Film '13th': Film Analysis

The Netflix film “13th” reveals and walks the audience of why mass incarceration is an extension of slavery. The film is named after the 13th amendment, which outlawed slavery, but left a significant gap between different races. The film followed a chronological timeline from the moment the 13th Amendment was ratified all the way to the 2016 presidential election. This film argues the numerous ways policy makers and the 13th Amendment allows for a form of slavery to continue to exist, and according to this film, is mainly see through the prison system. The documentary uses archival footage and experts’ comments and opinions to make the statement case clear that slavery hasn’t disappeared from the United States. In the film, the director made

The film starts out with a shocking statistic, of announcing that one out of four African-American males will serve prison time at one point or another in their live. After the Civil war, the economy of the former Confederate States of America was ruined. Their primary source of income was through slave, but slaves were no longer obligated to be slaves anymore. Unless, they were criminals. However, during that time, people of color were charge of minor or trumped-up charges that will cause them to serve time. Many African Americans were arrested frequently for minor charges. DuVernay examines lynching, Jim Crow, Nixon’s presidential campaign, Reagan’s War on Drugs, Bill Clinton’s Three Strikes and mandatory sentencing laws and the current cash-for-prisoners, model that causes millions for private bail and incarceration firms. In the film, it was stated that starting in1940’s, the curve of the prisoners count graph begin rising slowly though steeply. More people of color started to get upset, so as a result they had protest for their rights. However, the system fought back against it with means of

I learned that the United States have the largest population of prisoners. I also learned that it is very expensive to have a someone in prison (nearly $ 32,000 per inmate). Taxpayers end up paying for this. This documentary left me with many questions in my mind such as why is the number increasing? Should the government take action soon? How is this affecting our economy? Why is the criminal justice system not equally fair to all races? How can we the people do something to try and help to solve this problem? African Americans and Latinos are more likely to go to jail or prison and more likely to be stopped by police. History is still repeating itself until this day, and something should be done about