- The main explanation as to why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S is explained to be because of the war on drugs. Michelle Alexander expresses “This view holds that the racial disparities in drug convictions and sentences, as well as the rapid explosion of the prison population, reflect nothing more than the government’s zealous—but benign—efforts to address rampant drug crime in poor, minority neighborhoods.” She believes the true reasoning for the mass incarceration was because of how the government and the media portrayed minority communities for the reason there was illegal drug distribution. This caused the mistaken belief that most drug dealers are black or brown, when the war on drugs was announced drug crime was actually declining and not rising.
2. The rate of incarceration cant be explained by rates of drug crimes because statistically it shows that people of all colors use and sell drugs at the same rate, so that is why Alexander is arguing that mass incarceration is because of systemic racism and not actual crimes.
3. To my understanding the phrase ‘the American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history” is saying how mass incarceration was not to provide safeness and clean the streets, it was to control marginalized communities to feel in control.
