The New Jim Crow

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander develops a compelling analogy on how mass incarceration is similar to the Jim Crow era, and is a “race-making institution.” She begins her work with the question, “Where have all the black men gone?” (Alexander, 178) She demonstrates how the media and Obama have failed to give an honest answer to this question, that the large majority of them or in prison. She argues that in order to address this problem, we must be honest about the fact that this is happening, and the discrimination with the African American communities that is putting them there.

The facts speak for themselves, people of color are the enemies and targets in the war on drugs. They also tell us that fighting back is useless due to the racial bias that is inherent in the criminal justice system. This might come as a surprise to the majority that believe discrimination is no longer in existence, considering that it is a black man living in the White House. Ever since Barack Obama pledged to serve as the forty-fourth president

The New Jim Crow is a book that discusses how legal practices and the American justice system are harming the African American community as a whole, and it argues that racism, though hidden, is still alive and well in our society because of these practices. In the book, Michelle Alexander, author and legal scholar, argues that legal policies against offenders have kept and continue to keep black men from becoming first class citizens, and she writes that by labeling them as “criminals,” the justice system and society in general is able to act with prejudice against them and subordinate black Americans who were previously incarcerated, on probation, or on parole, by limiting their access to services as a result of their ‘criminal status’ and therefore, further degrading their quality of life. The New Jim Crow urges readers to acknowledge the injustice and racial disparity of our criminal justice system so that this new, more covert form of racism in society can be stopped.

Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, explained how our treatment of criminals has created a new racial caste system, and the only way to make change is by massive social change and Civil Rights movement. The criminal laws often focus on psychoactive drugs used by the minority populations. Minorities are disproportionately targeted, arrested, and punished for drug offenses. For instance, Black, Latino, Native American, and many Asian were portrayed as violent, traffickers of drugs and a danger to society. Surveillance was focused on communities of color, also immigrants, the unemployed, the undereducated, and the homeless, who continue to be the main targets of law enforcement efforts to fight the war on drugs. Although African Americans comprise only 12.2 percent of the population and 13 percent of drug users, they make up 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 59 percent of those convicted of drug offenses causing critics to call the war on drugs the “New Jim Crow”(drug policy). The drug

The “War on Drugs” established that the impact of incarceration would be used as a weapon to combat the illegal drug problem in this country. Unfortunately, this war against drugs has fallen disproportionately on black Americans. “Blacks constitute 62.6% of all drug offenders admitted to state prisons in 1996, whereas whites constituted 36.7%. The drug offender admissions rate for black men ranges from 60 to an astonishing 1,146 per 100,000 black men. In contrast, the white rate begins at 6 and rises no higher than 139 per 100,000 white men. Drug offenses accounted for nearly two out of five of all black admissions to state prisons (Human Rights Watch, 2000).” The disproportionate rates at which black drug offenders are sent to prison originate in racially disproportionate rates of arrest.

Throughout history, the drug war has always targeted minority groups. “At the root of the drug-prohibition movement in the United States is race, which is the driving force behind the first laws criminalizing drug use, which first appeared as early as the 1870s (Cohen, 56)”. There were many drug laws that targeted minority groups such as the marijuana ban of 1930s that criminalized Mexican migrant farm workers and in the Jim Crow South, reformist wanted to wage war on the Negro cocaine feign so they used African Americans as a scapegoat while they overlooked southern white women who were a bigger problem for the drug epidemic (Cohen, 57). Instead of tackling the root of the drug problem they passed the blame to struggling minority groups within the United States.

After getting the public support for his campaign, America saw an unprecedented rise in its incarceration rate, particularly among African Americans. The “ War on Drugs ” has had a disparate impact on the black community even though blacks and whites use drugs at approximately the same levels. This is achieved through a myriad of formal and informal practices. African-Americans are targeted and prosecuted at a much higher rate even though they are not statistically any likelier to abuse or sell drugs than the white population.

The United States features a prison population that is more than quadruple the highest prison population in Western Europe (Pettit, 2004). In the 1980s, U.S. legislation issued a number of new drug laws with stiffer penalties that ranged from drug possession to drug trafficking. Many of those charged with drug crimes saw longer prison sentences and less judicial leniency when facing trial. The War on Drugs has furthered the boom in prison population even though violent crime has continued to decrease steadily. Many urban areas in the U.S. have a majority black population. With crime tendencies high in these areas, drugs are also prevalent. This means that a greater percentage of those in prison are going to be black because law

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “African Americans make up an estimated 15% of drug users, but they account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.” These statistics show that minorities, especially African Americans have to pay the price, using their lives by going to jail or prison. Other races are just as guilty with the drug war but minorities are targeted more than the other races.

When a country has over 2 million people imprisoned, there either is an incredibly high crime rate or a problem with the system.  Half of those incarcerated are for drug offenses. The criminal justice system in America was started to keep citizens safe, to respect and rehabilitate victims, and to return offenders who leave prison to be self-sufficient and law-abiding. What the system has become is a massive failure that our states and nation can no longer afford(DeRoche). There is much debate over why this number is so high, but most, if not all, sources point towards racism and the War on Drugs. Even though segregation is illegal as well as frowned upon, it does not stop law enforcement from picking on people of different races. Latino citizens are 3 times as likely to be detained compared to white citizens. African Americans are 5 times as likely to be detained compared to white citizens. Most African American defendants never go to trial. Two-thirds of the people in the U.S. serving life sentences are not white(Quigley). This is further influenced by the so called War on Drugs. This war was started by President Richard Nixon when he proclaimed, “America’s public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse.  In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive(Head)” Soon after this speech, he established the Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA). This as well as the

After forty years since the War on Drugs began, the U.S government has spent up to one trillion dollars of taxpayers’money on mass incarceration, drug law enforcement and prohibition. The drug war caused the prison population to increase significantly. According to Richard Branson in his article, “War on drugs a trillion-dollar failure”, America leads the world in the number of incarcerated citizens, 2.3 millions prisoners and more than a half of a million are serving sentences for drug offense. People of color with a minor or non-violent drug offense are the main victims of the drug war. Increasing imprisonment and extensive prison sentences is the burden of the economy. The government spends a lot of money on arresting and incarcerating of millions of people each year. According to the report “State

Most people assume the “War on Drugs” was launched in response to the crisis cause by crack-cocaine in inner city neighborhoods. This view supports that racial disparities in drug convictions and sentences, as well as the rapid explosion of the prison population, reflect nothing more than the government’s zealous efforts to address rampant drug crime in poor, minority neighborhoods. This view while understandable, given the sensational media coverage of crack in the 1980’s and 1990’s, is simply wrong. In fact, the war on drugs began at a time when illegal drug use was on the decline. However, during this time period, a war was declared, causing arrest and convictions for drug offenses to skyrocket, especially amongst people of color.

According to author Lez Zaits “[In Oregon] DEA meth seizures would nearly triple from 1994-2007”. The battle against illegal drug’s has led to the overcrowding of prisons. The prison population in the U.S has skyrocketed due to laws that aim to crack down on drug possession and distribution. Prior to the War on Drugs the U.S prison population was significantly lower than today. Just two decades before the War on Drugs was started the U.S had 209,000  prisoners in federal and state prisons combined. According to the Human Rights Watch, the War on Drugs has caused high incarceration rates that placed thousands  of Americans behind bars. Due to the high rate of incarceration the United States has seen a demand for privatization and the for-profit industry. Unfortunately instead of seeing a shift away from the criminalization of drug usage and a decrease in drug distribution the United States has seen a surge in imprisonment and drug production. Compared to the number of prisoners before the War on Drugs, the bureau of Justice Statistics stated that as of 2008 there are 1,610,446 people sentenced. When compared to crime stricken countries like Mexico  the population of prisoners in the U.S is

“The first slaves came to the United States in 1619. During this period there have literally been a few scattered decades in which African Americans had a fairly decent shot at entering the mainstream society. Especially black males are targets for abuse by the security system, drug wars, killing and lack of opportunity for employment” (Noam Chomsky). The war on drugs has been congruous with tossing African American’s in jail. Various statistics demonstrate the racial discrimination that the drug war has generated. These massive private prisons are being built at an accelerated rate to house numerous of minorities for simple drug possessions. When you look at who are using these illegal drugs versus the people who are being incarcerated, a different picture is being painted. It’s not hard to discern that the drug policies that are in place are a form of social control. They influence a specific type of people and those they affect are more often than not minorities living in America.

The drug war has dramatically affected the number of imprisoned Americans, as well as its prisons. According to DrugSense.Org, 1,576,339 people have been arrested for drug law offenses this year alone. And out of those, 9,261 have been incarcerated. As for marijuana offenses, 747,183 people have been detained. In fact, most of the non-violent offenders sitting in state, local and federal prisons