1. In her book, The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander claims that the common explanation for mass incarceration in the United States is deeply misguided, if not a malicious lie. To support this claim, she lists numerous historical truths surrounding the War on Drugs. One of the most interesting of these is the fact that the War was not, as is commonly held, started to fight the sale and usage of crack cocaine. While crack was a factor starting in 1985, President Reagan declared his war in 1982. In 1985, he hired staff to publicize crack’s rise as a way to build support for his efforts. Additionally, the CIA admitted to supporting foreign guerrilla armies (in order to fight an undercover war) that were smuggling illegal drugs into the U.S. The CIA also did not allow law enforcement to investigate drug networks that were financially supporting their war. While these facts do not necessarily denote a coordinated effort to imprison higher rates of minority drug users, it is certainly suspicious that inner-city communities began having a drug crisis after the beginning of the War on Drugs. The start of the war saw a hike in arrests for drug offenses, most notably among racial minorities.
  2. There is a statistical gap in incarceration rates between minority offenders and white offenders, with the rate of imprisoned minorities being significantly higher, particularly black men. Many believe that this gap can be explained by the disproportionate rate of drug users in inner-city, minority communities. While it is true that significantly more racial minorities are in prison for drug related crimes, the numbers show that people of all races use and sell drugs at very similar rates. Additionally, these surveys convey that white people are more likely to use illegal drugs.
  3. For a government, punishment is often a form of social control. Punishment is used to send a message about a governments attitude on certain crimes, groups, etc. To illustrate the severity of the American penal system’s flaws and proposed biases, Alexander compares U.S. incarceration rates between 1960 and 1990 to those of Germany and Finland. While the rates of crime remained relatively the same across the Western world, U.S. incarceration raised significantly, while Finland’s fell and Germany’s remained the same. These statistics provide a clear view of the unparalleled social control asserted by America’s penal system.

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