African Americans and the Prison System Essay

I. Introduction In the book the hold up of B need the States, Earl Ofari Hutchinson relays an interesting experience by a reporter. The reporter, who spent two and a half hours watching suspects march earlier Washington, D. C. Superior Court Judge Morton Berg, noned that tot eithery but angiotensin-converting enzyme of these subjects was lightlessness. He commonwealthd, ? There is an odd air about(predicate) the swift aft(prenominal)wardnoon? Xan atmosphere bid that of British Africa in colonial clock? Xas the procession of tattered, troubled, scowling, forgetful minaciouss plead unrighteous or not guilty to charges of dose possession, do drugs distribution, assault, armed robbery, theft, breaking in, spoof and arson.?? agree to Hutchinson, the reporter witnessed to a greater extent than a courtroom scene he witnessed the bequest of bondage. This paper get out attempt refine on Hutchinson? s theory. It will do so by freshman describing thr completely and its lasting impact indeed it will attempt to show how the current barbarous honorableice transcription mirrors thr bothdom. PART 1 knuckle downry I. The History of Op extraction and Afri deal Americans The business relationship of the conquest as it relates to African Americans began in 1619. It was this year in which a Dutch ship brought the first slaves from Africa to northmost America.Following this arrival of twenty Africans in Virginia, blank European-Americans taked the intromission of thraldom. striverry spreading so quickly that by 1860 the victor twenty slaves turned into well foursome zillion. In the beginning the legal location of these Africans was undefined. This ab move definition created a lack of certainty which acknowledgeed for some slaves to become drop off after days of service. This b atomic number 18ly lasted briefly. In the 1660s, however, the colonies began enacting truths that defined and regulated slaves and the ecesis of bondage. atom ic number 53 of the most important of these was the provision that coloured slaves, and the children of slave women, would serve for life. These ? breeding?? laws were just the beginning. Soon, slavery in the linked States was g everywherened by a body of laws developed from the 1660s to the 1860s. veritable(a) though every slave extract had its own slave code and shift law, it became universal that slavery was a unchanging condition. In addition to slavery world a permanent condition, slaves were also, under these laws, considered property.Slaves, being property, could not own property or be a party to a contract. Since marriage is a phase of a contract, slave marriages had no legal standing. virtually codes also had sections regulating unleash swarts. chthonian these codes swarts who were not slaves were still subject to obligates on their movements and employment. These laws served not further as a carnal limitation, but an ideological one also. In addition to gr anting slave owners and fair hoi polloi power everyplace slaves and in some cases free bootlegs, the laws also given(p) slaveholders and white-Europeans an intangible source of power.Socially, the institution of slavery allowed white slave owners to believe they had not only physical fake, but physical and mental superiority over the slaves. With only a few exceptions, all slaves were Africans. This situation hardened the differentiate of inferiority on black skin. The actual institution of slavery as it relates to master and slave lasted up in till the civilized war. The American Civil War was fought, in part, over slavery. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which ? freed?? all slaves.This plainly, brought the end of slavery throughout the united States, but unfortunately left a lasting impression. From this point on slavery overlyk on a late melodic line as numberer slaves being associated with the label of inferiority. II. The lasting make of slavery invariable oppression Slavery is defined by Webster? s dictionary as ? The state of being under the control of some opposite person?? . Aalthough the actual physical control and violence supposedly ended after the emancipation proclamation, The intangible theory of subordi demesne derived from the institution of slavery resulted in some(prenominal) lasting beliefs.These effects in and of themselves ar a mould of force, a form slavery. a. The garbled sense of finis and ethnical pride Feeling of inferiority Slave drivers make great efforts to eliminate African culture. For instance Africans were beaten if they were caught speaking their indispensable 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 expiry of verbal records and a rich bequest of history. It is no secret that at that place is pride in culture.Taking a track the culture takes away the pride and the motivation and results in feelings of worthlessness. b. no economic foundation Slave drivers not only attempted to clean the Africans of in that respect culture and pride, but they successfully robbed them economically. Slaves were forced to work without pay for years while padding the pockets of the slave owners. This deficit of economics resulted in an inability to demo an economic foundation in the United States. c. Unleveled playing field Along with the wish of financial resources, another significant cipher concerning the state of African Americans is arrested development.Slaves were deprived of opportunities to insure and become more competitive in many atomic number 18as of society. Black tidy sum were not allowed to read or learn to read, so they could not take advantage of write text. All these lasting effects placed blacks in a severely disfavour state when slavery was abolished, led a socioecono mic body structure in which white people generally held the highest ranks and Black people generally held the lowest ranks. III. Maintaining oppression In order to arrest this socioeconomic structure, in that respect always seems to be a new form of oppression set in place to maintain ? slavery??.As if the above detrimental effects of slavery were not enough, the White southerners were anxious to maintain more direct power and control over people with black skin, in spite of there classification as ? free??. The White southerners decided to, again, use the law in order crystallize there theory 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 olden Codes controlled almost all aspects of life, and prohibited African Americans from almost all the freedoms that had been won during the Civil War.The codes, which were blatantly racist and oppressive, were ev entually hang in June 1866, during the ? reconstruction era??. During this time period in America and notwithstanding resistance, African-Americans were slowly becoming part of this nations inclusion. By 1868, the 14th Amendment to the personality confirmed the long awaited citizenship for Blacks in America. By 1870, the 15th Amendment was added to the Constitution which made it illegal to deny the right to 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 abolishment of slavery.Gains were taking place Citizenship, Voting, Education, and Politics. But, the underlying confide to have power over those in black skin never subsided. bonny like the black Codes, this trust to omit again manifested itself in another form, Jim bluster Laws. These laws promoted discrimination and the denial of equal egis by law. Just like the codes, they too were eventually abolished. Just like the Codes, Jim boast laws, the desire of our society to suppress those in black skin will curtly take another form. forthwith that form is the poisonous jurist formation.PART 2 The New Age Slavery The prison house house remains I. The Prison Institution Prisons argon big in the United States. During the past 20 years, the United States experienced a massive increase in incarceration. The prison population increased fourfold, from 330,000 in 1980 to nearly 1. 4 billion in 1999, and the incarceration pace increased from about cxl to about 476 per degree Celsius,000 resident populations. Today there ar more than two million Americans behind bars. But even more startling is the fact that more than half of these incarcerated Americans have black skin.Although black Americans only make up about 12% of the US population, they account for more then 30% of all arrests, 44% of all prisoners and 40% of prisoners on death row. II. melt down and the Prison System These obvio us disparities in the brutal evaluator ashes can be attributed to many different things ranging from racial profiling to the lack of opportunity and poor education, but most unlawful jurist observers believe that these disparities have emerged from the underlying assumptions root in slavery. The assumption that slaves were inferior has carried over to today.Currently this theory of inferiority and desire to maintain oppression squ are offs one of the major policies in place attacking African Americans today, the ? war on drugs.?? Most of the grand disparities in the felonious 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 fabricate 62 share of the drug offenders admitted to state prisons. In seven states, blacks constrain between 80 and 90 percentage of all people move to prison on drug charges. According to studies of the U.S. Commission on Civil Righ ts, African-Americans constitute 15 percent of the national drug users, but comprise an amazing terce of all those arrested on drug charges and 57 percent of those convicted on drug charges. The evil judge system generally, and contemporary disgust and drug policies in particular, serve as a manner for White America to control the African Americans like they did in the 1600 . III. The lasting oppression Similarly to the black codes and segregation implemented after the abolishment of slavery restrictions are placed on prisoners after they are released.Once a prisoner is released from prison, free and the bans on commonplace assistance, public housing restrictions, etc. create barriers and a seemingly doomed beat of dominance. Since half of the prisoners in prison are African American, these barriers, like the lasting effects of slavery, have a disproportionate effect on our black communities. III. The effects of oppression According to the Department of Justice? s Bureau of Justice statistics, the number of adults in prison, jail, or on probation or war cry reached almost 7 million during 2004. Since Blacks comprise 30 percent of probationers and 41 percent of prisoners.That means around 4,500,000 African Americans are affected directly by the criminal justice system. Unfortunately those African Americans sent to prison or under parole are not the only people affected. The impact on the black confederation does not stop 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 participation as a whole. a. Demise of the Black family One effect of the high rate of incarceration of African American males in particular has been the decreasing number of nubile men in the African American society.Along with high rates of homicide, AIDS-related deaths and other factors, this has created a substantial imbalance in the male-female ratio among adult African Ameri cans. Whereas sexual activity ratios for African Americans at birth are about 102-103 males for every c females, by the age range 40-44, this declines to 86 males per 100 females, whereas white rates are 100100 for this group. b. Lost political express The impact of the criminal justice system on the black community goes beyond the declining family structure to issues of political settle as well.As a result of laws that disfranchise felons and ex-felons in various states, an estimated 1. 4 million African American males, or 13% of the black male adult population, is either currently or permanently voteless as a result of a felony strong belief. In fourteen states, a felony conviction can result in spirit 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 African Americans, but imprisonment itself then reduces the corporate political ability of African Americans to influence these policies. V. Solutions The constant demise in the structure of the black family, lost political influence and seemingly arrested development are all very familiar results of a history of oppression. Since these effects of slavery and disparities in the criminal justice system seemingly travel from hundreds of years ago there is no quick fix.Ideally the serve up would lie in the destruction of all prejudice. But, it is impossible to erase the deep set legacy and resurfacing effects of slavery. Therefore this conundrum must be attacked from a renewing of different angles.Recommendations for change can be considered in the areas of awareness, legislative change, criminal justice officials? initiatives, and criminal justice/community partnerships. The adjacent are some suggested that will allow for a beginning to a seemingly circular and endless problem. 1. Legislative Actions statute should be pushed to Recon sider Mandatory Sentencing Policies and tally Penalties for Crack and Powder Cocaine . 2. Criminal Justice Officials? Initiatives ?n Criminal Justice Officials should detonate Drug Policy Options And Expand the Use of Alternative Sentencing 3. Criminal Justice/Community Partnerships.The criminal Justice system and the community should attempt to Increase Community-based difference from the Criminal Justice System And substantiate the Link between 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 stigmatized as inferior.Even though the prejudice and aslant codes and laws were eventually abolished thems elves, this stigma remains. Because this theory of black inferiority was embedded in the American culture due 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 rule by this system. Control by the USCJS includes the probation, parole, imprisonment, lost economic power, struggling communities and lost political voice.In order to end this flagitious pedal of oppression, action must be taken. First people must be made aware 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 large 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. Let? s do what Abraham attempted o do in 1877, let? s end this legacy of slavery.