Mass Incarceration: A Nation Behind Bars
Did you know that the USA, the “land of the free,” is home to 25% of the global prison population?
Over the past 50 years, our leaders have engaged in a love affair with locking up their own citizens for minor crimes. Dr. Martin Luther King decried this in his famous letter from Birmingham Jail. Since then, the prison population has grown nearly eight-fold.
Mass incarceration affects every American by:
- Tearing families apart
- Contributing to criminal behavior
- Disenfranchising American citizens
- Costing billions in unnecessary spending
America used to be a free nation where the punishment fit the crime. Now, about 2% of all American men are behind bars.
How did it come to this?
Why is America the most incarcerated country on Earth?
There are multiple perpetrators of mass incarceration. We need to hold our politicians accountable and insist they recognize the following injustices against Americans.
Racial Control
There are more Black adults under some form of correctional control than there were slaves in 1850.
This is no mistake.
Mass incarceration in the Black community began soon after the Civil War ended as a way to force former slaves back into servitude.
It continued into the age of Jim Crow when Black US citizens were locked up for crimes such as loitering or sitting on a bus.
During and after the Civil Rights movement, mass incarceration was used to lock up leaders of the movement who were seen as dangerous.
Mass incarceration in the Black community continues today. Black Americans make up 40 percent of the prison population, despite representing only 13 percent of U.S. residents. Nearly half of them were put away for drug-related and nonviolent crimes.
Black citizens deserve the same respect and the same justice as everyone else. By reforming the criminal justice system, we can end this vicious cycle of racial control, reunite American families, and prevent crime.
The War on Drugs
Drug trafficking is an issue with economic roots. Drug abuse is a health issue.
Yet in America, we decided to address the drug problem with police and prisons.
The result was that millions of nonviolent drug offenders were put behind bars. And not just for days or months. But for years or for life.
The war on drugs tied community judges’ hands by implementing strict rules such as:
- Mandatory minimum sentences: Judges were required to give a mandatory sentence regardless of the circumstances of the crime.
- 100-to-1 sentencing: Different sentencing was given for possession of crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses, even though they are essentially the same drug. This was done because crack cocaine was primarily used by Black citizens.
- Three strikes laws: For certain offenses, if you commit three crimes, you go to prison for life, regardless of the circumstances.
These laws and others were drafted and passed by Democrat and Republican lawmakers. The failure of the war on drugs is not a partisan issue.
All Americans need to demand a change in how we treat addiction and punish nonviolent drug offenders.
Corporate Greed
Prisons used to be managed by the state. Now, they’re controlled by private, for-profit corporations.
More prisoners mean more profit for these companies. They even build relationships with law enforcement to keep prisons full in order to keep the money rolling into that community.
Many areas in America are literally turning into farms for prisoners, where law enforcement fills the prisons and then benefits from increased tax revenues that the prisons pay.
Knowing this, it’s no surprise that the private prison population has grown 5x faster than the total US prison population.
It’s also not surprising that the big-prison lobby is one of the most powerful in Washington.
Private prisons have contributed over $25 million to lobbying efforts. They’re paying our politicians to increase the number of inmates, for their own profit.
It’s Time to End Mass Incarceration
Mass incarceration has cost all Americans too much over the past century. It’s cost us American families, American lives, and billions in unnecessary spending. But most of all, it’s struck at the core of what we value as Americans: Liberty and Justice for All.
It’s never too late to change. The American Union is fighting to reform the criminal justice system and end mass incarceration.
Ending mass incarceration is one of the three main pillars of the Blueprint for a Better America. Under this legislative package, we will:
- Allow federal prisoners to request a sentence review after they have served 10 years.
- End the federal war on drugs, and allow states to set their own policies.
- Repeal all federal mandatory minimums.
Do you want to see our nation establish justice? Learn more about The American Union and how you can contribute.
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