13th Essay

Crime has always played a protruding role in our society, and the way it is categorized and punished has been a problem in our American culture. Ava DuVernay is the director of the film 13th. The documentary portrays how the prison system affects people of color. DuVernay was born in Long Beach, California, and the oldest of five. She graduated with a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1995, where she double-majored in English and African American studies. She is an American director, screenwriter, film marketer, and film distributor. Her film Selma was nominated for two academy awards. 13th was created for two kinds of audience, those who never heard of it and those who know about it. Race has always been an issue even

as a kid. I was blind to the racism, I often heard people labeling things as black and white. Things such as places to live, eat, and other activities. For example, I hear people say white people live in Buckhead, black people live in Bankhead and that white people are wealthier. Fancy restaurants were for the whites and fast food places were for the blacks. White people were “smarter” than black people. As I grew older, I became educated and realized that people of color can also do anything they put their mind to. Of course there maybe obstacles but we overcome them. It is noticeable that some people will settle for less and continue to be inferior to others. If you settle for anything, you stand for nothing. We are progressing and have come a long way but race is still an issue. 13th displays how racial disparities and poverty are the causes of the increased prison population, however we as Americans have no idea how to fix the problem, but we can start by having shorter and fair sentences and try to rehabilitate prisoners so that they’re able to function in society once released.
The American System of Incarceration expresses threats to fairness. This is a norm for the society we live in even though threats to fairness causes many problems. Slavery plays into this race and crime link. The criminal justice system was created in The South to find new ways to control the black population once they were “free” or gained “freedom” from slavery. The Black Codes criminalized being black by making certain behaviors illegal only for blacks, which was extremely unfair. Black people became easily targeted and it was easy to punish them. “1 in 3 African American men have a lifetime likelihood of imprisonment, while 1 in 17 white men have a lifetime likelihood of imprisonment” (13th). The idea of law enforcement requires police to make quick judgments about the danger created by a suspect and their criminal behavior, and sometimes their thoughts affect the way an officer performs their job. “Minority defendants bear a disproportionate risk of facing stiff charges, but have smaller chances of being represented by an effective defense counsel and are likely to receive harsher penalties for similar crimes that their white counterparts commit” (Christopher). The term racial profiling explains what is going on here. Racial profiling is the act of suspecting or targeting a person of a certain race based on a stereotype about their race. Black people are labeled as criminals even without knowing. For example, stealing from a store when you were younger and now you’re labeled as the family thief, that’s primary deviance. Which ties into secondary deviance, deviant behavior that results from being publicly labeled as deviant. Because people are labeled as a criminal or displaying deviant behavior they now live with that title and continue to act accordingly. Instead of labeling someone as deviant or criminal help rehabilitate them or break bad habits and that could decrease criminal activity.
The 8th Amendment prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment (U.S.

Constitution). It explicitly states that “excessive bail shall not be required. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure states that the right to bail in non-capital cases is a federal statutory right. A statutory right can be federal or state. It is a right granted created by legislature or a governing body. Poverty is the new crime. The criminal justice system operates differently for the poor than it does for the rich. The rich get richer and the poor get prison. Thus, in the Kalief Browder case, a sixteen year old African American male accused of stealing a backpack. Browder was offered a plea but denied it because he knew he was innocent. His bond was $10,000 and his family could not come up with that much money so he was forced to sit in jail. He spent three years in jail waiting for trial, two of those were spent in solitary confinement. A perfect example of a broken system. His punishment was cruel and unusual which the 8th amendment prohibits. White collar offenders get away with their crimes easily. White collar crimes are crimes committed by respectable people of high social status in the course of their work (Edwin Sutherland 1939). Molly Ivins states, “The rich get away with looting millions and even if they’re caught get nothing more than a slap on the wrist” (‘This country has two laws’). While others who are convicted

of petty street crimes and minor drug offenses face stiff and harsh sentences. Everyone is supposed to be “free” and “equal” but the criminal justice system contradicts the idea. The system illustrates how much money you have determines your freedom. It is unfair for the government to create laws to hinder people of color and social class.
No doubt, there is more money going into prisons than things to help prevent crime.

In 13th it reveals how companies like ALEC profit from mass incarceration. Prison equals profit. Chdeiac Joyce states, “Legislation that enables financial gain from prisons, such as mandated harsh sentences for nonviolent crime, were actually written by the prison profiteers, then passed by legislatures in their pay” (‘Punishment for profit’). It’s cheaper for prisoners to do the work which could be the reason of people getting laid off from their jobs. The main goal of mass incarceration is locking people of color out of the mainstream of society for petty offenses. Katie Rose Quandt expressed, “It’s well known that people of color are vastly overrepresented in US prisons. African Americans and Latinos constitute 30 percent of the US population and 60 percent of its prisoners” (Why There’s an Even Larger Racial Disparity in Private Prisons than in Public Ones). As opposed to profiting off inmates there should be reforms put into place to help reintegrate former criminals. The criminal justice system should aim to reduce recidivism, the tendency of a convicted criminal to

reoffend.
Another mishap with the American system of incarceration is the war on drugs. The war on drugs play a major role in the racial disparities that are faced today. The War on Drugs has contributed more to the mass incarceration of people of color than anything we have ever experienced in our society (Christopher, Filling in the gaps). For an example crack cocaine is associated with blacks and powder cocaine is associated with whites. A conviction for 500 grams of powder cocaine elicits a five year sentence while only 5 grams of rock cocaine earned the same. Crack cocaine offenses are one hundred times more severely than powder cocaine. This shows how our CJS is broken and unfair all crimes should be treated equally no matter the race.
If everyone was treated equally upon arrest, bail, sentencing etc., eliminating race and wealth and if the citizens who pay for incarcerated people to have a place to sleep and eat through taxes were used for more important things such as more education, rehabilitation then racial disparities would decrease as well as the prison population. People who live in poor and minority communities have always been targeted and had higher rates of incarceration than other groups. Federal and state policy makers should revise current criminal justice policies to reduce rate of incarceration. They should reexamine policies regarding mandatory prison sentences and long sentences. They should reduce the mistreatment of people of color.