The Phenomenon Of Prison Industrial Complex

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People website claims that “Today, the US is 5% of the World Population and has 25% of world prisoners.” In fact, the United States of America has the highest incarceration rate than any developed countries in the world. America puts herself to shame to the rest of the world, despite ironically calling her the Land of the Free. The phenomenon of “Prison Industrial Complex” can be traced back to the mid-1970s when the politics around prison had a complete transformation. Nelson Rockefeller, the governor of New York until 1973 who later served as the vice president under Gerald Ford, advocated for enhanced sentencing for drug dealers as a tactic to attract more voters. Prior to the mid-1970s,
Domestic incarceration rate skyrocketed during Nixon’s presidency in 1971 when he declared the “War on Drug,” specifically targeting African Americans and Latino populations. Nixon himself along with other politicians such as Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller called “for harsh drug laws and severe criminal sanctions because they argued that a strong correlation existed between drug addictions and crime” (Cummings 418). Claims made by Nixon and other politicians became the focal point in the legislative branch in the 1970s, dismissing drug addiction as a public health issue rather than a criminal enterprise. During this time, Nixon established the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which criminalized drug addiction and distribution. When Ronald Reagan took office, he criminalized drug addiction by passing the Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1968; consequently, mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders from minority population took place in which sixty-five percent are African Americans and Latinos. Surprisingly, the rise of incarcerating minorities for soft drug crimes resulted in the decline of eleven violent crime rates over the past several decades. Cummings in his journal points out that “the United States has increased its incarceration rate in the last thirty years by more than an
As mentioned above, African Americans and Latinos populations have a correlated relationship with the United States Criminal Justice System. Smith and Hattery’s journal emphasizes on a report from the U.S. Department of Justice on sentencing in state courts, stating that there are “33% of the convicted White defendants received a prison sentence whereas 51% of African Americans defendants received prison sentences” (391). This report from the Department of Justice clearly demonstrates that there is a big gap in percentagewise on who received the punishment based on the races. Furthermore, Michelle Alexander, a law professor at Ohio State College of Law and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, claims that Nixon’s “War on Drug” policy perpetuates racial discrimination against African Americans. Alexander also implies that it is rare for African Americans to sell or use prohibited drugs than Whites “but are arrested at higher rates for the same conduct because of conditions created by limited law enforcement resources and political constraints” (Gee 81). This shows that African Americans are not being treated equally in the justice system. Likewise, Asian Americans are also on the same boat as African Americans to have a higher chance of being incarcerated. For example, Gee’s journal quotes a 2008 report from Administrative Office of the Courts, saying that “Asian Americans