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Argumentative Essay On Mass Incarceration

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Mass incarceration is the way that the United States has locked up millions of people over the last forty years using unnecessary and disproportionate policies. Contrary to popular belief, this is racially fueled as most of these policies saw to it that blacks and latinos be locked up for longer than their white peers and for smaller crimes. These racist roots within the system can be traced back to when the first slave ship arrived in the US. But our first major prison boom was seen after the American Civil war. I know that the Civil War was far more than forty years ago. I may not be a mathematician but I do know that much. When I say "mass incarceration", I'm talking about the more modern idea of mass incarceration. The difference here …show more content…

For many African Americans during this time, that meant that you were freed as a slave only to be arrested and deemed a slave once again. How does this relate to mass or wrongful incarceration today? Well, what I'm trying to do is to create a timeline of how twisted the "judicial" system was and still is. I mention the confederacy because it is an accurate representation of how racist the roots of the United States are and also on a side note, how anti American the confederacy actually was. A concept that many do not seem to be aware of. So without further or due, let's get into …show more content…

That's a lot of people right? I mean think about that. Our world is fairly large. There are over 7 billion people in this world (keep in mind that number is increasing rapidly) and 5% of that is living here in the United States. But what if I told you we are also home to 25% of the worlds' prison population. What a concept. The "land of the free" is home to 25% of the worlds' prison population. That's a lot of people behind bars with their hands in shackles for this to be the land of the free. Now, as I had previously mentioned, the term "mass incarceration" was coined in the 70's to describe the beginning of an era in which people are arrested in dramatically high numbers. During former US president Richard Nixon's time in office, he took on the war on crime and the war on drugs. Which at first glance looks like a positive thing but once you dive deeper into what his real motives are, it's rather eye opening. Let's start with the war on crime. During this time you had the black panthers who were people fighting for civil rights, people who were fighting for women's rights, and people who were fighting for gay rights. Nixon felt the need to fight against these movements and therefore one was more likely to get arrested for attending these rallies— for committing a crime which really wasn't a crime. He strategically blinded the public to this by calling it "the war on crime".

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In the article, Unwinding Mass Incarceration by Stefan Lobuglio and Anne Piehl, they argue that unwinding the mass incarceration “well neither be cheap nor easy, and to be done responsibly will require a new infrastructure of coordinated community-based facilities and services that can meet evidence-based incarceration needs while also ensuring public safety.” Hence, their argument is clean-cut with evidence in the article to back up their argument of unwinding the mass incarceration. Similarly, a solid fill of a concluding statement upon the unwinding of the mass incarceration as stated in the article, “requires much more than stopping current practices or reversing course by mass commutations and early release programs.” Subsequently, from this article, there are numerous interesting key points, and perspective of unwinding the mass incarceration.

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Over the last thirty years, the prison population in the United States has increased more than seven-fold to over two million people, including vastly disproportionate numbers of minorities and people with little education. For some racial and educational groups, incarceration has become a depressingly regular experience, and prison culture and influence pervade their communities. Almost 60 percent of black male high school drop-outs in their early thirties have spent time in prison. In Punishment and Inequality in America, sociologist Bruce Western explores the recent era of mass incarceration and the serious social and economic consequences it has wrought.

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In addition, Comparing Jim Crow with mass incarceration, Alexander points out that mass incarceration is an almost invisible network of laws, policies, customs and institutions that works together to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined by

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Nixon was paranoid and feared any man who did not agree with him (“Watergate and the Cover-Up.” 1995). He also believed that, as President, he could take whatever measures necessary to protect himself from his enemies, even if that meant he broke the law (“Watergate and the Cover-Up.” 1995). During his presidency, he actually said, “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.” (“Watergate and the Cover-Up.” 1995). In turn, he was his own worst enemy.

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The relationship of mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery is that people who committed felon were stripped of their rights like the slaves. It is similar to the way slaves were treated before the 13th Amendment and the Civil Rights Movement. Even though the 13th Amendment was passed, many individuals found a loophole, which was a person who committed a crime could not have the same rights as everyone. This eventually causes people to arrest people of color regardless of whether or not they committed a crime.

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The amount of mass incarceration in the United States as reached an all time high over the years. Mass Incarceration is the incarceration of a person or race based off of them being different and can be identified as a trend among law enforcements. These tensions have reached a certain extent and has received the attention of American citizens and the nation’s government. The laws of the United States seems fair, however with the enforcement of these laws, specific groups are targeted and abused by them daily.

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Though this may be my folly, it is my way of life and I refuse to go against it. I ask that you turn away from any statements I have made on this particular political issue, due to the fact that I no longer support this method of discipline. However, prisoner overcrowding is a different matter, those of victimless crimes should not carry out long sentences. Of course, they should still be crimes, yet no rights should be taken away, as they have not brought harm or violence to those in comparison of rapists and

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