How America has Successfully Institutionalized a System of Mass Incarceration
Welcome back!
After my second reading, I can say that the book is really coming together. As Alexander elaborates on our nation's racial caste system, I have only become more absorbed in her writing and looking forward to each opportunity I get to sit down and read.
In this blog post, I want to highlight the relevancy of this book in our society. These ideas presented by Alexander are not simply restrained to text. They have real world occurrences, however, they are often not covered by the media....but more on that later!
In this second chapter, "The Lockdown", Alexander described how our justice system has transformed into a system that wrongly allows for the incarceration of thousands of people, largely due to the War on Drugs. The federal government has implemented rulings and policies that allows law enforcement to have control over the population. "Stop-and-Frisk" is one rule that allows for law enforcement to stop anyone if they have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. However, the "Stop-and-Frisk" rule has had little to no success in cutting down on crime.
In fact, an article from the Washington Post reported that, "...there's no real correlation between the use of stop-and-frisk and New York's reduction in crime"(Bump). As of today, stop-and-frisk has proven to not have any impact on crime reduction. And Alexander states that, "...95% of stops yield no illegal drugs"(Alexander, 71). So there you have it. Not only do these confrontations rarely yield any illegal substances, but they also have not impacted reduction in crime. These stop-and-frisks are unsuccessful and simply allow for law enforcement to utilize profiling.
Profiling, the use of personal characteristics to make generalizations about a person, is frequently used when police are searching for possible criminals. As Alexander states, "The profile can include traveling with luggage, traveling without luggage, driving an expensive car, driving a car that needs repairs, driving with out-of state license plates, driving a rental car, driving with “mismatched occupants,” acting too calm, acting too nervous....(Alexander, 70)". The list goes on. But profiling can be especially detrimental to people of color, who are targeted for possible criminal activity. In July of 2009, Henry Louis Gates Jr, an African American man, was arrested outside his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts for breaking into his own home. Gates has been a Harvard professor for nearly two decades and when attempting to enter his own home, a police officer asked him to step out and provide identification. Gates responded, "Why, because I am a black man in America?"(Goodnough). This event supports the idea of racial profiling. It proves that despite being highly educated and professional, he was assumed to be involved in criminal activity based on the color of his skin. It happens, and Gates is only one of many individuals who are affected by it.
Let's get back to the book. So, we know that there was a dramatic increase in drug charges during this time period. But law enforcement was not always so eager to look for drugs. Once the federal government implemented a program that incentivized drug arrests with grants, drug arrests rose dramatically. Even today, this is true. Police departments only make revenue off of drug crimes. The more drug arrests the department claims, the stronger their chances are for receiving grants from the federal government. As one may expect, this has caused police departments to be more focused on smaller scale crimes and abandon serious crimes. The Huffington Post reported that, Stephen Downing stepped down as Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police due to this very reason. He is now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, who is calling for an end to the War on Drugs. According to Downing, "...this problem is on the rise all over the country. Last year, police in New York City arrested around 50,000 people for marijuana possession(Balko).
I find it astonishing that even today, the War on Drugs is continuing to have major impacts on society. With police trying to meet quotas and very serious crimes like rape, murder and burglary going under the radar, I find it shocking that more people are not aware of this. Why is this, I have to ask myself. Don't you wonder why some topics are covered by the media and not others? I think that the ideas presented by Alexander in The New Jim Crow are rarely discussed within social media because our government does not want this information to be publicized. As I included in my last blog, prisons have banned The New Jim Crow to keep their prisoners oblivious of the truth. Could our government be trying to keep the citizens of the United States oblivious as well? Although this is just a thought, I do not think it is too extreme to think that our government does not want the flaws of our justice system publicized.
Citations
Balko, Radley. “Driven By Drug War Incentives, Cops Target Pot Smokers, Brush Off Victims Of
Violent Crime.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Nov. 2011.
Bump, Philip. “The Facts about Stop-and-Frisk in New York City.” The Washington Post, WP Company,
26 Sept. 2016,.
Goodnough, Abby. “Harvard Professor Jailed; Officer Is Accused of Bias.” The New York Times, The New
York Times, 20 July 2009.
York Times, 20 July 2009.
Hi Ellie!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your thoughts when it comes to the "loopholes", I guess you could say, in the criminal justice system when it comes to profiling innocent people. I have learned a little bit about this topic before in my Intro to Law class first semester. It was appalling how our own government would put laws and policies in place like the "Stop and Frisk" laws and use them to wrongfully arrest innocent people just based on the color of their skin. I learned that police officers have to have a "reasonable suspicion" that an individual is committing a crime before stopping them, but some police officers will simply use skin color and appearance as their justification for stopping them. So, like I said, I was familiar with that aspect of law enforcement and profiling, but I am not so familiar with the War on Drugs part. If you read more about it, let me know. I know you mentioned that there was a large increase in drug arrests; do you know if a majority of those targeted people of color?
Hey Meg!
ReplyDeleteYes my author actually begins discussing the whole idea that the majority of those targeted are people of color in the next chapter, which I have just begun reading today. Alexander states, "... African Americans constitute 80 to 90 percent of all drug offenders sent to prison." And additionally, she reports that, "...blacks are admitted to prison on drug charges at a rate from twenty to fifty-seven times greater than that of white men." These two statistics paired together were very shocking to me. Not only does it show that African Americans make up the majority of drug offenders, but they are more likely to be charged of these crimes as well. All in all, this book has been really eye opening!
Thanks for reading!
Ellie M
I really enjoyed reading this blog post! I think this was a really nice chapter to discuss the current event aspect, particularly because a lot of the “current” statistics were from over a decade ago. I wasn’t sure if they was still as much of a racial disparity, so I’m glad you touched on that! I also thought it was a really good idea to include the piece that Mrs. LaClair talked about in class with the Harvard professor’s arrest. This chapter also got me thinking about why this issue isn’t on the forefront of even the minds of those who are fighting for the rights of black Americans. Do you think this might be because of the taboo nature of defending criminals? It is true that many of them do accept the plea bargain, but many are also guilty of drug crimes. Might this make even organizations like the NAACP a bit more hesitant to fight for their rights because even to them, these people are criminals who do not deserve as much time and devotion to their cause as law-abiding black citizens? Let me know if you think this could be the case. Nice job!
ReplyDelete-Myah
Hi Myah,
DeleteI totally agree with that. Almost immediately after an individual is charged, they are entered into this under caste. They are labeled a felon, and are therefore deemed less deserving of housing, jobs, the ability to drive, and public benefits. And yes, I do think that organizations like the NAACP feel that since these people are criminals, they do not deserve their support and attention. But I do think this book will change that!
Ellie M
To add on to Myah's comment, I often wonder if this isn't a bigger deal because the group affected is criminals, and so some people think less about the race of those affected and more about the crimes that have been committed, without considering all of the factors that led to the decision (or lack there of) to commit the crime in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI've been asking other readers of this book whether they think Alexander's argument about the clear intent of the politicians to target African Americans is fully supported, or whether they think it is more of a correlation-people thought crime was too high and getting tougher on crime inadvertently impacted African Americans at higher rates. What are your thoughts about this?
I definitely agree with you and Myah there. Since they are seen as criminals, the idea of anything being attributed to their race is out the door. They are somehow less deserving of support because of this "felon" label they are given after being charged. Once they are a criminal, it is hard to escape the under caste they have entered.
DeleteThat is a really good question. Alexander certainly believes that politicians have a direct motive to incarcerate these people due to their race. I do not completely agree with her there. I believe that in the past, there was a time when people really did target people because of their race. They wanted this population to be locked away. Today, however, I do not think that people are actively aware that they are targeting people based on the color of their skin. But I do think there is this underlying factor of race because that is what our criminal justice system was built on. There may be this unconscious role that plays into it. And in turn, impacts people of color at the highest rate.
Ellie M
Hey Ellie,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post about this chapter! I agree with you, I found this chapter especially intriguing and was shocked by the injustices in our criminal justice system. I loved your facts and statistic from current times because this issue is certainly still relevant to today. As Meg said, we learned about stop and frisk laws in intro to law and I think it's so interesting the statistic that you included that said that only 95% of searches yielded drug finds. Do you think that this is in violation of the fourth amendment as Alexander talks about, or do you think that it's necessary to ensure public safety as proponents of the law argue?
I think that to an extent it is necessary to ensure public safety, but certainly not at the current level. As Alexander reported, over a thousand of individuals are stopped and frisked daily in New York City and rarely do they yield an illegal substances or weapons. This certainly is violating the 4th amendment and it shocks me that this has not become a bigger matter in our society. However, I think the reason for this lack of attention to this matter is due to it mainly impacting people of color. If thousands of white people were stopped and frisked, I think it would be a much bigger deal.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
Ellie M