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Incarceration In America

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The high incarceration rate of Black Americans has pervasive and chronically negative stigmas regarding the social and economic vitality of the Black American community, such as a lack of democratic participation and violence within urban communities (Burris-Kitchen & Burris, 2011). According to Forman Jr. (2012), some of 5 the negative affects of systemic racism of Black Americans born into the hip-hop generation who have been convicted include the ineligibility of public assistance programs such as health care, food stamps, public housing, student loans, and some employment opportunities. Additionally, many of the individuals suffering from the stigma of incarceration come from backgrounds of disadvantage such as single parent homes, low …show more content…

Criminal legislation and incarceration have long been used as a means to control "powerless" and disadvantaged groups in America. These groups are socially and politically neglected and only receive attention when they are perceived to be a threat to the larger society and then the attention comes in the form of control and punishment (Page, 1993). The control generally manifests itself through crime legislation and the punishment through incarceration. By the end of 2005, there were more than 7 million people under some form of criminal justice supervision (Glaze & Bonczar 2006; Harrison & Beck, 2006a). With such a large and growing number of people under correctional control during a time in which crime rates had either fallen or were stabilizing raises important questions about the purpose and consequences of this institutional intervention. While "tough on crime" policies may be effective in incapacitating offenders, little consideration has been given to the impact this mass incarceration effort has had on offenders following their release from prison. Every year more than 600,000 people are released from jails and prisons to face the challenge of re-entering society in a productive capacity (Geiger, 2006; Travis, Solomon, & Waul, 2001). Due to the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction, reintegration is often met with a host of daunting and unnecessary barriers. Black Americans comprise a major segment of the neglected population and when they are released from prison the barriers to reintegration are often compounded by the stigma of their racial classification and the mark of a criminal

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In her book “The New Jim Crow” (2010), Michelle Alexander, a civil rights lawyer and an activist in the civil rights movements, that many people think has long been concluded, argues that the results of prison go well beyond the walls of the facility and can even have a perpetual effect on a person's life. Alexanders exact words on page 142 are “ Once labeled a felon, the badge of inferiority remains with you for the rest of your life, relegating you to a permanent second-class status.” Alexander supports her claim by interviewing people and describing their experiences in prison and their life after prison. She also informs the reader of laws that make it harder for felons to not only get jobs, but also limits their access to housing, and

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Michelle alexander states in her book that “1 in every 14 black men was behind bars in 2006, compared with 1 in 106 white men” (61). The idea of incarceration, in this situation, mass incarceration is

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The documentary the “13th” had shocking statistics on how many people are incarcerated in the United States. The 1970’s was the beginning of the “mass incarceration era,” which started with 357,292 people incarcerated. From there, the prison population has continuously increased and reached a population of 2,306,200 in 2014. Many of these people incarcerated are African-Americans because the criminal justice system has always worked against them. African-Americans in the United States account for 6.5% of the population, meanwhile they account for 42% of the prison population.

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However, black men are arrested and charged for drug offenses at, “rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men” (Alexander, 2010). This discrepancy raises questions as to why are black men targeted for drug offenses more than all other races when black people use and sell drugs at similar rates as the other demographics. Mass incarceration stemmed from the influx of arrests made in the 1980’s and 90’s; these hordes of people put into prisons means more than just time behind

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Alexander focuses on how African American communities have become more vulnerable to the arrests. Authorities will target these communities even though this is not where the crime is happening. Lastly, many people are labeled ‘felons’ for life, even though they have only committed one victimless crime. Michelle Alexander summarizes her opinion by saying, “We have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it.” Even though America has taken many small steps to move forward from segregation, black individuals are locked up behind bars and will struggle for the rest of their lives to escape from the ‘felon’ title.

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Although, the justice system impacts many lives, especially within the African American community many individuals are unaware of the effects that the Criminal Justice system can have on offender while incarcerated and even after incarceration. The reading is intended for anyone willing to learn about how are society uses Mass Incarceration as a method to hinder individuals of the African American community from being successful in our society. The author’s writing style is very informative. Michelle Alexander uses clarity and factual information to explain to the reader the many issues that are within our Criminal Justice system. Further, Michelle Alexander is very detailed with the information that she shares within the text.

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Mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow and has led to the oppression and disenfranchisement of whole generations of young black men. Between 1980 and 2000, the inmate population in the United States skyrocketed from 300,000 to well over

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Alexander argues that the practice of racial injustice and segregation is due to the existence of mass incarceration. She goes into great detail in her writing, explaining why she believes mass incarceration is the issue and how history show us that America will always find a way to separate racial communities. This book would serve as an excellent reference to anyone studying racial injustice, mass incarceration, plea bargain coercion, racial history in America, and more. The beauty of this book is not only Alexander’s fact finding revelations, is the fact that she isn’t saying anything unheard of or anything that has not been realized by member of poor black communities, she simply found a way to articulate the issue in a way the demanded consideration from readers in and outside the communities being discussed. Alexander finds a way to expose the true nature of the criminal justice system using the people’s voice and research.

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The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world with about 2.3 million people in prison. According to Vitanna.org’s statistics, an estimated one million of these prisoners are African American. 12.3 percent of the population is black, yet over 43 percent of America’s prisoners are black. This disparity is certainly unnatural, seeing as how African Americans are no more likely to be criminals than whites. Black men are overrepresented in prisons because of the unfortunately common stereotype that they are all remorseless criminals.

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Since incarceration leads to political and civil disenfranchisement in the United States, the mass incarceration of black and brown men and the consequent loss of rights to participate in the civil society and its processes are especially concerning. The authors argue that the interplay of racial residential segregation, low-quality schooling, and exposure and vulnerabilities to crime and violence so prevalent in these segregated neighborhoods have established a “public school to prison”

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African Americans who were born in the 1970s and grew up during the American prison boom, the chances they are going to serve time in state federal prison if they dropped out of high school is about 70%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Currently, 1.2 million (1 in 9) African American children have a parent who is incarcerated, and there’s evidence that kids who experience parental incarceration have behavioral problems and low achievement. This creates the risk that incarceration becomes an inherited trait, and recidivism induces. The underlying issue is how the U.S. criminal justice system marginalizes African Americans relative to other ethnic groups. There has been an incredible increase in arrests and incarceration over the past four decades, mostly from the war on drugs.

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Since African-American men are likely to be imprisoned than other men, African American kids encounter an exceptional and unique weakness (Mass imprisonment and childhood behavioral problems, 2011). Accordingly, mass imprisonment makes an arrangement of abuse for some of the society 's most helpless

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One of the biggest controversies in society today is concerning whether or not the criminal justice system is racially bias. It is clear that blacks are overrepresented in America’s prison system. For example, they are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of white people and “constitute for nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population” (Criminal Justice). Although this is true, the disproportionate number of black men serving time in the criminal justice system is due to circumstance, not necessarily race. While there are some judges, police officers, or other officials who may have a racial bias towards black people, in the majority of cases blacks are not arrested because their race, they are arrested because they

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Large populations of black males drop out of high school and end up in jail. African American males make up 70 percent of the prison population, even though they make up only 6 percent of the US population with lack of education, discrimination, and unemployment connects the norm black males will eventually get nowhere to be found in the prison system.” The outcome of this tragic circumstances families developing without a father, the cycle of great crime, poverty, and great pain to families will often repeat itself according to Nealy, (2008). Dylan and Duran, (2011) agrees, “spending time in prison has become an increasingly common life event for the minority men in the US. " It is important to pass on our black young men into someone optimistic and not easily

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From such a small percent to a high percent, the overall population of blacks and the minorities must be taken accounted for. Thus, the incarceration rate is disportional. Having the minority group of African American having not even a third of the US population, it must say something about the justice system. Ethnicity plays a role in prison sentencing. Even more so, another researcher, Martin Explains, author of “One in Three,” explains that since the 1980’s, the US prison population has quadrupled where 60% percent of it at black, who only make 13% of the US population.

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