Problem:
Reply to a Classmate
Reply from Eliana Bagadiong
I feel like Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow connects very close to the ideas that were talked about in Chapter 1 of James Kilgore's Understanding Mass Incarceration. Wile reading the introduction, Kilgore talks about how mass incarceration is not just about people committing crimes and then going to prison but being a bigger system used to deal with social problems like poverty, racial inequality, and the lack of opportunities (Kilgore, 2015). Alexander also makes the same point by arguing that mass incarceration works as a modern form of racial control that mostly affects Black and Latino communities (Alexander, 2010). Chapter 1 of Kilgores book also shows us how incarceration in the United States grew so quickly after the 1980s even when the crimes rates were going down. This shows us that the higher imprisonment rates were not only caused by more crimes (Kilgore, 2015). Alexander even supports this idea by talking about how policies like the War on Drugs were enforced aggressively in poor communities of color, even though drugs rates were similar for all different racial groups (Alexander, 2010). I feel like both authors argue that punishment replaced rehabilitation and care. Alexanders book helps give the real-life impact of the system Kilgore talks about. Both of these readings show us that mass incarceration is a political and social choice that harms valuable communities instead of finding a solution to crime. Need Assignment Help?
References:
Kilgore, J. (2015). Understanding mass incarceration: A people's guide to the key civil rights struggle of our time. The New Press.
Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press