mass Incarceration essay

ENGLISH 105/846, ESSAY PROMPT #3

For your third essay, I’d like you to apply what we’ve learned about the harsh realities of the

American carceral system to a particular case study: the tragic tale of the incarceration of Kalief

Browder. Browder was arrested in May of 2010, just short of his seventeenth birthday, for

allegedly stealing a backpack, a crime he adamantly contested. Following his arrest, Browder

spent over three years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, awaiting a trial that never

transpired, attempting to commit suicide multiple times in the interim and finally succeeding

after his release in 2015.

In order to develop a persuasive argument, you’ll need to draw on much of the material we’ve

discussed in Unit #3: we’ve studied the rapid increase in mass incarceration due to a “tough on

crime” approach that began with President Richard Nixon’s commencement of the “War on

Drugs” and continued through the Reagan and Clinton administrations into the present. We’ve

studied how the system disproportionately imprisons people of color, especially African

American males, and how this system replaces Jim Crow laws by segregating people of color

into a criminal caste. We’ve also learned how the War on Drugs was used to challenge the

constitutional rights of people of color by introducing amplified racial profiling, stop and frisk

laws, inhumane approaches to one-size-fits-all sentencing including extreme “mandatory

minimums,” and an increase in prosecutors who tend to favor the status quo over minority

populations. Finally, we’ve studied how these practices often relate to a profit motive in police

departments that has led to, among other things, the militarization of the police.

In your third essay I would like you to establish some context about our prison problem in

order to show how the shortcomings in the system effect real human lives. Once you’ve

established some of the flaws in the system, I’d like you to show how these injustices

effected a single individual in order to highlight the elements of the penal system that are

most in need of reform.

Some Thoughts Toward a Provisional Outline:

You have a number of things to accomplish in this essay to really drive home your point; as

such, you should use your conceptual map to thoughtfully map out the development of your

ideas. Here are some things to think about:

1) In the first section of your essay, you’ll examine the current state of the justice system to

firmly establish its flaws. Here, you might discuss some of the major changes in the system that

lead to the huge influx in prisoners in the thirty year period between 1980 and Browder’s

incarceration in 2010. What kinds of practices led to the mass incarceration crisis, and of these

practices, which are especially problematic to you? Here you might discuss the racial disparities

that are part of the penal system, including laws that promote racial profiling like “stop and

frisk” practices; you might also discuss issues like “probable cause,” mandatory minimum

sentencing, overly aggressive prosecutors, the “three strikes” law, etc. You’ll make use of most

of our primary sources here in order to support your argument in this section, and you may need

multiple paragraphs with independent main ideas to accomplish your task.

2) Once you’ve set up some of the glaring problems in the penal system, you’ll want to turn to

Kalief Browder’s story to illustrate how some of these issues led to the unconstitutional arrest

that held him in a state of exception for over 1,000 days. How did the system fail this particular

individual, and what aspect of his experience proves most problematic in your view? Your job is

not to summarize Browder’s story, but instead to hone in on where precisely the justice system

failed him. You may also need multiple paragraphs in this section.

3) Finally, once you’ve used Browder’s story to illustrate your point, you’ll want to hone in on

those problematic aspects of the justice system that are most amplified in Browder’s case. Where

should we begin to focus in order to genuinely reform the justice system? Given Browder’s

narrative, where should we start and why?

Please highlight or underline your thesis when you turn in your final draft, double space your lines,

use twelve-point font, title your essay, use page numbers, and set your margins to the default setting

(one inch). Most importantly, please turn in ALL of your prewriting (outline and brainstorm) with

your essay (each piece is part of your grade!). Additionally, use your Rhetoric for extra help, please

make an appointment to visit the Learning Center, and don’t forget that Sarah and I are always

available to help during office hours an SI sessions! Make appointments!