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Summary Of Why Does Alexander Call Mass Incarceration

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1) Why does Alexander call mass incarceration "the new Jim Crow," and how does she believe the system functions to oppress people? In Chapter 5 of "The New Jim Crow" Michelle Alexander described mass incarceration as being normalized and the system "requires no justification". She believes that 'prisoners and those in the system are out of sight and out of mind. This makes the system more durable and harder to eradicate.' Alexander, explains the three-stage set up in the system. She describes them as the roundup, formal control and invisible punishment. She describes the steps as something that most people know but don't truly understand. She describes and includes racial indifference, which was nice because it's not just blacks like with Jim Crow but all races. Alexander also describes things like drunk driving which is considered a "white" crime and drug dealers/users is considered a "black" crime get different press from authority. While Jim Crow punished others for who they are, mass incarceration punishes people for what they do even small offences get extremely hard sentencing. 2) Why does Alexander say that prison sentences are only a small part of the problem? What is the rest of the problem …show more content…

She explains how we have structural systemic racism, but we are also allowing cosmetic racial diversity to come to light as well. She also goes and explains that while we put others in jail for drug use and such instead of treating others like addicts who need help, they will just keep coming back into the system every time they get out. The system does not want to help anyone but just incarcerate them. "Someone can be sentenced to life for three marijuana sales because of federal sentencing…, while someone who has done something far worse may get off easily. There small-time offenders are nowhere near the drug kingpins that the government claims to be targeting"

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