Mass Incarceration and African Americans

I think that mass incarceration in America is a huge issue, especially with regards to the amount of African Americans in prison. This issue really is a new sort of Jim Crow, in that the racial profiling that goes on in police departments, and in general, across the nation is a huge issue. We see stories on the news about all these terrible cases of black men getting shot, or getting beat up by police officers for what seems like no apparent reason, but this problem is even bigger than that. Black drivers are twice as likely to get arrested for traffic-related incident than white people are, because often police make assumptions that these African Americans are poor and likely up to no good. Discrimination is a huge part of why black people are being sent to prison in large numbers, but do the prisons really help them or help society?

The other issue that I think is wrong with our current system in place is that sending people, specifically African Americans, to prison does nothing to help improve their lives. This creates a vicious cycle of African Americans going to prison, and getting thrown back onto the streets with little assistance, and often reverting to illicit activities in order to make a living and support themselves and their families. African Americans who were imprisoned have a difficult time finding jobs because most companies do not want to hire ex-convicts. This is systemically creating a problem where black people are born into poverty, and often stay in poverty because they do not have access to a good education, and the fact that they are discriminated against only worsens their odds of making it in the world. Until this system is changed, black people will continue to be discriminated against and continue to have to struggle to work their way up to not being considered a part of a lower class.