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The New Foreword By Michelle Alexander

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Annotated Bibliography Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness / Michelle Alexander ; [with a New Foreword by Cornel West]. The New Press, 2012. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=2ec9cbe0-3ef5-3a44-8467-0f6b1bebfb80. This is a groundbreaking book by Michelle Alexander that explores the racial inequalities within the American criminal justice system. Alexander argues that the system perpetuates a form of racial control akin to the Jim Crow laws of the past, primarily through the mass incarceration of Black men. She examines how policies such as the War on Drugs disproportionately target and incarcerate Black communities, creating a cycle of poverty and disenfranchisement. Through …show more content…

However, this article also acknowledges the complexities and challenges associated with implementing a time-based expungement system. Concerns are raised about the potential risks of overlooking serious offenses or patterns of criminal behavior, as well as the need to balance the rights of individuals with public safety considerations. Legal experts and policymakers interviewed in this article provide valuable insights into these complexities, highlighting the need for careful deliberation and consideration of all relevant factors. The point of serving time for your crimes and then being released is so you can move on from the past, learn from your mistakes, and start over again. It's hard enough as it is to sustain a decent job or housing, so being denied these simple things people need to survive because of a past mistake that you already paid for is heart …show more content…

Removing these obstacles that stop people from discriminating against other individuals who are trying to obtain housing, employment, financial aid and other things people need to live can lead to reduced recidivism rates and overall improvements in public safety and well-being. By considering the potential consequences of perpetuating societal exclusion through the retention of criminal records, this article encourages a critical examination of the role of criminal justice policies in perpetuating cycles of poverty and recidivism. Ashford's article prompts a multifaceted evaluation of the relationship between criminal records policies and the criminal justice system. By exploring the potential benefits and drawbacks of automatically expunging certain records after seven years, this article contributes to a deeper understanding of how criminal justice policies can impact individuals' lives and broader societal outcomes. Bloom, Tina, and G. A. Bradshaw. “Inside of a Prison: How a Culture of Punishment Prevents Rehabilitation.” Peace & Conflict, vol. 28. No. of the syllables, no. 1, Feb. 2022, pp.

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Introduction In the world we live in it seems as though no matter how many rules or legislation that is made there will always be some form of racial disparity under disguise. This critique will be an exploration of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. Alexander is civil rights lawyer and advocate in the United States that has been writing books since the early 2000’s and has become an opinion columnist for The New York Times in 2018. As an African American much of her work has been involved in the push for civil rights and racial equality in the world.

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In today’s society, people are defined by their ethnic, gender and class affiliations. For this reason, inequality and discrimination are factors in how minorities are treated in American society. John Iceland’s book, “Poverty in America A Handbook” discusses how even though the United States has the largest-industrialized economy; it has more poverty than any other country that has similar standards of living. Iceland focuses and examines why poverty is prominent to this day, what groups are affected, what defines being poor in America, and the causes and effects of the poverty. Michelle Alexander’s book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” discusses the issues specifically related to African-American males

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In the book, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, she depicts the mass incarceration rate in American and recalls cases of people going to prison that personally affected here. The majority of the African-American men are either in prison or have some type of criminal record making it unable for them to vote and get jobs. Alexander describes the criminal justice systems as the “New Jim Crow,” a modern type of oppression for African Americans. Not only does FreeQuency talk about mass incarceration rate she also touches on police brutality in her poem. FreeQuency says, “criminal before child,” (FreeQuency, 59) and “I will not take it for Oscar Granted/that they will not come/and kill my son” (FreeQuency, 67-69).

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: The New Press. Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era.

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Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.

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(DuVernay, 2016) As a result, we do not. Rather than relying on race, we use our criminal justice system to identify individuals of color as 'criminals,' and then engage in all the practices we abandoned. Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow," expresses this striking quote. The remark emphasizes the concept of colorblind racism, in which open racial discrimination is substituted by laws and practices that appear to be race neutral.

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Alexander uses the statistics of how a black man is more likely to face punishment from law enforcement. By using proven facts Alexander better informs the readers how the racial caste system works in law enforcement. Ultimately, Michelle Alexander persuades the audience with stories of the injustice African Americans face because of the wrongful use of incarceration in the United States of America. She also uses the statistics for her readers to have a full understanding that she is Ray 2 finding the evidence to support her claims that America has the highest incarceration rate in

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Not even countries known for locking up its citizens, like China, Iran, or Russia come close to the United States’ 700 people living behind bars for every 100,000 people (Kelley & Sterbenz, 2014). Unfortunately, the problem with mass incarceration is not limited to living behind bars. Alexander expertly guides the reader down the rabbit hole of the additional ramifications of being labeled a felon in American society: the complexity of laws that prohibits felons from public assistance, like housing or food stamps, legislation that take away felons’ voting rights, regulations that make it legal for employers to discriminate against felons, and statutes that control felons’ movements and their affiliations. The New Jim Crow further highlights a series of court precedents that make it impractical for defendants to claim the police, the prosecutors, or the justice system is undeniably racist as a defense. Arguably, being a person of color, who is labeled a felon, makes it legal for the rest of society to prevent you from participating in a free society

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Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.

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The mass incarceration of black men serves to define the meaning and significance of race in America today. Previously, race (black) was defined as slaves; today, race (black) is defined as criminals. Thus, mass incarceration perpetuates and deepens a pre-existing pattern of racial segregation and isolation. African Americans are being sold to private prisons and are warehoused in prisons for long time and once they get out of prison, they are labeled and destined to carry a stigma that extends to the family members, friends and even to their

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Legalized Discrimination is Contributing to Mass Incarceration Mass incarceration has been an issue for decades, with no clear solution in sight. One major turning point in the development of mass incarceration, based on reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, is the idea of legalized discrimination. Alexander said, “What is painfully obvious when one steps back from individual cases and specific policies is that the system of mass incarceration operated with stunning efficiency to sweep people of color off the streets, lock them in cages, and then release them into an inferior second-class status” (pg. 100). This idea of legalized discrimination allows police officers to intentionally target black individuals because of prejudices

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Literature Review In a remarkable analysis, Alexander (2010) made a fascinating comparison of the modern struggles of blacks while dating back to the Jim Crow era. Alexander asserts that mass incarceration of African Americans is the “New Jim Crow” because it serves many of the same purposes of slavery that happened over 100 years ago. Such disparity has not been changed as more and more African American men are under some sort of government supervision which are either incarcerated, awaiting trial, on probation or parole. For instance, the imprisonment of one in nine black men in 2006 demonstrates that black men were eight times more likely to be in jail or prison than their counterparts.

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As we can see, African Americans have endured racial inequality, physical abuse, stripped of their legal rights, and are still at educational, economic, and social disadvantages in society. Despite slavery, and the racial segregation (Jim Crow), African American men are more likely to be in prison than any other race in America. “The growth of the American penal system since the mid-1970s has been concentrated from among African Americans and the poor. During the period of the prison boom, African Americans were about six to seven times more likely than whites to be incarcerated” (3). Unfortunately, race and social class play a significant role in African Americans for imprisonment.

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Cullen, Cullen elaborates the consequences that arose from the penal harm movement. The decline of rehabilitation programs, inmate amenities, and sentencing disparities are also discussed. Cullen further reviews the evolution of punishments throughout time, and the distinctions of the corrections system in each historical era. He strongly argues toward the necessity for a corrections system where resources are allocated efficiently, in helping the poor and the minorities climb out of poverty stricken areas. Which in return will remarkably benefit society as a

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American criminal justice, in an era of mass corrections, faces many challenges as a result of the turn to a more punitive system. Social polices now approach corrections from a retributive perspective, investing more in social control and punishment rather than valuing rehabilitation and treatment. Consequently, such a shift has affected recidivism patters and has lead to overcrowding in prisons. The punitive measures were designed to enhance public safety but, unfortunately, have had adverse consequences. Not only has these measures increased the cost of corrections with little known benefit, but many offenders today are simply not prepared to reenter society.

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