Food for Thought?

One of the things I found most fascinating in the book, and our following discussion, was the way in which laws evolved to criminalize race following the abolotion of slavery. I pulled some interesting facts regarding incarceration to flesh out some of my feelings...

- From 1880-1980, the U.S. added about 285, 000 people to the prison or parole population.
- From 1980-2000 ALONE, the U.S. added 1.1 million people to the prison or parole population. "Strangely" there was no drastic increase in violent crime during this time period. It is, however, when longer sentences and higher probability of incarceration were imposed following the declaration of "War on Drugs"
- The war on drugs put police under pressure to step up patrols, and they often sought criminals in urban areas as opposed to the suburbs because crimes were more visible (as they were frequently committed "on the streets" as opposed to indoors).
- From 1980 to 1990 the chance of going to prison for a drug crime increased fourfold.
- In 2004 Black Males made up over 43% of the prison population. The number of Black people in prison has increased 900% in the last 50 years.
- Rate of incarceration for black men is 8 times higher than that of non-hispanic white men.
- A black man born in 1990 w/o a highschool education faces a 1 in 3 chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life.
- 54% of inmantes are parents. 1 in 28 children has an incarcerated parent.
- The U.S. has 726 people in prison or on parole for every 100,000 citizens. This is 12 times as many as in Sweden or Japan, and Russia is the only country that comes close with 532 prisoners or parolees per 100,000 citizens.

"If the prison does not underbid the slum in human misery, the slum will empty and the prison will fill."
 - George Bernard Shaw

What do you think of this quote? Who do we actually incapacitate?

Singleton, Sara. "Criminal Justice." Politics of Inequality. Western Washington University, Bellingham. 15 Oct. 2011. Lecture.