Private Prisons

America has 5% of the world’s population but also 25% of the world’s prisoners. The 13th amendment states that slavery and involuntary servitude is illegal unless as punishment for a crime. The exception of slavery and involuntary servitude being legal if it is punishment of a crime was a loophole. Because slavery was a major part of the economy in the South, they arrested African-Americans for extremely minor crimes and used the loophole to make them provide labor to rebuild the economy of the South. Doing so caused the first prison boom in America.

African-Americans were often made out to be out of control and dangerous to white women. For instance, the 1915 film Birth of a Nation made African-Americans look like criminals. In one scene,

there’s a white woman jumping off a cliff because she would rather die than be raped by a black man. This caused the rebirth of the KKK and caused more African-Americans to be arrested because they were displayed as criminals.
Nixon “total war” on drugs associated African-Americans with heroin and criminalized them which allowed America to put them behind bars. Eventually, Reagan started his own “war on drugs” after the creation of crack (a smokable form of cocaine). However, not all punishments were created equal. African-Americans who were convicted of possession of crack got [basically] the rest of their life in jail but if you were white, you [pretty much] got a slap on the wrist. Black, hispanic, and latino people were getting long sentences for crack possession than white people who were convicted of crack possession. In conjunction with his promises to lower taxes for the rich, Reagan used his promises to put crack users behind bars to win the election. Reagan and Nixon weren’t the only presidential candidates to do this. Bush won the election by making African-Americans look like criminals by using Willie Horton as the stereotype black male depicted in Birth of a Nation. Even in this very election, Donald Trump called Mexicans the same things that African-Americans were called: criminals, bringing diseases, rapists, etc.
Part of the reasons African-Americans are made out to be criminals are in fault of the media. The news showed more African-Americans getting arrested than African-Americans statistically got arrested. The African-American kids who got arrested (whether later found guilty or innocent) in the 80’s were often described as “super predators” in the media. Not only did this make white people believe the lies, but it also began to cause African-Americans believe the lies and fear themselves. Black communities started to support laws that criminalized their own children.
After people have an image of a suspect in their mind as a criminal or rapist, it is hard for them to “see beyond the reasonable doubt”. An example of this a group of kids (four of which were under 18) got sent to an adult prison for 6 to 11 years before DNA evidence was found to prove their innocence.
A big reason for large prisoner population and longer sentences is the CCA and ALEC.

The CCA is a major funder of private prisons, thus, prisons would have to keep their prisoners in longer to maintain funding while CCA gets a huge profit. ALEC made a bill called SB 1070 that allowed the police to arrest anyone who looked like an immigrant. In doing so, immigration detention facilities, that were basically just prisons, were filled and the CCA made a profit.

Other reasons there are a lot of prisoners are because of the way the system works with bails and plea deals. A lot of prisoners are in prison because because they can’t afford to pay the bail to get out. Also, people are given the option of pleading guilty to a crime they didn’t commit and getting a shorter sentence or risk taking it to court and getting an extremely longer sentence if found guilty. These favor the rich and guilty instead of the poor and innocent.

Even after prison, people don’t get to move on. People who leave prison are then shunned because they’ll get denied student loans, jobs, insurance, the right to vote. Prisoners are supposed to repay their debt to society and then move on with their life. However, it is near impossible to do so when you can’t get student loans to afford college, can’t vote, can’t get insurance, and can’t get treated like a citizen

anymore.
After years of treating African-Americans like criminals and displaying them as such in the media, police brutality became a thing. African-Americans started getting shot and killed by the police for asking what they did or resisting arrest when they didn’t do anything. This has lead to the new “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Personally, I believe that there is still a problem with racism.

If I remember correctly, there was a study that showed, statistically, more white people do heroin than African-Americans but more African-Americans get arrested for heroin possession. Also, if African-Americans are getting shot at just for resisting arrest when they didn’t do anything, that’s a problem. While technically you aren’t supposed to resist arrest (if you didn’t do anything you are supposed to take it up with court, call a lawyer when you get a police station, ask what you did when you get there, etc.), you can’t shoot someone for resisting arrest when they didn’t do anything or know why they’re getting arrested. Assaulting a cop is one thing, but resisting arrest shouldn’t get you could. You are only allowed to kill in self-defense and resisting arrest isn’t putting the cop in any

danger.