In the United States, African Americans make up approximately 13% of the population, yet a disproportionate 38% of those are currently incarcerated. 48% of black people are serving life, life without parole, or virtual life sentences. In the previous year, approximately 3.8 million Black Americans were arrested. In comparison to white Americans, only 2,289 white Americans were arrested for every 100,000 African Americans arrested. It appears unnatural to have a population where nearly 30% of the people are on parole (Initiative). Despite decades of declining crime rates among African Americans, the African American-imprisonment rate has steadily increased. While many have tried to blame gun violence, drug usage, and poverty for this issue, the only logical conclusion is that the criminal justice system has a racial bias; this racial bias results in mass incarceration across the U.S.
The term "mass incarceration" refers to unethical practices that extend beyond the criminal justice system. It refers to the larger network of laws, regulations, policies, and conventions that govern criminals both inside and outside of prison. Its consequences stretch beyond the confines of the jail cell (Alexander 13). This system unquestionably pervades the African American community, with the American government controlling nearly half of this group in jail. It has an impact on African American equality both directly and indirectly as a result of the systematic exclusion of African Americans from society: mass imprisonment erodes the right to vote, exacerbates poverty and homelessness, and, ultimately, increases crime.
This paper will demonstrate the cynical, yet well-designed racial caste system known as mass incarceration, which is a byproduct of former racial caste systems, such as slavery and Jim Crow laws. Evidence will be presented to support the parallels between these racial systems, and the common thread that runs through all three, which is rooted in oppressing African Americans. Furthermore, this paper will highlight how mass incarceration, like slavery and Jim Crow, stems from the United States economy's need for free labor exploitation, resulting in the disenfranchising of African Americans. As a whole, the study will examine how mass incarceration is synonymous with systemic racism and currently oppressing the African American community in the same way that previous racial caste systems did.
What was slavery? Labor Exploitation
The first racial caste system that originated in America was slavery. The term racial caste system refers to a legalized structure or system created to ensure the subordination and inferiority of a racial group. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Africans were kidnapped, colonized, and enslaved to produce crops. Approximately 10 million slaves existed in the United States throughout American history (Hacker). Being slaves to America, African Americans were recognized as ⅗ of a person, meaning that they were not regarded as citizens. They were politically controlled, erroneously brutalized, and bondage with no rights as a citizen. Indubitably, slavery consisted of racial distinctions, as white Americans were slave owners and black Americans were slaves. While the origin of this racial caste system highlights one of the many forms of racial injustice enacted upon African Americans, it is important to highlight the unfortunate objective of slavery.
The objective of slavery was to build the American economy through unpaid labor. Slaves were used as a means of free labor exploitation, which fueled the country's economic growth and the development of US capitalism. Cotton was America's most valuable export (Beckert and Rockman 1). The South produced approximately 75% of the world's cotton and produced more millionaires per capita than any other region of the country. Moreover, major consumer goods such as coffee, rum, sugar, and tobacco, which were the foundation of international trade in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, were also manufactured using slave labor (Timmons). Due to these crops' high demand and contribution to most of America's wealth, a substantial number of slaves were needed to promote America's economy. According to Kathryn Zickhur, a public policy analyst, enslaved Africans contributed 43% per capita growth in economic development before the civil war (Zickhur). Essentially, American slaves were indispensable to the development of the New World. Without the enslavement of African Americans, the economy would not have been as successful. In addition, it is essential to emphasize the value of uncompensated labor. Slavery not only created profit through international trade, but it also produced mass revenue because labor had no marginal cost. The economist Robert E. Gallman highlights this point when discussing the correlation between slavery and Southern economic growth. He contends that American slavery "naturally inverted itself, exploiting labor with zero, or even negative, marginal cost in the off-season” and followed this by asserting that the southern slave owners created a “nearly self-sufficient community” (1019). The goal was to profit without incurring any additional costs. Thus, the less money spent, the more money profited, which is why free labor permeated America and continues to do so today.
The data and findings above demonstrate how enslaved Americans benefited the Southern economy and political power. However, the decline of slavery’s expansion and its eventual total abolition posed a major threat to slaveholding Southerners. The 13th Amendment went into effect in 1865, banning slavery for all except those convicted of a crime. This, in turn, allowed for the widespread criminalization of African Americans. Though slavery had been abolished, the basis of it was still legalized through imprisonment. Accordingly, in the late nineteenth century, the South developed massive prison systems to preserve the racial and economic ties of slavery. The system was built with the intention of continuing free labor, but the only challenge was re-incarcerating African Americans (former slaves) (Browne 78-80). Ultimately, this resulted in Jim Crow laws, which established the second racial caste system.
What were Jim Crow Laws? African American Disenfranchisement
The second racial caste system that arose in America was the Jim Crow Laws between 1877 through the mid-1960s. These laws were a collection of regulations and codes that legalized racial segregation and marginalized African Americans by prohibiting the right to vote, denying employment, and limiting educational opportunities. Jim Crow Laws fostered anti-black racism by allowing society to treat African Americans as second-class citizens (Pilgrim). These meticulous laws and codes governed every facet of the African American life. In particular, they restricted African Americans' access to public transportation, facilities, and neighborhoods; petty offenses included loitering and breaking curfew (Browne 43). Furthermore, this era of disenfranchisement was carried out with pure malevolence and self-interest. Many white Americans were perturbed that their economy would fail without free labor and also feared African American prosperity. Therefore, creating a set of farcical laws that African Americans would inevitably break led to mass amounts of incarcerated African Americans. According to research journalist Douglas Blackmon, the implementation of Jim Crow Laws “led to tens of thousands of African Americans to be arrested, charged with outrageous fines, and held accountable for the cost associated with their own arrest” (“Jim Crow: Now & Then”). Eventually, the population of African Americans in prison grew equivalently to the number of slaves in American history.
Additionally, prisons became a system much akin to slavery. The prisons were “labor camps for the incarcerated, where prisoners were treated as enslaved people” (''Jim Crow Laws”). When an African American was imprisoned, they were subjected to and coerced into performing free labor for the American economy. “Prisoners were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, and farm plantations,” stated Blackmon (“Jim Crow: Now & Then”). Brutal weapons like chains and whips used to control African Americans during slavery were transformed into laws, prisons, and the fear of death to control them during the Jim Crow era (Tischauser xii). In addition, a system of convict leasing was developed, allowing plantation owners to purchase prisoners to live and work at their command as laborers (Browne 43). Through convict leasing, death rates were substantially high for the laborers (former slaves) because the contractors did not properly care for their health and well-being (Alexander 31). Jim Crow Laws prompted mass amounts of African Americans to work as laborers in both convict leasing and prison labor. In short, Jim Crow, like slavery, aided in the perpetuation of free labor, while also disenfranchising African Americans. Although slavery and Jim Crow have been outlawed, the principles that gave rise to them still exist today—free labor exploitation and African American disenfranchisement.
What is Mass Incarceration? Labor Exploitation and African American Disenfranchisement
The third racial caste system, which is a well-disguised structure of racial and social control that exists today, is mass incarceration. It is the process by which large proportions of African Americans are swept into prisons for long sentences and then released into a society where they are treated as second-class citizens who are denied basic human rights (Childress). Mass imprisonment extends beyond the jail cell, impairing the lives of the incarcerated as well as their families. Dorothy E. Roberts, an American sociologist and law professor, stated mass imprisonment of African American communities “damages social networks, distorts social norms, and destroys social citizenship.” As a result, African Americans face both economic and social adversities–the impact on children of the incarcerated in particular. The separation between children and their incarcerated parents causes social hardships by destroying children's psychological well-being. Children develop psychological illnesses such as depression, anxiety, feelings of shame, anger, and so on (Roberts 1284). In addition, it has an economic impact on African American families because parents are unable to provide for their children. Incarcerated workers earn between 13 cents and 52 cents per hour on average in the United States (Mercer). It is impossible for a prisoner to adequately finance their families given the diminutive pay. In essence, mass incarceration is a system that hinders the progression of the African American community. It has social control over and affects nearly half of the community, both inside and outside of prison. Like slavery and Jim Crow, mass incarceration parallels these systems that have systematically oppressed African Americans.
Similar to slavery, there are quite a few parallels with mass incarceration in light of slavery’s main objective–free labor exploitation. In the prison system today, there is a significant amount of exploited labor that violates human rights, similar to slave work in the 19th century. Private corporations are incentivized to lobby for contracts that use prisoners to maximize profit because they can manipulate labor costs (Ryerson). Prisoners perform anything from “textile work and construction, to manufacturing and service work.” They “make shoes, clothing, and detergent; they do dental lab work, recycling, metal production, and wood production” (Browne 42). Furthermore, prisoners are not protected by minimum wage laws, and according to the 13th Amendment, they are legally obligated to work under zero to little pay. The average incarcerated worker earns between 13 cents and 52 cents per hour (Mercer). In addition, prisoners are coerced into labor and face consequences if they refuse. Researchers from the ACLU's Human Rights Program concluded that 75% of workers face punishments such as solitary confinement, loss of visitation rights, and refusal of sentence reductions. This labor unquestionably contributes to the economy by producing goods and services for the US. Just in the past year, incarcerated workers produced approximately 2.09 billion dollars in goods and services (“US prison workers produce $11bn worth of goods and services a year for a pittance”). In all, an objective of the prison system is to exploit free labor, which draws a clear parallel to slavery. Slave labor was uncompensated; prisoners are paid nearly pennies for their labor. Slaves were brutalized and killed to work; prisoners are placed in solitary confinement and restricted visitation rights if they do not work. Slaves were exploited to benefit national economic wealth; prisoners are now used to benefit corporations more efficiently. Principally, the basis of exploited labor in the nineteenth century through slavery still prevails today through mass imprisonment. Studies have shown that “over 4,100 corporations profit from mass incarceration in the United States” (Ryerson). Overall, the incarceration system controls and utilizes its prisoners similarly to laborers during slavery.
However, not only does mass incarceration parallel slavery’s free exploited labor, but it also overlaps with Jim Crow Laws’ disenfranchisement of African American people. As previously stated, Jim Crow Laws politically controlled African Americans. It affected former slaves' social, political, and socioeconomic status within a society with laws that denied basic human rights. The effects of mass incarceration are similar today. After a prisoner is released, they are subjugated to a "new phase of stigmatization and control" (Alexander 17). Former inmates' parental benefits and their right to voting, traveling, housing, and employment are curtailed (“What rights do Felons Lose?”). In addition, formerly incarcerated African Americans are often perceived in the same light as African Americans who were subjected to Jim Crow Laws. “Mass incarceration has systematically created an underclass of Black citizens with fewer rights and more bitter futures than the rest of America; it really is the new Jim Crow,” stated Inimai Chettiar, director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program. Essentially, mass incarceration has declared a multitude of African Americans as second-class citizens and thus, are often racially profiled because of this inferiority.
Moreover, racial profiling today mirrors how the meticulous Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws inevitably sent freed slaves to prison. The Department of Justice found in a recent study that African American people are “twice as likely to be arrested during a traffic stop and nearly four times as likely to experience the threat or use of force” (Tucker 144). Police officers are also more likely to arrest African Americans for minor traffic infractions than white Americans (ibid). This injustice is exacerbated by the fact that once convicted, African Americans face longer sentences than white offenders (ibid). Michelle Alexander concluded that there are more African American men under criminal supervision today in America than were ever enslaved in 1850 (Lu). Fundamentally, this system of racial profiling that is present today, similar to Jim Crow and Black code laws, ensures the inevitability of imprisoning African Americans.
In essence, disenfranchisement and the effects of incarceration have resulted in mass amounts of African Americans being socially and economically isolated from society, much like Jim Crow laws in the past. Furthermore, both Jim Crow Laws and mass incarceration have impeded the advancement of the African American community, as both have subjected nearly half of the population to condemnation. Just as Jim Crow Laws disenfranchised, racially stereotyped, and segregated African Americans, mass incarceration and its causes and effects do the same.
Contrasting Ideas of Mass Incarceration
Many people disagree with mass incarceration being similar to overt racial caste systems, such as slavery and Jim Crow laws. Today, African Americans are not openly segregated, brutalized, killed, or arrested for loitering as they were in previous racial caste systems. As a result, some may consider comparing mass incarceration to slavery and Jim Crow to be implausible. Many argue that African Americans have the highest prison population due to their high crime rate. Furthermore, they validate forced labor and disenfranchisement as a consequence of breaking the law. While the arguments are reasonable, the claims are misleading and ambiguous, given the statistics of African American crime. Many factors contribute to the misleading statistics of increased crime and convictions in the African American community. Their crime and conviction rates are disproportionately higher due to racial disparities in the criminal justice system. For example, consider the crime of illegal drug possession and use. The most recent survey, in 2018, concluded that the usage of illegal drugs by white and black Americans was at comparable rates, 12.0%, and 13.7%. However, it was found that African Americans were convicted for drug offenses at 2.8 to 5.5 times the rate for white Americans (Gross 28). Despite African Americans having nearly the same crime rate as whites, their conviction rate is vastly different. Another example is the wrongful conviction rate of African Americans. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, African American people are about “7½ times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder in the U.S. than are whites, and about 80% more likely to be innocent than others convicted of murder” (Death Penalty Information Center). This exemplifies how African Americans are not only lured into prison but also innocently forced into it without having committed any crimes. Fundamentally, how can we blame African Americans' "crime" for mass incarceration when crime rate statistics do not align with prison sentencing, and arrests are frequently based on racial stereotyping? It is no coincidence that African Americans, the majority race in prison, have a higher rate of being wrongfully convicted, racially profiled, and over-sentenced for more crimes than other groups, despite comparative rates. As a result, it is reasonable to conclude that the mass incarceration of African Americans is motivated by factors other than crime.
Mass Incarceration Must Be Ended
As this paper has demonstrated, there are innumerable parallels between slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration. Following the collapse of each control system, a new system has been established to maintain the objectives of the racially oppressed and exploited African American community. First, slavery was used to exploit African Americans through free labor. Then, Jim Crow Laws were created to disenfranchise African Americans after slavery. Now, mass incarceration intertwines both racial caste systems by exploiting and disenfranchising African Americans during and after incarceration. Slavery and Jim Crow laws were both abolished because they legalized systemic racism and oppression of African Americans. Because their mechanisms and objectives are similar, it is reasonable to conclude that mass incarceration is another form of legalized systemic racism that must be ended. What America has deemed unconstitutional, improbable, and forbidden (slavery and Jim Crow Laws) persists today under the guise of mass incarceration.
Despite some awareness of mass incarceration, no significant progressions, or reforms to end it has been implemented. If current trends of mass incarceration continue, one out of every three African American men will serve prison time (Alexander 9). Thus, America must recognize and address the oppression of African Americans now, before it is too late. To eliminate this racial caste system, compassion, and concern for every human being of every class in our society are required; otherwise, the goal of ending mass incarceration would not be met (Alexander 18). Michelle Alexander stated that "no task is more urgent for racial justice advocates today than ensuring that America's current racial caste system is it is last." Therefore, society must act now to end mass incarceration's oppression of African Americans.
Works Cited
- Kori focuses on mass incarceration in her tracing of racial oppression in the US. Are there other areas where this issue might be taken up? Does it apply to other racial and cultural backgrounds as well?
- What do you make of her use of history in this essay? Where do you find it helpful? Where does it challenge you? Are there any moments where you would challenge it back?
- At the time of publication (fall 2023), there is a movement in public schools to limit the kind of history that Kori is talking about. Why do you think that is? Is this history dangerous? If so, to whom?
- In this essay, Kori makes a clear argument about racial injustice across long historical time periods. This use of history is very compelling, and rare. How is historical context essential to understanding current injustices? Further, what is a social injustice that you care about? Might you, like Kori, go back and study its history?
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