Pros And Cons Of Mass Incarceration
The War on Drugs was proclaimed by the Nixon Administration in the signing of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. It evoked the current era of mandatory minimum sentencing, systematic racism, and mass incarceration of colored people. While the War on Drugs has certainly sought to eradicate controlled substances and destroy the networks established for their distribution, State efforts to control drugs are also a way for dominant groups to express racial power.Despite the socioeconomic factors that contribute to drug use, it is evident that drug legislation is inherently biased and fuels racially motivated mass incarceration. Although persons suffering economic disadvantages are more prone to partake in criminal activity,this does not justify the
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Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, repeatedly alludes to the return to society as “beginning on the bottom rung of the caste system” (105). Also addressed is that when applying for a job, an ex-convict has to check the “felon” box, which limits his or her ability to find a stable workplace. In addition, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 permits public and private landlords to deny people who were convicted of a crime. Furthermore, inmates also face ineligibility for certain healthcare benefits, grants for schooling, and the inability to vote. When African Americans make up 13% of the nation's population, yet account for 56% of them incarcerated in federal prison, they are often falling victim to the racially biased drug legislation. As said by reporter Charles Bowden, You’re watching “poor, uneducated people fed into a machine like meat to make sausage..." (The House I Live In). Due to a copious amount of evidence, it can be inferred that returning to society after prison can be set as a life standard for people of
Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, repeatedly alludes to the return to society as “beginning on the bottom rung of the caste system” (105). Also addressed is that when applying for a job, an ex-convict has to check the “felon” box, which limits his or her ability to find a stable workplace. In addition, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 permits public and private landlords to deny people who were convicted of a crime. Furthermore, inmates also face ineligibility for certain healthcare benefits, grants for schooling, and the inability to vote. When African Americans make up 13% of the nation's population, yet account for 56% of them incarcerated in federal prison, they are often falling victim to the racially biased drug legislation. As said by reporter Charles Bowden, You’re watching “poor, uneducated people fed into a machine like meat to make sausage..." (The House I Live In). Due to a copious amount of evidence, it can be inferred that returning to society after prison can be set as a life standard for people of