Justice Is Blind?
Neo-Slavery Under the US Constitution
The first number is the percentage of Black Americans in the state and the
second number is the percentage of Black Americans making up the prison
population in that state.
Arkansas 16% Black - 52% in Prison
Georgia 29% Black - 64% in Prison
Louisiana 33% Black - 76% in Prison
Mississippi 36% Black - 75% IN Prison
Alabama 26% Black - 65% in Prison
Tennessee 16% Black - 53% in Prison
Kentucky 7% Black - 36% in Prison
South Carolina 30% Black - 70% in Prison
North Carolina 22% Black - 64% in Prison
Virginia 20% Black - 68% in Prison
Whats changed in the past 30 years?
o
THE US INCARCERATES MORE OF ITS POPULATION THAN ANY OTHER NATION
o
IN THE WORLD ON ANY GIVEN DAY, ONE IN THREE AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN
IN THEIR 20S IS UNDER SOME FORM OF CORRECTIONAL SUPERVISION:
PRISON, PROBATION, PAROLE
o
WOMENS RATES OF INCARCERATION FOR SOME CRIMES HAS UPPED 800%
o
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN ARE 10X MORE LIKELY THAN WHITE MEN TO GO TO
JAIL/PRISON
o
ALTHOUGH RATES OF CRIME HAVE STAYED THE SAME AND GONE DOWN,
INCARCERATION HAS SKYROCKETED
o
ALTHOUGH RATES OF MOST CRIMES ARE ABOUT EQUAL FOR WHITES AND
BLACKS, INCARCERATION HAS SKYROCKETED FOR BLACKS
o
IN FACT, WHEREAS 70% OF PRISONS USED TO BE WHITE (70s); 70% IS NOW
BLACK
The War on Drugs
AKA, the disproportionate war on
the working and underclass, and
people of color.
Lets do a time warp...
Four Peculiar Institutions
Slavery (1619-1865)
Jim Crow (south 1865-1965)
Ghetto (1915-1968)
Hyperghetto + Prison (1968-present)
Slavery
Slavery
1) In Virginia, slaves could be executed for 66 types of crimes,
while whites only had one.
2) In Mississippi, 38 types of capital offenses for slaves, but 0 for
whites.
3) In SC, in 1740, slaves could be executed for destroying grain,
enticing runaways, or bruising whites.
4) In VApreparing or administering medicine. Afraid of being
poisoned.
5) In MDconspiring to rebel, rape and/or burn a house.
Post-civil war to 1960s
Jim Crow (South 1865-1965)
Black Codes
- Restricted employment, forced into just agricultural work
- Arrested if unemployed
- Restricted whether you could live in the city limits
- Not allowed to live in a home unwed
- Curfews, not allowed out after 10pm.
- White employer that was not in agriculture had to sign off
that they would be held accountable for their behavior
- Not allowed to carry weapons.
- Illegal to sell alcohol to them.
Ghetto (North, 1865-1968)
1) MAJOR SHIFTS IN EMPLOYMENTFROM
BUSINESSES TO WORKING FOR STATE
2) LABORTHEY SERVED AS A CHEAP FORM
OF LABOR/LABOR POOL ALWAYS READY
3) MAJOR DEINDUSTRIALIZATIONJOBS
MOVED OVERSEAS/TECHNOLOGY TOOK
THEM
4) WHAT ONCE WAS A SURPLUS LABOR
POOL WAS NOW A LIABILITY FOR THE
STATEUNEMPLOYED, SEGREGATED,
POOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS FROM LOSS OF
TAX REVENUES, CHEAPER LABOR
Hyperghetto & Prison
Hyperghetto & Prison (1968-present)
Reaction to Civil Unrest like the Watts Riots
underclass An have already been constructed
Move away from social programs and rehabilitation and
big money to be made for private prisons.
Moral Panics, racialized electoral politics, and
demonizing people who receive public benefits (welfare
queens)
With the war on drugs, weve created a class of
offenders. Just being young, black, and male is probable
cause.
Closer look at the War on Drugs
-
Reagan launched the war on drugs and
crime. These wars had an initial focus on
the urban poor areas. (continued by Bush
Sr., Clinton, and George W. Bush)
- Disproportionate amounts of Blacks and
Latinos live in those areas, more police,
more prosecutors, more judges, longer
sentences.
- Yet the drug usage rate of African
Americans is lower than that of whites.
The Facts about
Law and Order
-
U.S. has 5% of global population, but 20% of the worlds
incarcerated population.
-
1,000 new jails and prisons since the mid 1970s
-
More prison overcrowding now and the more we build, the more
we incarcerate, then we build more. Its an unfortunate cycle.
-
Incarceration rate by race (2006):
o Whites: 409 per 100,000
o Latinos: 1,038 per 100,000
o Blacks: 2,468 per 100,000
-
Just men:
o Whites: 736 per 100,000
o Latinos: 1,862per 100,000
o Blacks: 4,789 per 100,000
-
One out of every 14 black men in the U.S. is in a jail or prison right
now. One out of every four men will be incarcerated at some point
during his lifetime, 5x more likely than white men to be arrested
for drug offenses.
-
As mentioned earlier, African Americans have a lower rate of drug
use, minimal, but they do not use more than whites.
- Since people need a warrant to enter the private
domain, its easier to make arrests in public spaces
a bar, poor neighborhoods the drug exchanges
happen in public. Not the case for those with more
money.
- Highest marijuana usage for suburban whites.
- Wealthy have access to private spaces, poor whites
and African Americans are disproportionate for these
arrests.
- War on drugs created a panic about street crime,
police most likely to find it in poor communities of
color.
- Costs $30,000 a year per inmate, costs $100,000 to
build one cell.
- This is a money making business. One payphone in
a prison makes $15,000 a year. This money is being
taken out of poor communities.
- Texas makes 80 million dollars of year off of prison
labor.
Major Points
IN SOME WAYS THINGS ARE LOOKING THE SAME AS THE PAST:
THE WAR ON DRUGS LEGISLATION MIMICKS SLAVE CODES AND
BLACK CODES (WHILE RACE IS NOT EXPLICITIT GETS
PRACTICED THIS WAY)
THE FACE OF THOSE INCARCERATED/MORE HARSHLY PUNISHED
IS THE SAME OVER TIME
SOME PEOPLE ARGUE THAT SLAVERY IS ALIVE AND WELL
PRISONS ARE PLANTATIONS; THEY ARE ETHNIC ENCLAVES
SOME PEOPLE ARGUE THAT BLACK MEN ARE ENSLAVED BY THE
STATE, BLACK WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE ENSLAVED BY
POVERTY
DESPITE THE FACT THAT WE HAVE TRIED HARD TO REMOVE
THESE BIASES, THEY STILL EXIST.