What Are The Effects Of Mass Incarceration

Mass incarceration is the mass intake of people of color into the justice system. It is being labeled as the “new Jim Crow.” Meaning that it is the unspoken legal separation of people of color from whites. The old Jim Crow made it legal for segregation to exist and the new Jim Crow made it easier to hide the racism that still exists in America. Mass incarceration is the new racial caste system/the new Jim Crow because it made a clear divide between whites and blacks. It did this by promoting stereotypes and using the media to fuel hatred and fear.
While Jim Crow punished people for who they are, mass incarceration launched a clear attack on the black community. As explained in the film the 13th, crack and cocaine are the same drug. The only
The film the 13th talked about “super predators.” This was a term to stigmatize and dehumanize young black drug abusers. The media created an outlet through the justice system allowing for racism to peak through. The New Jim Crow written by Michelle Alexander also talked about the Three Strike policy. The Three Strike policy gave people three strikes, meaning that if they commit three felonies, they are in prison for life (Alexander). In her book, Alexander says, “ [if the] worst thing you have ever done is speed ten miles over the speed limit on the freeway, you have put yourself and others at more risk of harm than someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of his or her living room. Yet there are people in the United States serving life sentences for first-time drug offenses, something virtually unheard of anywhere else in the world.” She goes on to talk what other governments are doing to combat drug addiction. Some countries developed drug prevention programs, gave people education etc. There are 2.2 million people in prison and 67% of those inmates are black (The Sentencing Project). With this number so high, it forces people to believe that people of color are predators, even people of color