A Brief Note On The American Prison And Justice System

When I was younger, I was taught that if you do something bad you go to prison. It's a very simple concept to understand. There are rules put in place for our protection, and if you break them, you should be punished accordingly. However, as I grew older, paid attention to the news, and most importantly took more history classes, it became very clear that is not what actually happens. The American prison and justice system is built on exploiting black and brown communities, particularly using innocent young black men to populate the prisons. For as long as the prisons and courts are filled, uncle sam and those involved in prison profit will continue to get richer. But, after all it is America, the place where profit overtakes rehabilitation.

Alex Haley wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X, where chapter 10 focuses on his experience in the American prison system. Malcolm recalls being taken to the Charlestown State Prison, but surprisingly cannot recall his prison numbers. He was surprised he could not remember them because “your number in prison became apart of you. You never heard your name, only your number” (155). A sign that the prison system merely focuses on how many inmates are currently in prison, rather than the rehabilitation of the individual. Malcolm also claimed that, “behind bars, a man never reforms” (154), because it makes them feel like they were in a cage. To say that Malcolm X was enraged by how the American prison system operates is a gross

Learning about Malcolm X’s experience with the American justice system is vital in understanding how the prison system still affects inmates and former inmates to this day. Ava Duvernay’s “Thirteenth” is a great documentary that explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, specifically how the prison system was another way for the government to oppress black communities. The film begins with a statistic from Barack Obama, “the United States is home to 5% of the world population, and 25% of the world’s prisoners”. Setting an obvious tone for the rest of the documentary as it follows the mass incarceration of thousands of innocent black and brown men. Showing how the prison system has really not changed that much, and how much progress it needs because it is still disproportionately affecting black and brown communities. Duvernay’s documentary goes on to explain the background of the American government and their involvement with the corporation ALEC, and how they directly contributed to mass incarceration. The American government and ALEC used prisons as a way to silence black and brown communities, as an attempt to separate them from society, all while making a huge