1. M. Alexander claims that the main explanation of why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S. today is deeply wrong. Explain her argument by referring to the various examples she mentions to back up her point. (see p. 1-2)

Michelle Alexander claims that the main explanation of why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S. today is deeply wrong because the War on Drugs was launched well before crack cocaine was an issue in poor black communities. Alexander argues that a few years after President Reagan declared the War on Drugs, crack cocaine began to spread quickly in black neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and then they spread to other cities around the country. The Reagan administration created a media campaign to publicize the “emergence of crack cocaine” to gain more support for the “war,” which confirmed the worst stereotypes about poor inner-city people.  Those stereotypes have led to racial disparities for black and brown people, causing them to be convicted at higher rates than that of white people in the U.S.  

2. Why is it that racial disparities in the rates of incarceration “cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes”? 

Racial disparities in the rate of incarceration “cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes” because people of all color use and sell illegal drugs. Whites, particularly white teenagers, are more likely to commit drug crimes than people of color.  As well as black men have been sent to prison or jails on charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than white men.

3. How do you understand the phrase: “The American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history.”?  

I understand the phrase “the American penal system has emerged as a social control unparalleled in world history” to mean that the United States has the highest rate of incarcerations in the world, imprisoning a larger percentage of its ethnic minorities than other countries. The reason for that is the racial disparities within the penal system. We’ve seen it time and time again on the news that when a crime is committed by a person of color, the sentencing they receive is much harsher than that of a white person who committed the same crime.