Mass incarceration
Evidence Sheet
1. Hundreds of thousands of black men are unable to be good fathers for their children, not because of the lack of commitment or desire but because they are warehoused in the prisons, locked in cages. They did not walk out on their families voluntarily; they were taken away in handcuffs, often due to a massive federal program known as the War on Drugs.
2. More African American adults are under correctional control today-in prison or jail, on probation or parole-than were enslaved in 1850, decade before the Civil War began.
3. The mass incarceration of people of color is a big part of the reason that a black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents that a black child born during slavery. The absence of black fathers from families across America is not simply a function of laziness, immaturity, or too much time watching Sports Center.
4. Thousands of black men have disappeared into prisons and jails, locked away for drug crimes that are largely ignored when committed by whites.
5. More are disenfranchised today than in the 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the bases of race.
6. Young black men today may just as likely suffer discrimination in employment , housing, public benefits, jury service as a black man in Jim Crow era- discrimination that is perfectly legal, because it is based on one’s criminal record.
7. Mass incarceration has been normalized, and all of the racial stereotypes and assumptions that gave rise to the system are now embraced (or at least internalized) by people of all color, from all walks of life, and in every major political party.
8. We may wonder aloud “where have the black men gone?” but deep down we already know.
9. For more than three decades, images of black men in handcuffs have been a regular staple of the evening news. We know that large number of black men have been locked in cages.
10. We know that people
1. Hundreds of thousands of black men are unable to be good fathers for their children, not because of the lack of commitment or desire but because they are warehoused in the prisons, locked in cages. They did not walk out on their families voluntarily; they were taken away in handcuffs, often due to a massive federal program known as the War on Drugs.
2. More African American adults are under correctional control today-in prison or jail, on probation or parole-than were enslaved in 1850, decade before the Civil War began.
3. The mass incarceration of people of color is a big part of the reason that a black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents that a black child born during slavery. The absence of black fathers from families across America is not simply a function of laziness, immaturity, or too much time watching Sports Center.
4. Thousands of black men have disappeared into prisons and jails, locked away for drug crimes that are largely ignored when committed by whites.
5. More are disenfranchised today than in the 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the bases of race.
6. Young black men today may just as likely suffer discrimination in employment , housing, public benefits, jury service as a black man in Jim Crow era- discrimination that is perfectly legal, because it is based on one’s criminal record.
7. Mass incarceration has been normalized, and all of the racial stereotypes and assumptions that gave rise to the system are now embraced (or at least internalized) by people of all color, from all walks of life, and in every major political party.
8. We may wonder aloud “where have the black men gone?” but deep down we already know.
9. For more than three decades, images of black men in handcuffs have been a regular staple of the evening news. We know that large number of black men have been locked in cages.
10. We know that people