African Americans and Hispanics. While the economic opportunity can indeed play a role in decision making, this argument doesn’t fully explain the real reason of this occurrence. In order to fully understand the reason, there is a need to review the history of the United States. Through the review, it is clear that the past arrest patterns is more an indicator of institutional racism still exists in this country. The New Jim Crow: Mass

The author discusses the price that US minority communities pay and the mass incarceration and the ideologies that fuel them. Interestingly, the author believes that mass incarceration only affects a certain group of people. Mass incarceration targets minority groups. These minority groups are characterized as low-income people. The author believes, that action has been taken to rectify the percentage of incarceration, because their low power compared to the majority. In addition, the authors go into percentages that depict that African American and Hispanic are targeted. Furthermore, the author looks at the ideologies that pertain to mass incarceration. Due to social injustice in the low-income communities presents negative ramifications

This is a Group of disgruntled and social outcast defined by poverty, racial minority and crime (Cole, 1999). Davis (2007) added that the women and men in the American penal system have limited access to the social mobility that is available to other people. Economic and social disadvantage are glaring at the American penal confinements, and this has been sustained over a long period. Analysis such as those of Mauer and King (2007) have termed the high rate of incarceration in America a civil right issue and lamented that the American justice system damages families, hollows communities and warehouses inmates thus needs immediate restructuring. Butler (2008) for instance insisted that the penal system must be repaired so as to reflect the values and the aspiration of the United States of

Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to what are, in actuality, economic, social, and political "problems. Through its reach and impact, the prison industrial complex helps secure the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic and other structural privileges by defending current power distributions. It benefits government and industry, as well as those individuals who already hold power in our society. There are six components I believe contribute to the PIC. The components are criminalization, media, surveillance, policing, court system, and the prisons.

African Americans in the US have been through some of the worst situations. They have been dehumanized by white supremacy and systematic oppression. For example, from being slaves, to Jim Crow laws, to segregation, to oppression by being trapped in public housing and high crime rate inner-cities. The main focus of this paper is the problem of mass incarceration in the US. There are currently 2 million people in prison, most are African American men. There needs to be prison reform in order to decrease the number of inmates in prison and help former inmates lead a more productive life after serving time.

The growing Prison Industrial Complex is an intricate web of profit-maximizing business endeavors at the expense of the livelihood of people of color in the continental United States and abroad. With immigration from Mexico and Latin America increasing each year and definitions of who is “legal” becoming more constricting as the Obama administration cracking down on illegal border crossing, undocumented immigrants are the fastest growing prison population.

Throughout the history of civilization, elite members of society have enslaved underprivileged persons for economic exploitation and sociopolitical power to perpetuate a cycle of oppression towards a targeted body of the population. History claims, racism and institutional discrimination was demolished in 1865, however, the prison industrial complex and its implications has transformed slavery, making incarceration susceptible to people of color that reinforce racial oppression for profit.Private prisons thrive on the exploitation of enslaved bodies, for motives strictly leaned for profit and social control. The war on drugs, created and reinforced by the United States government, supplements the prison industry by imprisoning non-violent drug offenders, preferably low-income people of color to sustain the quote of detained bodies. The united states government is notorious for framing issues to portray biased perception to general public. An example includes, how Mass media played a vital role in manipulating the mass population to frame social issues in order trap their support to reinforce motives of the prison system.