Similarities Between Slavery And Mass Incarceration

June 19th, 1865 two and a half years after president Abraham Lincoln announced the abolishment of slavery and the last slaves in Texas were set free. Unfortunately, slavery did not end there, the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery on land and created slavery in jail’s. In the 20th century the jail’s population was a flat line until the early 1970s the era named “war on drugs” which created a mass incarceration. To further explain when the slaves were set free the government needed to find a way for the 4 million newly freed to be accounted for since slaves were a critical part of the American economy. In addition, the freeing of slaves

Moreover, this resulted in incarceration as they made prisoners rebuild the economy basically creating slavery again. America makes up 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's prisoners. In the 1970’s the U.S jail population was around 357,292 incarcerated, but due to mass incarceration by the 1990’s the jail population was up to 1,179,200. African American men make up 6.5% of the American population, but 40.2% of the prison population, which has caused a strippment of equality and rights of many African Americans (Felsenthal, "Ava DuVernay's 13th Is a Shocking, Necessary Look at the Link Between Slavery and Mass Incarceration"). In addition, most of the crimes which many African Americans suffer from are minor and they are given a cruel sentencing. Equally important, Recent studies show that minorities are given a more harsh punishment than Caucasians with similar criminal backgrounds. In fact, “African Americans are likely to get sentenced twice the prison term than whites that committed the same crime under the same circumstances” (Josh Salman, Emily Le Coz and Elizabeth Johnson Graphics and Site Development by Jennifer Borresen and

Recent studies show these results can be false and cause controversy, for example, the Glenn Rodriguez case. Rodriguez was given a 16 year sentence for a crime he committed when he was 16, he applied for parole 14 years into his sentence. His parole officer made a mistake by clicking “high misconduct behavior” which took away his eligibility of parole, Glenn decided to compare scores with the other prison inmates. A White male with “high misconduct” score was still eligible for .parole, while a Black male with any “misconduct” score was automatically eliminated (Wexler, Rebecca. "Code of Silence." Washington Monthly, 2017, pp. 18-22, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com). COMPAS is a computer based test taken by parole officers or judges to determine someone's sentence or their eligibility of parole. The test asks you questions such as your race, crime, previous criminal history, and government assistance. 1 wrong or negative answer can change your whole result, as well as race. To further explain, analysis show that African Americans tested as a “higher risk” than they truly were, they were