The War On Drugs: The New Jim Crow

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The War on Drugs is believed to help with many problems in today’s society such as realizing the rise of crime rates and the uprooting of violent offenders and drug kingpin. Michelle Alexander explains that the War on Drugs is a new way to control society much like how Jim Crow did after the Civil War. There are many misconceptions about the War on Drugs; commonly people believe that it’s helping society with getting rid of those who are dangerous to the general public. The War on Drugs is similar to Jim Crow by hiding the real intention behind Mass Incarceration of people of color. The War on Drugs is used to take away rights of those who get incarcerated. When they plead guilty, they will lose their right to vote and have to check application …show more content…

However, the main motive of the War on Drugs was to prevent a population of people from their legal rights as citizens. People believe that drug abuse was starting to rise when the drug war was issued. Michelle Alexander points out, in the chapter “The Lockdown” from The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness that “Drug use and abuse is nothing new; in fact, it was on the decline, not on the rise when the War on Drugs began” (72). Alexander explains that the War on Drugs wasn’t started because of the ‘sudden rise of drug abuse’ but rather a different reason. The motive of the start of the War on Drugs was for income for many agencies to confiscate the goods and income that the incarcerated person had in possession. Understanding the actual motive is important because the War on Drugs needs to be further researched before people fully accept it as something that is helping everyone. Mass incarceration is the hidden motive under the War on Drugs and many people believe that the prosecutors are given fair and equal rights when facing a jury trial for their crimes. It’s common that it’s not the case and many times they are lead to plead guilty and often lose their rights to vote as well as having to ‘mark a box’ that labels them as a felon. Nearly all applications have the felon question. It leads many people who are trying to get their lives back together after going to prison nearly impossible. Many can’t affording housing and their families are skeptical on allowing them to live with them. Few can still get back on their feet after being prosecuted and released from prison, but it’s

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