Essay On Mass Incarceration

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.

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.

Since the beginning of this great nation there has always been a racial caste systems due to slavery, money, and greed. The End of slavery was after the civil war and enfourced through the 13th Amendment. The loophole that was created that was the exception that criminals can be treated as a involuntary servitude, which was noted in the U.S constitution. To speed things along you have the slavery which transferred to convicted leasing to Jim Crow Era and now Mass Incarceration which all has striped millions of the people, whom are in the lower caste systems, away from their families similar to slavery. This paper focus on how mass incarceration has become the new form of Jim Crow and slavery. The United Stated population represent 5% of the world population, but we have 25% of the world prisoners (NAACP). In the USA people of color represent 30% of the populations but contributes to 60% of those who are imprisoned(NAACP). I hope that that this study will open up conversations that the we are in a new form of Jim Crow and how Mass Incarceration should be tentatively looked through and help come up with ways to make Mass Incarceration go away. As social workers we must advocate for the people who cannot advocate for themselves, rather it is because of money or lack of education they do not know how they are being taking advantage of. It is in our hearts to make sure that everyone is in the same postion so that they can be the best that they can be. The purpose of this study

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).

Mass incarceration alludes to the investigation which ought to be clarified as exceedingly elevated pace of imprisonment among African Americans men and Latino males from troubling neighborhoods. Many will say it’s from poor families and when they take the males, it weakens the family even more. One of the main reasons for mass incarceration is to have control of the system and African American’s after slavery was annihilated. One main issue about mass incarceration would be that if an African American student drops out of high school they are more likely to end up in prison rather than a white individual.

The United States is five percent of the world’s population and has twenty five percent of the world’s people incarcerated. This is the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Mass incarceration has been a problem in this country for decades. The war on drugs has increased the odds of incarceration and the length of sentences for non-violent offenders. Ninety five percent of prisoners have plead guilty and one out of five are serving sentences for drug related charges (REF).

Incarceration and stratification. Annual Review of Sociology 36:387–406. Google Scholar CrossRef Western, B., & Wildeman, C. (2009). The black family and mass incarceration. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621(1), 221-242.

Throughout the last the couple of years in the United States African Americans have become synonymous with many of problems with the country. This includes the rising drug problem of our country, the increased violence on our streets, many of the gang-related activities that have become prevalent in our country. One of the biggest for African American’s is our involvement in our prison systems, our “mass incarceration. Mass incarceration is a term I use for a system that has been in place since the end of the civil war that took advantage of the economic problems of the country and lingering

The idea of reporting the news is to tell viewers what is happening in the world without bias and from a neutral standpoint. Over the years, however, some things slip through the cracks and news is reported biasly, especially in racial terms. There are many solutions to remedy this situation by keeping equal representation within reporters and reporting fairly on all platforms. New policies can be put in place as not censorship but purely unbiased reports and news articles to prevent outrage and possibly boost ratings.

Jim Crow laws were social practices of discrimination with white people against the opposite race as them, which was mainly against African Americans. However, the term was originally referred to a black character in the 1800’s minstrel shows in which white performers wore “blackface,” and pretended to be black characters. Once reconstruction ended, it opened a door to the “Jim Crow era,” and began a long period in which African Americans in the south were denied the full rights of Aamerican citizenship. “Although, there were a set of laws that have been passed in southern states, which after they had earned their freedom from slavery.” (““Presentation Name.” Emaze Presentations).,

Due to the United States’ rich history of racism and discrimination, that history still lives on today in the twenty-first century. The reason racism occurs in the United States is because the fact that it is very much diverse in every crevice of every state and in every corner throughout the country. Even though racism is still happening, it is not as critical compared to how the different colored skins were treated back in the mid-1900s, especially for the African Americans. As said by Rosa Parks, “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” Our children look up to us as role models, and whatever the actions might be, it means something significant to them and they eventually will follow our leads

Societies of culture and different histories from one another in America were once deprived of their essential civil rights along with laws made to separate dissimilar races from white people, this system is known as Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws were meant to keep certain races, like African Americans, away from the “main” race in numerous conditions, such as education, jobs, transportation, even in marriage. Notably, in the article Jim Crow Laws: Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site it states, “The marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto or person who shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void.”(Mississippi SB 198). This law forbad many African Americans and white people from being married

The United States Prison Systems is at its all-time high. From 1984 to 2012 about 160,000 inmates were sentenced to life (Hamilton 805). In 2011, one million women were incarcerated or controlled by the Justice system, in which 68 percent of these women were black (Gross 32). Mass incarceration is a process of overfilling prisons with prisoners, who have committed minor and major crimes. The main targets were African Americans. In my proposal, we will explore the history of the US prison systems, examples of our current prison system; and how racism plays a big part because the United States prison system has a huge problem with mass incarceration, and the

The current system is based on mass incarceration which was meant to keep more criminals off the streets and make the people feel safer. This approach has created more instability and discrimination. “Incarceration deepens existing inequalities and even creates new inequalities... especially for African Americans”

Speaker: Alexander shares her experience developing her understanding of mass incarceration as a new racial caste system to display that it is not surprising if people do not recognize it initially and do not understand or agree with her argument because she, herself didn’t recognize these events occurring either. Presented in the introduction, Alexander states that “I reached the conclusions presented in this book reluctantly.” (Alexander 2) in addition “Ten years ago, I would have argued strenuously against the central claim made here— namely, that something akin to a racial caste system currently exists in the United States” (Alexander 2). During this time in her life she “clung to the notion the evils of Jim Crow are behind us” (Alexander 3), and the thought of the possibility of a new racial hierarchy in the United States never crossed her mind. In spite of this, she sees the clandestine working of a new system of control come forth before her eyes but, not others. That the issue of mass incarceration is seen, not as a racial justice concern, but as a criminal justice concern. As a result, “The attention of civil rights advocates has been largely devoted to other issues, such as affirmative action” (Alexander 9). She then states “My own experience reflects this dynamic” (Alexander 9).