Mass Incarceration The New Jim Crow is the direct consequences of War on Drug. That aimed at reducing, preventing and eradicate drug usage in America through punitive means. The effect of the war on drug policies returned de jure discrimination, denied African Americans justice and undermined the rule of law by altering the criminal justice system in ways that deprive African Americans civil rights and citizenship. In the “New Jim Crow” Alexandra argues that the effects of the drug war policies are not unattended consequences but coordinated by designed to deny African Americans opportunity to gain wealth, excluded from gaining employment and exercise civil right through mass incarceration and felony conviction. The war on drug not only change the structure of the criminal justice system, it also change the ways that police officers, prosecutors and judges do their jobs. Even worse, the way politicians address crime. The tough stand on drugs started during the Nixon presidency, most of the resources was focus on medical treatment rather than punishment. Although it was a better strategy and alternative than the drug war policies that exist today, it was a very divisive issue between the conservatives and the liberals. The war on drug ignited during the Reagan administration, two third of the financial resources were being spent on law enforcement. In addition, the end of the cold war left the United States with weaponry and resources that needed to be repurposed. As a result, small town were given high power grade artilleries and weaponry, and means to form specialized tactical units such as SWAT teams in case of unusual event. To maintain and justify the need for these new expenditures, SWAT teams are used in any drug warran... ... middle of paper ... ...e to high incarceration rate and perception of high crime rate, public and private institutions that help establish positive social control outside of the home no longer exist. In addition, the mass incarceration leaves a lot of single parent homes where the working parent have no time to enforce social control. Furthermore, the war on drug creates a path dependency through economic interests. The policies allow the government to seize users and dealers property. In addition, some states sale bonds to build prisons and the state have deals with the companies that provide services to the inmates. The drug war is the New Jim Crow because it empowers the state with the tools to target, and denies African Americans civil rights, citizenship, and justice in the pretext of elaborate criminal changes that serve as a mean to furthermore disenfranchise African Americans.
Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, as well as Eugene Jarecki’s documentary, The House I Live In, both discuss the controversial issues surrounding the War on Drugs, mass incarceration, and drug laws. Ultimately, both Alexander and Jarecki concede that the court systems have systematically hindered growth and advancement in black communities by targeting young African Americans, primarily male, that have become entangled in drugs due to their socioeconomic status. There is a disturbing cycle seen in black underprivileged neighborhoods of poverty leading to drug use and distribution to make money that inevitably ends with the person in question landing in prison before likely repeating these actions upon their release. Both Jarecki and Alexander present their case, asserting that the effects of the War on Drugs acted as a catalyst for the asymmetric drug laws and
While the War on Drugs may have been portrayed as a colorblind movement, Nixon’s presidency and reasoning for its implementation solidifies that it was not. Nixon coined the term “War on Drugs” in his 1971 anti-drug campaign speech, starting the beginning of an era. He voiced, “If there is one area where the word ‘war’ is appropriate, it is in the fights against crime” (DuVernay, 13th). This terminology solidified to the public that drug abusers were an enemy, and if the greatest publicized abusers were black, then black people were then enemy. This “war” started by Nixon claimed it would rid the nation of dealers, but in fact, 4/5 of arrests were for possession only (Alexander, 60). Nixon employed many tactics in order to advance the progress
They concentrated on inner city poor neighborhoods, drug related violence, and they wanted to publicize the drug war, which led Congress to devote millions of dollars in additional funding to it. The war on drugs targeted and criminalized disproportionably urban minorities. Therefor, “War on Drugs” results in the incarceration of one million Americans each year.... ... middle of paper ... ...
This essay will be focusing on the incarceration and war on drug of black community and minority in the United State. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander discuss who the war on drug effect minority in American. What will be discuss in this paper or the question I will be answering are How has the War in Drugs impacted low-income people and communities of color, particularly African Americans? How has the Drug War disenfranchised a large segment of the American population? How have race and class influenced the functioning of the criminal justice system, especially in relation to policing, the enforcement of drug laws, and sentencing? Do you agree or disagree with Alexander’s contention that the current criminal justice system has resulted in a “New Jim Crow”? Why or why not?
Elliott Currie, a professor in criminology and law, suggests that building more prisons, imposing longer sentences, and harsh punishment will not lower the incarceration rate. In his chapter on “Assessing the Prison Experiment”, he explained that the increase of crime rate is not the sole reason that mass incarceration occurs, it was also because courts and legislature did indeed get ‘tougher” on offenders (Currie 14). Under the circumstance of the war on drugs, which was launched by President Richard Nixon, the incarceration rate and sentence longevity were increased dramatically as Currie discussed in his chapter. Currie also pointed out that the war on drugs had a huge influence on the incarceration rate of African American inmates, “ between 1985 and 1995, the number of black state prison inmates sentenced for drug offences rose by more than 700 percent” (Currie 13). Some of these offenders were sentenced more than ten years without parole, which releases prisoners before the completion of their sentences. The government should reconsider the current sentencing laws and reform the correctional system to solve our current mass incarceration
It is also very important for people to know about this topic because the issue is not only about drugs but also the growth of inequality between the rich and poor, black and white, upper class and lower class in this country. The war of drugs deals with issues about why they were passed through congress and if there were motives that deals connect directly to black communities. The issues where brought about in Dan Baum book entitled “Smoke and Mirrors” where John Erlichmann, the chief domestic affair advisor talk about how the Drug War fever has been escalated and manipulated from its modest beginnings at the start of the Nixon administration and clarifies the various interests which that escalation has served. He talks about the Drug War on “blacks” and “hippies” but politicians could not say that so had to say the War on “heroin” and “Marijuana”. He also said that “We knew drugs were not the health problem we were making it out to be, but there were political benefits to be gained." This shows that there is more to the war of drugs that the government is letting on.
She addresses this era as the New Jim Crow, with its new racial caste system. What caught her attention was a poster that read “The Drug War Is The New Jim Crow.” A racial group was holding a meeting about police brutality, the new three-strikes law in California, and the expansion of America’s prison system. The misuse of the criminal justices system is a form of racialized social control having a remarkable similarity to Jim Crow. Once released, formerly incarcerated felons are confined to mainstream society, and denied access to the mainstream economy. They are forced into second-class citizenship. The war on drugs is a racist conspiracy to put blacks back in their place. This war was launched during a time when there was no real crisis, drug use was actually on a decline, plus the war only accomplished the incarceration of a large mass of people, primarily people of color. On top of that, the drug use did not go down, as that was the intentions and purpose for the war. It is assumed that the war on drugs was in response to the crack epidemic, however Ronald Regan launched the war prior to this. In the late 80’s the war on drugs policy went from just an ambition to an actual war. The war was geared towards the wrong people. The drugs themselves came from different countries. Instead of cutting off the supply, the government decided to arrest small time dealers and users. I remember in the late 80’s drug movies became popular, and at some point in the movie it was always stated that coca plants weren’t grown in these urban inner
The topic of alternate policies to the U.S. Drug War has always been an interesting and thought provoking topic for me. Over nearly the past four decades, the U.S. government, along with state and local agencies, have spent billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of man hours, and many lives with little to show for stopping the flow of drugs into or the use of drugs in this country. The only true outcome from these expenditures and all of this enforcement are more robust resupply networks, more refined and potent drugs, deepening psychological issues, and alienating specific aspects of American society.
The war on drugs was created by the conservatives in the 70s, to have a justifiable reason to persecute black and brown communities with political power. The original “War on Drugs” was the one started by president Richard Nixon in 1971, where he became the first political figure to use the term, and also declared narcotics “Public enemy #1”. With modern knowledge of the Nixon administration it is important to look at his word choice
Since the Reagan officials tried harder to stop the Drug Enforcement Administration from exposing the illegal activities that were taking place, the more violence was being caused in these inner city neighborhoods, which lead to more arrests for possession. Now, Michelle explains how the War on Drugs has the most impact on African Americans in these inner city neighborhoods. Within the past three decades, US incarceration increase has been due to drug convictions, mainly. She states that, “the US is unparalleled in the world in focusing enforcement of federal drug laws on racial and ethnic minorities.”(Alexander2016). The percentile of African American men with some sort of criminal record is about 80% in some of our major US cities(Paul Street, The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs, and Community in Chicago, Illinois, and the Nation (Chicago Urban League, Department of Research and Planning, 2002). MIchelle referred to these becoming marginalized and calls them “ growing and permanent undercaste.” (Alexander2016, pp
In the past, the Jim Crow laws were laws in the Southern United States that enforced segregation. It was supposed to be a “separate but equal” status for Blacks and Whites. However, the conditions for Black Americans were consistently underfunded and substandard as compared to the conditions for White Americans. Michelle Alexander calls the War on Drugs “The New Jim Crow” because there are flaws in the criminal justice system that target black men more than white men. This War on Drugs targets black men in many ways including in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, more serious punishments were implemented for crack distribution (associated more with Black people) than pure cocaine (associated more commonly with upper class White people). Civil penalties as well, like not being able to live in public housing or get student loans, accompany the harsh prison sentences. Michelle Alexander writes of the effects of mass incarceration on Black Americans in the United States. Michelle Alexander explains that the Jim Crow laws from before are functionally equivalent to todays mass incarceration practices. There is a racial disproportion impact of the War on Drugs, which drove the increase of incarceration rates. Then, after incarceration, there are harsh effects on the rights of Black Americans including voting rights, serving on juries, the rights to receive
When it comes to the topic of war on drugs,most of us will readily agree that the war on drugs is not about the drugs But about the people. Many Politicians and law enforcement will argue that the war on drugs is about our nation's wealth and safety.however they don't see the destruction the war on drugs has caused; The war on drugs has recreated this new system of discrimination among the minority community, individuals and communities are being profiled,their rights as citizen are being seized ,individuals being stripped away from their families. They’re being locked up with no hope to live the American dream in their our country.
Go into any poor neighborhood in the United States and ask around about incarceration. Nearly everyone you will encounter will describe a relative or friend in prison or recount his own experiences. Most of those effected by mass imprisonment are incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses (The House I Live In). Although an outsider may be appalled, these interactions are relatively unsurprising when the facts behind mass imprisonment are reveled. The House I Live In explains the culture that has developed around the justice system, and in particular, the drug war.
Jarecki, teases out racism as the center piece of the drug war, new sentencing guidelines and the resulting prison enterprise. He dared to broach the subject of an era when state and local government do not have the cash to provide basic services to their citizens there was the foresight to continue making numerous arrests for nonviolent drug offenses and create prison enterprise to house them. In my opinion, the enterprise at the time was only known to politicians, correctional institutions and private contractors. Then, with almost laser-guided precision a disproportionate burden of the sentences fell on African Americans. Mr. Jarecki is direct his statements that American drug laws are laden in racism. Time and again, politicians have criminalized the habits of certain groups of people to fulfill an agenda unbeknownst to the intended target. With this theory in mind, the latest strategy was seemingly designed for African Americans, but other ethnic groups have been targeted in the past. There was opium as an illicit drug connected Chinese immigrants at the turn of the century. We completely ignored, during the same time Americans used opium in elixirs and tinctures for medicinal purposes (Dial, 2013). Later there was hemp linked to Mexicans immigrants, the marijuana of the day. There was not much to hide about the fact that both Mexicans and Chinese had incredible work ethic, and the willingness to take low wages. This notion ultimately meant
The War on Drugs was meant to stop the violent criminals who were profiting from drug trafficking. The penalties often carried disparities finding no equal ground between the drug king pin, and the struggle addict punished for committing a crime against themselves. With longer prison sentences resulting from mandatory sentences. The disparities of drugs like crack vs. cocaine serve no real equal punishment for drug criminals. Social and Political stigma has kept drug criminals to be treated as lower-scale person. Incarcerating illicit drug violators has still yet to stop drug use and drug trafficking. Finding a new solution is not so farfetched.