"Being tough on crimes (is not the same thing!) as being tough on criminals"
This video illuminates the problem of mass incarceration in the United States. The war on drugs and tough on crime policies and ideology have resulted in the surge of the incarceration rates in the United States. Over the past three decades, the number of prison inmates in the United States has increased by more than 600 percent. I have even read Michelle Alexander's great book arguing that this phenomenon is the "New Jim Crow" in the age of colorblindness. On my end, I am more interested in the post-incarceration policy to mitigate such complex problem: such as the "ban the box" movement which is gaining support. One notable organization at the forefront of this is “All of Us or None,” a nonprofit grassroots organization based in Oakland that is dedicated to eliminating discrimination against ex-offenders, and has propelled the Ban the Box campaign nationwide. Currently, 50 cities and counties and 10 states have taken the important step of removing unfair barriers to employment in their hiring policies. Adopting the policy widely known as “ban the box,” these initiatives typically remove the question on the job application about an individual’s conviction history and delay the background check inquiry until later in the hiring process. Of those ten states, four states—Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island—have banned the box for private employers, which many advocates embrace as the next step in the evolution of these policies. These initiatives are due to the prevalent discrimination practices towards ex-offenders in job applications. Positive outcomes have been shown and better outcomes are anticipated from this ban-the-box movement such as lower recidivism and giving equal chance to ex-offenders to reintegrate into society. Although there are more rooms for advocacy with regards to the lives of ex-offenders such as housing, education and welfare discrimination, - the focus on employment will substantially propel more reform to come, I hope. As Michelle Alexander sarcastically notes in, “[a]fter all, criminals are the one social group in America that nearly everyone – across political, racial and class boundaries – feels free to hate.” Through discriminatory practice, it made me reflect upon this occurrence: that we “boxed” in the lives of ex-offenders with endless suffering; perhaps we should analyze who are really impersonating the role of “offenders”.
That video sums up our current prison problem pretty well - the situation is completely unjust and ineffective. Ban the Box sounds like an interesting way to counteract some of the stigmas and challenges faced by ex-offenders, but we also need to address the reasons people are put in prison in the first place. Many were charged for things like drug possession or selling - it seems pretty wasteful to me to spend untold millions of dollars on prisoners for crimes like that. The War on Drugs seems to be losing popularity, as the marijuana legalization movement has shown, and maybe we will soon see more political action against incarcerating non-violent prisoners. Combined with movements like Ban the Box, we could start to reverse this terrible situation.
ReplyDeleteThis short video was great, and did a good job of scratching the surface of the problem. Furthermore, the incarceration in the United States is disproportionately African-Americans and other minority groups. I would highly recommend Paul Rucker's TEDx Talk, where he shows how slave plantations almost exactly correlation with prison density today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U049xzkYXUQ.
ReplyDeleteHey Shahir,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this great video. He did a good job making a short and understandable, yet very powerful video to introduce the public to what's going on with the prison system.
Like Erin, I do think that when talking about incarceration in America, race should always have a big role. You mention the New Jim Crows laws, and Alexander's book about revealing how prison has taken the place of slavery in racial discrimination and injustice in a way that is legally acceptable. It's a intriguing phenomenon, and it's pretty ridiculous at how it's still continuing.
I am currently taking a Legal Studies course titled Prison, and throughout the semester we have talked about the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) and the problem of mass incarceration. One thin that I found interesting while I was watching this video is a case we learned about in class, Brown v. Plata. This case focuses on prison overcrowding, and the violation of prisoners’ rights due to a lack of medical and mental health care. This class action suit was brought up by California prisoners with serious mental disorders who felt that due to prison overcrowding, these patients received inadequate mental health care. In particular this case focuses on the eight amendments and how it prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. What this case ruled was that prisons had to reduce the amount of detainees in heir prisons within a time frame, so that there would be less over crowding.
ReplyDeleteOverall I found this video really interesting and very informative for those who are not aware of the issue of mass incarceration.
Hi Shahir! Thanks for sharing this video! It was indeed very insightful! I never knew ex-convicts aren't eligible for almost anything! In addition, I am curious to know what the policy is if they were wrongfully accused..
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