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People of color have been the targets of bigotry, racial discrimination, and oppression since the arrival of the early European settlers. This is evident in the mass extermination of the Native Americans and in the kidnapping and enslavement of African’s in the 1600’s. Although slavery was abolished over 100 years ago the traumatic effects of this injustice is present in today’s society. The forefathers of America built this nation with the hands of black people and despite their contribution to this country they continue to be marginalized. Even though black people have made many strides this long-standing history of oppression has persevered throughout the generations. The deep-rooted contention of inequality and injustice has infiltrated the social fabric of American society and government as black people today experience discrimination on every level. Structured discrimination has been to blame for the many disparities that black people face in America. The most obvious are the disproportionate amount of minorities in the United States Criminal Justice System. Blacks make up approximately 13% of the U.S. population, and whites 67% of the U.S. population (Census, 2009); however, of the 2.2 million incarcerated, 900,000 are Black (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011). Typically when you think of children with a parent in prison, it's the father. When in fact African American women are the fastest growing segment of the prison population with an 828 percent increase behind bars for drug offenses between 1986 and 2010. Most of these women incarcerated are mothers. This mass incarceration strains the extended networks of family and friends used to help the African American families. In Michelle Alexander's book "The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" she argues that the present criminal system is just a replacement for the Jim Crow laws that had replaced slavery. Minorities such as black and Latinos have become secondhand citizens in