African Americans and the Prison System Essay

I. The storey of subjugation and African Americans? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K.. III. The lasting cause of buckle downholding continuous conquering? K? K? K? K? K? K? K a. The woolly sense of finale and cultural pride Feeling of lower status b. No economic presentation c. Unleve direct playacting field IV. Maintaining heaviness? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K. affair 2 THE NEW get on SLAVERY The prison house agreement I. The prison Institution? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K II. Race and the Prison corpse? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K?K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K.. III. The lasting oppression? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K.. IV. The personal matters of oppression? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K a. Demise of the pitch- drear family b. befuddled policy-making voice V. Solutions? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K. VI. Closing? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K? K I. Introduction In the concur the Mugging of sinister America, Earl O farthermosti Hutchinson relays an interesting cognize by a reporter.The reporter, who spent dickens and a half hours watching suspects work on before Washington, D. C. Superior Court umpire Morton Berg, noted that both last(predicate) and one and merely(a) of these prevail oers was B lack. He sayd, ? There is an odd communicate about the swift afternoon? Xan atmosphere the like that of British Africa in compound times? Xas the procession of tattered, troubled, scowling, poor caustics adduce inculpative or not guilty to charges of medicate possession, drug distri entirelyion, assault, armed robbery, theft, gap in, fraud and arson. According to Hutchinson, the reporter witnessed more than than a courtroom scene he witnessed the legacy of hard workerholding.This paper will guarantee expand on Hutchinson? s speculation. It will do so by depression describing knuckle downry and its lasting impact consequently it will start to show how the modern roughshod referee establishment mirrors thraldom. PART 1 thr tout ensemble I. The History of heaviness and African Americans The history of the oppression as it relates to African Americans began in 1619. It was this year in which a Dutch ship brought the original break ones backs from Africa to North America. Following this arrival of twenty dollar bill Africans in Virginia, white European-Americans created the mental home of bondage.Slavery spread so quickly that by 1860 the original twenty slaves turned into near four gazillion. In the low gear the legitimate status of these Africans was un delineate. This absent definition created a lack of certainty which every last(predicate)owed for whatever slaves to live on abandon after years of service. This only lasted briefly. In the 1660s, however, the colonies began enacting laws that defi ned and regulated slaves and the intromission of slaveholding. One of the most important of these was the cooking that relentless slaves, and the children of slave women, would serve for life. These ? bringing uplaws were just the comening. Soon, slavery in the unify States was g everywherened by a body of laws essential from the 1660s to the 1860s. Even though every slave state had its own slave write in code and case law, it became universal that slavery was a permanent condition. In addition to slavery cosmos a permanent condition, slaves were overly, chthonian these laws, considered blank space. Slaves, being property, could not own property or be a troupe to a contract. Since marriage is a act upon of a contract, slave marriages had no intelligent standing. Most codes also had sections regulating free shadowys.Under these codes blackamoors who were not slaves were still subject to halts on their movements and employment. These laws served not only as a physio logic limitation, but an ideological one also. In addition to granting slave owners and white population exponent over slaves and in some cases free blacks, the laws also granted slaveholders and white-Europeans an intangible source of power. Socially, the asylum of slavery allowed white slave owners to call up they had not only physical lock, but physical and mental superiority over the slaves. With only a few exceptions, all slaves were Africans.This incident assignd the label of inferiority on black hide. The actual institution of slavery as it relates to master and slave lasted up in till the well-be carryd war. The American Civil War was fought, in part, over slavery. During the war, P nonmigratory Abraham Lincoln issued the freedom Proclamation, which ? freed all slaves. This patently, brought the end of slavery elapseim the fall in States, but unfortunately odd a lasting impression. From this point on slavery took on a untested form as former slaves being ass ociated with the label of inferiority. II.The lasting set up of slavery continuous oppression Slavery is defined by Webster? s dictionary as ? The state of being under the bear of other person . Aalthough the actual physical control and violence supposedly finish after the emancipation proclamation, The intangible opening of supremacy derived from the institution of slavery momented in many lasting effects. These effects in and of themselves ar a form of force, a form slavery. a. The lost sense of civilization and cultural pride Feeling of inferiority Slave drivers made great efforts to overstep African culture.For instance Africans were beaten if they were caught utterance their innate languages or carrying out native rituals . Therefore, they were not able to effectively pass the languages, stories and traditions on to their children. This forced suppression resulted in the loss of verbal records and a cryptic legacy of history. It is no secret that thither is pride in culture. Taking by the culture takes away the pride and the motivation and results in feelings of worthlessness. b. no economic foundation Slave drivers not only assay to deprive the Africans of there culture and pride, but they successfully robbed them economically.Slaves were forced to work without acquit for years while padding the pockets of the slave owners. This deficit of economics resulted in an softness to establish an economic foundation in the get together States. c. Unleveled playing field on with the deprivation of financial resources, another of import factor concerning the state of African Americans is arrested outgrowth. Slaves were deprived of opportunities to fall upon and become more competitive in many atomic number 18as of corporation. Black battalion were not allowed to read or learn to read, so they could not take avail of written text.All these lasting effects move intod blacks in a severely disadvantaged state when slavery was abolished, le d a socioeconomic structure in which white race generally held the in high spiritsest ranks and Black people generally held the lowest ranks. III. Maintaining oppression In run to obtain this socioeconomic structure, there always seems to be a sensitive form of oppression particularise in place to nurture ? slavery. As if the above detrimental effects of slavery were not enough, the whiteness southerners were anxious to maintain more direct power and control over people with black struggle, disdain there classification as ?free. The White southerners decided to, again, use the law in order crystallize there speculation of inferiority and keep black people at the lowest ranks. In 1865, southerners created Black Codes, which served as a way to control and inhibit the freedom of ex-slaves. These historic Codes controlled roughly all aspects of life, and prohibited African Americans from about all the freedoms that had been won during the Civil War. The codes, which were bla tantly racist and oppressive, were eventually suspended in June 1866, during the ?reconstruction era.During this time period in America and despite resistance, African-Americans were slowly graceful part of this nations inclusion. By 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution confirmed the pertinacious awaited citizenship for Blacks in America. By 1870, the fifteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution which made it illegal to pass up the right to vote based on race. The Reconstruction era, although short-lived, showed the first real attempts of inclusive freedom for African-Americans since the abolition of slavery.Gains were taking place Citizenship, Voting, Education, and Politics. tho, the underlying desire to have power over those in black strip down never subsided. exactly like the black Codes, this desire to dominate again manifested itself in another form, Jim Crow Laws. These laws promoted discrimination and the defensive structure of equal protection by law. s killful like the codes, they too were eventually abolished. Just like the Codes, Jim Crow laws, the desire of our society to suppress those in black skin will soon take another form. Today that form is the illegal arbiter System.PART 2 The New mount Slavery The Prison System I. The Prison Institution Prisons ar big in the United States. During the past 20 years, the United States experienced a massive growing in incarceration. The prison population increase fourfold, from 330,000 in 1980 to nearly 1. 4 million in 1999, and the incarceration rate deviate magnitude from about 140 to about 476 per 100,000 resident populations. Today there are more than two million Americans behind bars. But even more startling is the fact that more than one-half of these incarcerated Americans have black skin.Although black Americans only make up about 12% of the US population, they grade for more then 30% of all arrests, 44% of all prisoners and 40% of prisoners on death row. II. Race and th e Prison System These obvious disparities in the wicked jurist scheme can be attributed to many different things ranging from racial profiling to the lack of opportunity and poor education, but most savage justice observers believe that these disparities have emerged from the underlying guesss rooted in slavery. The assumption that slaves were inferior has carried over to today.Currently this theory of inferiority and desire to maintain oppression influences one of the major policies in place attacking African Americans today, the ? war on drugs. Most of the shocking disparities in the vicious nicety System as it relates to African Americans in prison can be attributed to the ? war on drugs. According to a study by Human Rights Watch, African-Americans counterbalance 62 partage of the drug offenders admitted to state prisons. In septenary states, blacks constitute amid 80 and 90 percent of all people sent to prison on drug charges. According to studies of the U.S. Commiss ion on Civil Rights, African-Americans constitute 15 percent of the national drug users, but even out an amazing one-third of all those arrested on drug charges and 57 percent of those convicted on drug charges. The criminal justice system generally, and contemporary crime and drug policies in particular, serve as a center for White America to control the African Americans like they did in the 1600 . III. The lasting oppression Similarly to the black codes and requisition apply after the abolition of slavery restrictions are placed on prisoners after they are released.Once a prisoner is released from prison, countersign and the bans on public assistance, public housing restrictions, etc. create barriers and a seemingly doomed cycle of dominance. Since half of the prisoners in prison are African American, these barriers, like the lasting effects of slavery, have a disproportional effect on our black communities. III. The effects of oppression According to the preaching secti on of legal expert? s Bureau of Justice statistics, the number of fully growns in prison, jail, or on probation or parole reached almost 7 million during 2004. Since Blacks comprise 30 percent of probationers and 41 percent of prisoners.That means or so 4,500,000 African Americans are affected like a shot by the criminal justice system. regrettably those African Americans sent to prison or under parole are not the only people affected. The impact on the black conjunction does not period of time at the prison door, conversely it goes far beyond. Even after a prisoner is released there are lasting effects to the prisoner, his or her family and the community as a whole. a. Demise of the Black family One effect of the high rate of incarceration of African American priapics in particular has been the decrease number of marriageable men in the African American community.Along with high rank of homicide, AIDS-related deaths and other factors, this has created a upstanding imbalanc e in the male-female ratio among adult African Americans. Whereas gender ratios for African Americans at birth are about 102-103 males for every 100 females, by the age pad 40-44, this declines to 86 males per 100 females, whereas white rates are 100100 for this group. b. confused political voice The impact of the criminal justice system on the black community goes beyond the declining family structure to issues of political influence as well.As a result of laws that disenfranchise felons and ex-felons in diverse states, an estimated 1. 4 million African American males, or 13% of the black male adult population, is either currently or permanently disenfranchised as a result of a felony conviction. In fourteen states, a felony conviction can result in lifetime disenfranchisement, and in seven of these states, an estimated one in four black males is permanently disenfranchised. Thus, not only are criminal justice policies contributing to the disproportionate incarceration of Africa n Americans, but captivity itself then reduces the collective political great power of African Americans to influence these policies.V. Solutions The constant end in the structure of the black family, lost political influence and seemingly arrested development are all very known results of a history of oppression. Since these effects of slavery and disparities in the criminal justice system seemingly steam from hundreds of years ago there is no quick sophisticate. Ideally the answer would lie in the destruction of all prejudice. But, it is impossible to cross off _or_ out the deep seated legacy and resurfacing effects of slavery. Therefore this problem must be attacked from a variety of different angles.Recommendations for change can be considered in the areas of sensitiveness, legislative change, criminal justice officials? initiatives, and criminal justice/community partnerships. The following are some suggested that will allow for a beginning to a seemingly circular and ever-living problem. 1. Legislative Actions Legislation should be pushed to reckon Mandatory Sentencing Policies and Equalize Penalties for Crack and powderise Cocaine . 2. Criminal Justice Officials? Initiatives ?n Criminal Justice Officials should Expand medicate Policy Options And Expand the Use of utility(a) Sentencing 3. Criminal Justice/Community Partnerships.The criminal Justice system and the community should attempt to Increase Community-based Diversion from the Criminal Justice System And Strengthen the Link mingled with Communities and the Justice System VI. Closing Oppression in the form of institutionalization is nothing new to those dressed in black skin it has been present since 1619. In this year Africans were brought to the United States and forced into the institution of slavery. Even after the abolition of slavery, a series of codes and segregation laws were set in place to maintain the suppression of black people because black skin was grimetized as infer ior.Even though the prejudice and biased codes and laws were eventually abolished themselves, this stigma remains. Because this theory of black inferiority was insert in the American culture delinquent to slavery, various means of oppression are able to continually resurface in different forms. Today that form is Criminal Justice System, more specifically the drug policies. Practically mirroring the institution of slavery, African Americans are being controlled and dominated by this system. statement by the USCJS includes the probation, parole, imprisonment, lost economic power, attempt communities and lost political voice.In order to end this vicious cycle of oppression, sue must be taken. First people must be made awake(predicate) of the disparities. Next those who are made aware must press for legislative change, criminal justice officials? initiatives, and criminal justice/community partnerships. The challenge for the community at outsize is to engage in broad discussion of the mix of family, community, and government initiatives that can begin to reverse the cycle that has been set in motion in recent years. allow? s do what Abraham attempted o do in 1877, let? s end this legacy of slavery.