text analyze

“The U.S. incarceration rate in 2013 was 702 per 100,000 people… in 2012 incarceration rates for Blacks stood at 2,805 per 100,000 - six times higher than that of whites and almost three times that of Hispanics” (12).  

“The prison population has changed from about 30 percent people of color in the 1970s to roughly 70 percent in 2012” (13).

“Sentenced Crouch to ten years’ probation, and mandated that he live in an up-market treatment facility at a cost of about a quarter of a million dollars per year. Crouch’s parents were required to pay only about $13,000 of those annual fees. The remainder was covered by taxpayers” (14). 

“The drive for greater corporate profits led many U.S. companies to move manufacturing jobs offshore - to countries with much lower wage rates and fewer regulations on production. This capital flight increased domestic unemployment levels, particularly in large cities with sizable African American populations, such as Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago. High levels of unemployment frequently left criminal activity as one of the few ways to secure an income” (18-20). 

“People in prison are counted as residents of the district where they are incarcerated, not as residents of the district where they lived prior to arrest. The result is more political power to the predominantly white rural areas where most prisons are located and less power in the hands of the urban communities of color where most people in prison come from” (22). 

This is the most blatant evidence of discrimination I have ever seen. There is no denying that this is what’s happening here. 

There is a theme of discrimination in the introduction so far. 70 percent includes all people of color. The minorities in the U.S. now account for the majority of prisoners that are incarcerated. The ratio flipped from being 70 percent whites incarcerated to 30 percent. All in just about 30 years. 

It is unbelievable how easy it is for our justice system to favor rich people. And when they let rich people off the hook, they end up paying little to nothing in return for their “punishment”. Though they are perfectly capable of paying, they leave it to unknowing taxpayers. 

The War on Drugs was one thing that led African Americans to be less privileged, but the U.S. was already on the route to making it worse for them. I sympathize with anyone who is a person of color. They had pretty much everyone working against them, directly or indirectly. Big corporations moving their production lines to countries where they can take advantage of cheap labor eliminated what I imagine is thousands of jobs. This led to the high crime rates in cities like Detroit and Chicago, not because African American people are more violent, but because they have to survive. The country has never truly tried to help its underprivileged people. It only strives to help the people who own the big money making companies. 

Over a long period of time, people in power saw the possible profit in the prison system, and began manipulating their way into changing the way the U.S. people see African Americans. They took advantage of the profiling, then the new, greater political power. By changing incarcerated people’s residency, those in charge of the white, rural areas now had more power. And we know how these people voted. It is unbelievable how our government was so willing and capable of using people like this. They still do so to this day.