Mass Incarceration – Refers to the dramatic rise in incarceration rates in the United States, beginning around the 1970s. The US currently holds about 2.4 million people in jails or prisons, and approximately 7.3 million total people involved in the criminal justice system, either incarcerated, on parole, or probation. Racism is a critical factor in who is arrested and who is incarcerated. The incarceration rate for African Americans is approximately six times that for Whites. The incarceration rate of Latinos is more than double that for Whites.
Prison Abolition – Many activists and communities have begun calling for abolition of the Prison Industrial Complex. They believe that injustice cannot be eliminated in the US system of mass incarceration through reform measures. Instead, these activists suggest dismantling the prison system and creating more just alternatives for social safety.
Privatization – Increasingly, prisons (and immigrant detention centers) across the United States are being built and operated by for-profit private corporations such as the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America. While states like Illinois, with strong public sector unions, have avoided for-profit prisons , many states, especially in the US South and Southwest have increasingly moved toward privatization.
Jim Crow - The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.
Prison Abolition – Many activists and communities have begun calling for abolition of the Prison Industrial Complex. They believe that injustice cannot be eliminated in the US system of mass incarceration through reform measures. Instead, these activists suggest dismantling the prison system and creating more just alternatives for social safety.
Privatization – Increasingly, prisons (and immigrant detention centers) across the United States are being built and operated by for-profit private corporations such as the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America. While states like Illinois, with strong public sector unions, have avoided for-profit prisons , many states, especially in the US South and Southwest have increasingly moved toward privatization.
Jim Crow - The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.
Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms and restaurants for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated. These Jim Crow Laws were separate from the 1800-66 Black Codes, which had also restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans. State-sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964[1] and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The phrase "Jim Crow Law" first appeared in 1904 according to the Dictionary of American English,[2] although there is some evidence of earlier usage.[3] The origin of the phrase "Jim Crow" has often been attributed to "Jump Jim Crow", a song-and-dance caricature of African Americans performed by white actor Thomas D. Rice in blackface, which first surfaced in 1832 and was used to satirize Andrew Jackson's populist policies. As a result of Rice's fame, "Jim Crow" had become a pejorative expression meaning "African American" by 1838, and from this the laws of racial segregation became known as Jim Crow laws.[3] (Source: Wikipedia).
Racial Caste System – A stigmatized racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom (Source: Michelle Alexander – The New Jim Crow ).
Mass Incarceration - Mass incarceration, according to Michelle Alexander, is a system that locks people not only behind actual bars in actual prisons, but also behind virtual bars and virtual walls – walls that are invisible to the naked eye but function nearly as effectively as Jim Crow laws once did at locking people of color into a permanent second-class citizenship. The term mass incarceration refers not only to the criminal justice system but also to the larger web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control those labeled criminals both in and out of prison. Once released, former prisoners enter a hidden underworld of legalized discrimination and permanent social exclusion. They are members of America’s new undercaste (p.12-13).
Racial Caste System – A stigmatized racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom (Source: Michelle Alexander – The New Jim Crow ).
Mass Incarceration - Mass incarceration, according to Michelle Alexander, is a system that locks people not only behind actual bars in actual prisons, but also behind virtual bars and virtual walls – walls that are invisible to the naked eye but function nearly as effectively as Jim Crow laws once did at locking people of color into a permanent second-class citizenship. The term mass incarceration refers not only to the criminal justice system but also to the larger web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control those labeled criminals both in and out of prison. Once released, former prisoners enter a hidden underworld of legalized discrimination and permanent social exclusion. They are members of America’s new undercaste (p.12-13).
Mass incarceration refers to the extraordinary number of people being locked up in the US today. Of the more than 2.3 million Americans behind bars, the overwhelming majority have been taken from the poorest neighborhoods and counties in the country. In 2005, nearly $525,000,000 was spent imprisoning residents from Cook County alone, mostly from Chicago’s under-resourced Black and Latino neighborhoods. Among the many unknowns of contemporary incarceration policies are the political implications of removing residents of a community en masse. The use of state resources to support policies of mass incarceration can have dramatically negative impacts on a community’s capacity to create and maintain their own practices of peacemaking. Targeting predominately poor people of color over the last 35 years, the prison population in Illinois has risen over 500 percent. This rise has tremendous implications for the children of the incarcerated and the Department of Children and Family Services (Source: Area Chicago)
Second Class Citizenship
War on Drugs
Prison Towns
Death Penalty
Prison-Industrial Complex
Military-Industrial Complex
Reentry
Recidivism
Transformative Justice
Restorative Justice
School to Jail Pipeline
Alternative Sentencing
“Windy City Sweeps”
Internalized Oppression
“Personal Responsibility”
Structure/Agency
Media
Ideology
White Supremacy
Class
Slave Codes
Convict Lease System
Disenfranchisement
“Tough on Crime”
Theories of Criminal Justice
Second Class Citizenship
War on Drugs
Prison Towns
Death Penalty
Prison-Industrial Complex
Military-Industrial Complex
Reentry
Recidivism
Transformative Justice
Restorative Justice
School to Jail Pipeline
Alternative Sentencing
“Windy City Sweeps”
Internalized Oppression
“Personal Responsibility”
Structure/Agency
Media
Ideology
White Supremacy
Class
Slave Codes
Convict Lease System
Disenfranchisement
“Tough on Crime”
Theories of Criminal Justice
- Deterrence
- Incapacitation
- Retribution
- Rehabilitation
