The New Jim Crow

1. The New Jim Crow Author: Michelle Alexander

2. Should look at the majority, not the exceptions to the rules • Downfall of one caste system followed by another: slavery, Jim Crow, and now mass incarceration • Transition from one to the next due to confusion and hysteria

3. Nixon declares “war on drugs” • Reagan & the media reinforces stereotypes • labeling black people as “crack babies” and “gangbangers”

4. New and harsh drug laws followed: • penalties for crack much more severe than cocaine • authorization of the death penalty • elimination of public benefits for drug offenders • instituted a mandatory five year sentence for possession • Newfound focus on drugs allowed whites to express their hostility without being overtly racist due to the drug crime

5. Criminal justice system does not operate fairly for people charged with drug crimes • Drug offenses account for 2/3 of the rise in federal inmate population and more than half of the rise in state prisoners between 1985 and 2000 • Approximately 500,000 people are in prison or jail for drug offenses today, which is a 1,100% increase from 1980

6. The number of people incarcerated for drug crimes has quadrupled • Between 1980 and 2000, the number of people incarcerated has gone from 300,000 to 2 million

7. Approximately 80% of people charged with criminal offenses need a public attorney • Public attorneys are not well compensated and have huge caseloads

8. Nearly all criminal cases, especially drug cases, never go to trial due to plea bargaining • afraid of mandatory minimums • prosecutors exploit the system

9. Intrusion of Probation & Parole • Branded as a second class citizen if you are a felon • Stripped of voting rights • Barred from public housing & food stamps • Stuck in low paying jobs • Much higher opportunity to be arrested again, most for nonviolent crimes

10. Human Rights Watch documented that in seven states, blacks made up 80 to 90% of drug offenders in prison in 2000 • In at least 15 states, blacks are admitted to prison on drug charges at a rate from 20-57 times greater than that of white men • No more likely to sell or take drugs than white men • Majority of illicit drug users and dealers are white • ¾ of the people imprisoned for drug crimes are black or Hispanic

11. Racial bias inherent in the drug war is one of the reasons 1 in 14 black men were incarcerated in 2006 • Compared to 1 in every 106 white men • Easier to target less politically powerful people who do not have the resources to fight back

12. Implicit bias allows for harsher punishments to black defendants than white ones for the same crime • True for both jurors and police officers • Prosecutors seek much harsher sentences for black defendants

13. Felons are treated as second class citizens • much more likely to be black or Hispanic • 48 states and DC do not allow felons to vote • deemed discriminatory and in violation of international law by the UN Human Rights Committee • Punishments push those convicted back into crime in order to survive

14. Imprisonment advances crime • Handicapped by a criminal record • Colorblindness cause for us not caring for racial struggles • Their own problems caused by themselves