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Chapter 5: The New Jim Crow

Michelle Alexander uses The New Jim Crow as an analogy to show different parallels and similarities between the old racial caste systems and the system of mass incarceration, what she argues is creating a modern racial caste system. She begins by presenting the audience with the question, "where have all the black men gone?", opening up with examples like Obama's speech on the black stereotype of missing fathers suggesting that many touch upon this idea, but none answer the question. Her answer is simply that "they are warehoused in prison" . Throughout the chapter she details many implicitly oppressive laws and regulations within mass incarceration which, for the most part only seem to be affecting the poverty-stricken African American population and how similar the situations are compared to the Jim Crow era. The main theme that echoes throughout this chapter is that mass incarceration is the New Jim Crow because of how it works to trap mostly people of color within it and how similar it is to the old racial caste systems.

How it Works

To understand how victims become trapped within the new racial caste system mass incarceration is explained as a whole and the Drug War plays a key role. According to Alexander, it works in three phases to trap its victims, the first being the round up. In this stage the police round up as many people as possible into the criminal justice system through drug operations and they are free to use race as any factor. Anyone who is convicted enters the second phase, the period of formal control. As convicts of the War on Drugs they receive harsh sentencing, some receiving life in prison but those who are released face the final phase. Sometimes called the period of invisible punishment, it works hidden from public view barring its victims from mainstream society. Felons are stripped of many basic rights and privileges known commonly to the "normal" American citizen. They’ll be discriminated against being denied housing, employment, and education numerous times. The final phase is definite and inescapable.

Nothing New?

Racial bias has always existed in the United States criminal justice system as well as discrimination against criminals. The old and current criminal justice systems mainly affect racial minorities. Young, colored men are prime police suspects for convictions while white offenders are systematically more likely to avoid felony charges. The Drug War has given rise to drug crime rates, as much as 2,000 percent in some cities . Now nearly everyone in colored communities is at risk of conviction.  Upon prison release drug offenders enter the new racial caste system making it difficult to find employment.  Education will also be difficult to obtain since funding for public education is dropping, and funding for prison budgets is increasing at incredible rates due to the demand from increasing crime rates.

Incarceration in the United States

Recently released felons have a statistically high rate of re-incarceration because once released they are stripped of many rights they once knew before being convicted. Felons will be denied housing, education, and employment as well as experience disenfranchisement, jury exclusion, and legal discrimination . Because of this felons won't be able to integrate into mainstream society concealing their struggles but not their convictions from the public eye. Many of them turn to illegal action in order to make a living and resulting in a further criminal record. Michelle Alexander extensively details this point with her argument that mass incarceration in the United States is creating a racial caste system in her 2012 book The New Jim Crow .

War on Drugs

Criticism

The War on Drugs has fueled much controversy over the rights of prisoners. In her book 'The New Jim Crow , Michelle Alexander points to the War on Drugs as the key to entering a new racial caste system. She argues that law enforcement, free to use racial bias as any factor, convicts mainly the poverty-stricken colored population in drug investigations and once incarcerated prisoners become labeled felons, also losing many rights. Upon their release they will be subject to legal discrimination as well as the denial of many public benefits, education, and employment. This drastically affects their future pushing the victims to several means of re-incarceration and thus creating a caste system hidden from the public view.