Prisons and Racism

African-American Studies > Racism
Criminology
Economics > Globalization

Prisons and Racism

A persuasive paper blaming the American economic and justice system for the high rate of incarceration and specifically, of racial minorites.

1,084 words () | 5 sources | MLA | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper reveals that the U.S. now has the distinction of having more persons in prison than any other industrialized nation. The paper attributes this to draconian drug laws, racial profiling and a society that has yet to come to grips with a culture of racism. The paper blames the U.S. economic system where hyper-wealthy corporate interests attack the lower and middle classes and also faults the growth of the private prison industry that benefits from a rise in the prison population. The paper argues that it is much cheaper for the government to institute "get tough" laws than to deal with the very real social and economic problems that underlie criminal activity.

From the Paper:

"The United States of America is Number One in the number of people incarcerated in its prisons. The US now has the distinction of having more persons in prison than any other industrialized nation, ahead of China, Russia and South Africa. Currently, the US prison population is over two million. Men of African American ancestry make up over half of this population, despite the fact that they make up only 13% of the general population . This means that over 10 percent of the male African American population aged 25-29 is behind bars - more than are in attendance in the nation's colleges and universities. Compare this to Hispanics, 3.6% of whom are in prison, and whites, who make up 1.7% of the U.S. prison population."

Sample of Sources Used:

Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2004 (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, Oct. 2005), Table 12, p. 9.
Marable, Manning. Racism, Prisons and the Future of Black America. Peacework Magazine, December/January 2000-2001. http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/1200/122k05.htm
The Sentencing Project. http://www.sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/inc_federalprisonpop.pdf
Vicini, James. U.S. Has The Most Prisoners in the World. Common Dreams, 9 December 2006. www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1209-01.htm Accessed 17 April 2007.
Wideman, John E. 1995. Doing Time, Marking Race. The Nation. v 261 #14, pp 503-506.