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Marquise Toppin

Professor Somdahl-Sands

4/24/16

Seminar in Political Science

Mass Incarceration within the Nation

America has the highest prison population in the world. Of that population the majority is

consisted of the minority within the country, but why is that? During the 70’s America started its

infamous War on Drugs which forever changed American society. The War on Drugs has led to

the mass incarceration of African Americans in the U.S. in order to show this I will be looking at

the increase in the prison population since the 1970’s. I will first explain what the War on Drugs

is and what laws/changes came into existence because of it. Then I will look into how it directly

leads to the mass incarceration of African Americans.

For my paper I will be focusing on the War on Drugs and the link between it and the

mass incarceration of African Americans in America. Since the beginning of the War on Drugs

there has been a major increase of inmates in the prison system. Many of these inmates are made

up of African Americans and many drug related arrests occur in African American communities.

According to the book “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, the War on Drugs was

made to fulfil a hidden agenda. In the book it says “The War on Drugs is a racist conspiracy to

put blacks in their place”. Studies from it show that there has been a dramatic increase in the

prison population (majority consisting of African Americans) from the start of the War on Drugs

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until now. African Americans are disproportionately represented in the U.S penal system.

Studies from the article “Corporations Go to Prisons: The Expansion of Corporate Power in the

Correctional Industry” by Tracy F. H. Chang and Douglas E. Thompkins show that over recent

years there has been a huge increase in the prison population. Within the past 20 years or so you

can see that America’s prison population has quadrupled at the very least.

The emergence of the new drug known as crack helped launch the War on Drugs. Soon

after that crack spread to the black communities throughout the country. Both the book “The

New Jim Crow” and the article “Corporations Go to Prisons: The Expansion of Corporate Power

in the Correctional Industry” talk about the increase in the prison population since the creation of

War on Drugs and who makes up majority of the prison population. But “The New Jim Crow”

focuses more on how African Americans have and are still being affected by the War on Drugs

and the negative impacts they have to face because of it. The article “Corporations Go to

Prisons” focuses more on the prisons themselves and the creation of private prisons since the

War on Drugs began. Out of these two sources most of the major points of my paper will be

coming from “The New Jim Crow” because of how it closes in specifically of how African

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Americans have been targeted by the War on Drugs. It mentions in one of its studies that “In

major cities wracked by the drug war, as many as 80% of young African American men now

have criminal records and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives”.

Other sources that I have looked at include “Diminishing Returns: Crime and

Incarceration in the 1990’s” by Jenni Gainsborough and Marc Mauer and “Evaluating the

Effectiveness of Correctional Education” by Lois M. Davis, Robert Bozick, Jennifer L. Steele,

Jessica Saunders, and Jeremy N.V. Miles. The article “Diminishing Returns: Crime and

Incarceration in the 1990’s” continues to verify some facts that have already been researched in

the two sources that I’ve mentioned in the beginning of my paper. It shows that there has been a

dramatic increase in the prison population starting from the 1970’s until the present day. “The

scale of incarceration has expanded from about 330,000 Americans in prison and jail in 1972 to

nearly 2 million today” and it shows how the increase of people in prison for drug related arrests

have been contributing to the system “In 1984 drug offenders comprised only 7.6% of state

prison populations; by 1998 this percentage had nearly tripled to 20.7%”.

It mentions in “Diminishing Returns: Crime and Incarceration in the 1990’s” how the

most significant policy changes contributing to inmate population growth were drug offenders,

time served in prison, and parole violators. “Increases in the use of imprisonment in recent years

have been much more the result policy decisions-drug arrests, harsher sentencing policy, and

increased revocation of parole violators than changes in crime rates”. It also mentions a very

important fact about how the increase in drug arrests and the increase in the prison population

have done virtually nothing to solve the problem of drug use here in the country. “Another

indicator of drug abuse are household surveys, which show that drugs remain easily available,

suggesting that neither the mass arrest nor incarceration of drug offenders has reduced the

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availability of drugs”. “Diminishing Returns: Crime and Incarceration in the 1990’s” focuses not

only on the increase in the prison population, but also on the relationship between mass

incarceration and the crime rate, looking at how much does mass incarceration affect the increase

or decline of crime in states.

The article “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education” focuses more on the

increase in prison population as well as the lack of education prisoners have and talks about

fixing it so that they aren’t at such a disadvantage compared to people outside of prison. For my

paper I’m not concerned with the education aspect when it comes to mass incarceration and the

prison system, so for this article I will most likely be using not as much as material from it than

some of my others sources. “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education” like many

of my others looks at the growth in prison population. “The growth in the prison population for

the past 40 years has been well documented”. And it looks a little at those who are re-

incarcerated which is something else that I wasn’t originally focusing on for my paper “Within

three years of release, four out of ten U.S state prisoners will have committed new crimes or

violated the terms of their release and be re-incarcerated”.

Another article that I’m using called “5 Charts That Prove the War on Drugs Is a

Nightmare” by Kyle Jaeger focuses on five main points which are federal prisoners are being

given longer sentences than before the 1980’s, sentences have become increasingly harsh for

drug offenders, the war on drugs hasn’t stopped people from using illicit substances, federal law

enforcement agencies have been targeting mostly low-level drug offenders, and reduced

sentences does not translate into higher recidivism rates.

When it comes to harsh sentencing it says that “Harsh sentencing laws enacted in the

1980’s and 1990’s have resulted in a dramatic rise in the number of federal inmates serving for

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drug offenses …In the last 35 years, that number has increased from approximately 5,000 to

95,000 federal prisoners behind bars for drug related-arrests”. It talks about how ineffective the

War on Drugs has been. “The price of illicit substances, including heroin and cocaine, has

dropped significantly in the last two decades, and rates of drug use in the U.S have actually

increased since 1990”. This article talks about how longer sentencing started after the War on

Drugs began. “Lawmakers enacted dozens of Mandatory minimum sentencing laws that required

drug offenders to serve longer periods of confinement. They also established compulsory

sentence enhancement for certain drug offenders, including a doubling of penalties for repeat

offenders and mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for those convicted

of a third serious crime offense”. Harsh sentencing as well as the specific targeting of the African

American race seems to be two of the reasons America’s prison population is as huge as it is,

according to my sources. Another source that I decided to use in order to give me some more

information on America’s prison population, sentencing policies, other contributing factors to the

mass incarceration of African Americans, and how African Americans are specifically being

targeted is the “Criminal Justice Fact Sheet” found on the NAACP web page. It reiterates the fact

that the U.S has a ridiculously high prison population. “Today the U.S is 5% of the world

population and has 25% of world prisoners”. Some may not be convinced that African

Americans are being specifically targeted, but the sheet gives some convincing research that

suggests otherwise. “African American now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million

incarcerated population”, “African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of

whites”, and “According to unlocking America, if African American and Hispanics were

incarcerated at the same rates of whites, today’s prison and jail populations would decline”.

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These are only a few pieces of information from this source that seems to back up the

claim that African Americans are being targeted. It then goes on to talk about sentencing policies

when it comes to drug offenses. “5 times as many whites are using drugs as African American,

yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of whites” and

“African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as

whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months)”.

From this source the other contributing factors that it list that it sees has also added to the

mass incarceration of African Americans include, “Mandatory minimum sentencing, especially

disparities in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine possession” and the “Get tough on crime”

and “War on drugs policies”.

Most people have at least heard the term the War on Drugs at least one time if not more,

but what exactly is the War on Drugs? The modern War on Drugs was a campaign launched by

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President Richard Nixon and later further escalated by President Ronald Reagan to deter and

stop/reduce drugs from being sold and used within the country. It seems and sounds like a noble

cause but it soon became clear that this may have just been used to hide what was truly trying to

be accomplished, which was the destruction within the African American community.

Nixon demonized drug users/addicts during his term in order to shift public support in his

favor. In the article “The War on Drugs: How President Nixon Tied Addiction to Crime” by

Emily Dufton she explains how Nixon does this. “First, Nixon launched a drug war that framed

drug users not as alienated youths whose addiction was caused by inhabiting a fundamentally

inequitable society, but as criminals attacking the moral fiber of the nation, people who deserved

only incarceration”. Nixon’s goal seemed to have been to make drug users seem less than human

so that the public wouldn’t care or have any empathy for them. If the public doesn’t care about

what happens to them than anything could be done to them such as locking all of them up in

mass numbers. “Nixon exonerated the white middle class from responsibility for the drug-related

violence ravaging the inner cities. Second, he transformed the public image of the drug user into

one of a dangerous and anarchic threat to American civilization”.

By doing this the idea that mass incarceration for drug users could be seen as the only

way to stop drug crime and to clean up the streets, making the country once again safe. Nixon’s

propaganda about drugs and its threat to the country frightened the public and added much

needed fuel to the fire which worked in his favor. In the article “Who’s Using and Who’s Doing

Time: Incarceration, the War on Drugs, and Public Health” by Lisa D. Moore and Amy Elkavich

it sums up the effect that the drug propaganda had and who exactly is the target for this Drug

War. “A broad moral panic about crime fueled by media headlines and political expediency

created the need to escalate the war on drugs. The outcome has increased incarceration produced

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by tougher laws and prosecution, less judicial discretion, and greater policing. Because these

laws are not enforced equally, most often the poor and people of color who are financially or

socially unable to remove themselves from environments that are labeled “drug areas””. Looking

at the article “Reagan’s Drug War Legacy” by Jeralyn Merritt she focuses on Reagan’s

participation in the War on Drugs. “Federal sentencing guidelines: Under this new method of

sentencing, which went into effect in 1987, prison time is determined mostly by the weight of the

drugs involved in the offense. Parole was abolished and prisoners must serve 85 percent of their

sentence. Except in rare situations, judges can no longer factor in the character of the defendant,

the effect of incarceration on his or her dependents, and in large part, the nature and

circumstances of the crime. The only way to receive a more lenient sentence is to act as an

informant against others and hope that the prosecutor is willing to deal. The guidelines in effect

stripped Article III of their sentencing discretion and turned it over to prosecutors”. The Anti-

Drug Abuse of Act of 1988 also came into effect under Reagan’s watch “This law established a

federal death penalty for "drug kingpins." President Reagan called it a new sword and shield in

the escalating battle against drugs, and signed the bill in his wife's honor”.

One of the things that came out of the War on Drugs was harsh new sentencing laws

which significantly prolonged the amount of time people were now being kept in prisons. The

first set of these harsh laws that have caused a lasting impact are known as “The Rockefeller

Drug Laws” which came into place during the early 1970’s in New York. These laws along with

the three strikes law embodied the new attitude of getting tough on crime. Even if it were small

time criminals being sentenced for petty crimes it was now out of the hands of judges because

they had no choice but sentence the ones being convicted to the new mandatory sentence.

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In the article “The Drug Laws that Changed How We Punish” by Brian Mann he talks

about how The Rockefeller Drug Laws increased the number of drug related arrests but did

nothing to decrease crime, it only help increase the prison population. “He called for something

unheard of: mandatory prison sentences of 15 years to life for drug dealers and addicts even

those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, or heroin”. This was the beginning to the

trend we now see today in which people are now spending significantly longer periods of times

in prison which adds to the reason why prisons are so over populated. According to the article

“40th anniversary of the Rockefeller Drug Laws: A Window of Opportunity For a Better Path”

by Anthony Papa says “The Rockefeller Laws made New York’s prisons become a merciless

machine, destroying families and lives, and locking up tens of thousands of first-time offenders,

many addicted to drugs”. It didn’t take long to see that minorities mainly African Americans

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were being targeted being and locked away.

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The graph above is from “The Sentencing Project” and it shows the dramatic increase in

the U.S prison system. It’s noticeable that the graph dramatically increases around the time the

War on Drugs begins which is no coincidence. Before the War on Drugs it can be seen that the

number of people within the prison system barely went over more than 200,000 people. For more

over the past ten years the numbers have increased to well over 1,000,000 people. It’s hard to

believe that the War on Drugs has had such a negative impact on our society and how quickly it

was able to change things in a counterproductive way. African Americans are the ones who make

up the majority of this prison population even though African Americans are the minority group

in this country, and are greatly outnumbered by Caucasians.

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Above is a chart from “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2016” by Peter Wagner and

Bernadette Rabuy. It shows that majority of the prison population is located within the state

prison system. Of the 1,351,000 people in state prisons, 212,000 people are there because of drug

related arrests. The second largest prison population belongs to the local jails where 115,000

people are there who aren’t convicted and 45,000 who are convicted. The third largest which

would be the federal prison system consists of 105,000 people who are there because of drugs.

Looking at the youth population there are 1,900 who are there because of drugs. It says

on the chart that 2.3 million Americans are in prison. Of that 2.3 million the majority is consisted

of African Americans, males more than women. In the article “Mass Incarceration: The Whole

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Pie 2016” it points out the fact that there isn’t a correct representation of inmates who are there

for drug offenses. The reason for this is that there are inmates who are in prisons for multiple

offenses (which could have involved a drug offense). This would increase the number of people

if we were to count those who were in jail for drug related crimes. According to the article

published by The Washington Post called “America has locked up so many black people it has

wrapped our sense of reality” by Jeff Guo “Over the past 40 years, the prison population has

quintuples…Black men are imprisoned at six times the rate of white men. In 2003, the Bureau of

Justice Statistics estimated that black men have a 1 in 3 chance of going to federal or state prison

in their lifetimes”.

It goes on to say that “One in nine black children has had a parent behind bars.

One in thirteen black adults can’t vote because of their criminal records”. This article talks about

the statistics that show racial difference when it comes to the prison system. It also talks about

the negative affects it has on the black community and how it has changed the economy. African

Americans are no more likely to commit a crime than someone of another race, yet they are

constantly depicted as criminals or thugs. The media does a great job at showing African

Americans in a negative light to our society. Those who have never met an African American

would only have these negative images to go off of and it will cause them to have a troublesome

mindset. This is another reason why African Americans are targeted by law enforcement, they

automatically see them as a threat because of the image attached to them. Just as Nixon

portrayed drug addicts/users as people who weren’t human, the same is being done to African

Americans as it always have. The mass incarceration of African Americans is nothing more than

a legalized way to once again oppress a race of people because of the color of their skin.

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The article “America has locked up so many black people it has wrapped our sense of

reality” also points out that when measuring the unemployment of both black and white men it

only accounts for the ones who are living in a home while at the same time actively seeking

some type of employment. The article gives a clear depiction of the racial gap when it comes to

this subject. It says “According to a Wonkblog analysis of government statistics, about 1.6

percent of prime-age white men (25 to 54 years old) are institutionalized. If all those 590,000

people were recognized as unemployed, the unemployment rate for prime-age white men would

increase from about 5 percent to 6.4 percent. For prime-age black men, though, the

unemployment rate would jump from 11 percent to 19 percent. That’s because a far higher

fraction of black men-7.7 percent, or 580,000 people-are institutionalized”.

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The chart above is also from the article “America has locked up so many black people it

has wrapped our sense of reality”. It shows the huge gap between the two groups which consist

of high school dropouts which include those who are currently in the prison system. When you

compare Black men to White men, you can see it’s nearly doubled. It focuses a little bit on the

high school dropouts and how many go on to be employed. According to the article “Only about

54 percent of young white male high-school dropouts had jobs in 2014. And only 25 percent of

their black counterparts were employed”. This number would be much higher if you were to take

out all of those who are currently in prison.

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This chart is from the article “For small amounts of marijuana, blacks are far more likely

than whites to go to jail in Charlotte” from the newspaper the Charlotte Observer it shows how

more blacks are being arrested when it comes to Marijuana which falls under a drug related

arrests. “Since 2014, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police have made 3,700 arrests or citations for

possessing less than a half-ounce of marijuana. Those were “sole charges,” meaning the people

weren’t charged with anything else”. Of the 3,700 the article points out that 74 percent of the

people were Black while 18 percent were White. This chart shows not only that many people

who African American are being arrested because of drug related offenses, but also that they are

being singled out and targeted when compared to Whites. Referring back to the 3,700 arrests of

citations for possessing marijuana only 1,961 were arrested, but there is a problem when you

look at percentage of what group was arrested the most. “During that time, police were far more

likely to arrest blacks for possession rather than giving them a citation. Of the 1,961 people

arrested for possession, 91 percent were black. Whites were 9 percent of those arrested”.

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The charts above are from an article published by the Huffington Post called “Just How

Much the War on Drugs Impacts Our Overcrowded Prisons”. It shows how much of a role drug

offenses play with bringing inmates into the prison system. It’s overwhelming compared to the

other offenses that are listed, drug offenses alone makes up about 50 percent of the chart and

accounts for the most number of inmates. This article looks at how much more easily offenders

are being sent to jail no matter the crime because of mandatory minimum sentencing. The article

points this out when it says “the single most important element in explaining the record

incarceration numbers both at the federal and state levels could be “mandatory minimum”

sentencing requirements, under which federal and state law over the past two decades has

automatically required certain prison sentences for certain crimes, particularly for drug

offences”.

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The chart above is also from the article “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2016”. It

shows the steady increase over past decades in the number of arrests for drug possession. By the

mid 90’s you can see that at least one million people are now being arrested for drug possession.

These charts from that I have used from some of my sources not only show me the role that drug

related cases have on the prison system, but also that a specific group is being mostly targeted

which in turn is hurting that community. The War on Drugs which really took off in the 80’s is to

blame for this phenomenon. The mass incarceration of African Americans in the U.S is as

relevant today as it’s ever been. In the “The New Jim Crow” mass incarceration is referred to as

the new caste system of today just like Jim Crow and slavery used to be. It portrays it perfectly

when it says “Mass incarceration, is a system that locks people not only behind actual bars in

actual prisons, but also behind virtual bars and virtual walls- walls that area invisible to the

naked eye but function nearly as effectively as Jim Crow laws once did at locking people of

color into a permanent second-class citizenship”.

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The two charts above are from “Prison Policy Initiative” these two charts again show the

racial prejudice that the War on Drugs creates within the prison system. According to the chart as

of 2010 almost half of the African American population is incarcerated in U.S prison systems.

The more I look at the graphs the more it becomes clear to me that the War on Drugs is just as

Michelle Alexander said “The Drug War is the new Jim Crow”. Alexander makes a good point

when she also says “Mass incarceration in the United States had, in fact, emerged as a stunningly

comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner

strikingly similar to Jim Crow”. The reason Alexander keeps comparing the prison system to the

Jim Crow laws is because it can be seen as the new version of it. It clearly targets African

Americans, and the policies surrounding the system seems to specifically support the agenda of

locking up and keeping in as many prisoners as possible. The chart above shows the racial

segregation that this prison system creates within our country. It carries on the job that the Jim

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Crow laws once did by making African Americans 2nd class citizens, by having their rights taken

away. In “The New Jim Crow” it says “The current system of control permanently locks a huge

percentage of the African American community out of the mainstream society and economy”.

Compared to other countries the U.S is the only one who locks up a particular race at such

alarming rates. Looking at the graph below from the “International Centre for Prison Studies &

Bureau of Justice National Prisoner Statistics” you can see the number of African American

males during mid-2013 who were in state, local, and federal prisons. In the article “The Black

Male Incarceration Problem Is Real and It’s Catastrophic” by Antonio Moore it points out “To

give a lens for viewing this data India is a country of 1.2 Billion people, the country in total only

has around 380,000 prisoners. In fact, there are more African American men incarcerated in the

U.S. than the total prison populations in India, Argentina, Canada, Lebanon, Japan, Germany,

Finland, Israel and England combined”.

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In my opinion the War on Drugs have not only lead to the mass incarceration of African

Americans in the U.S it has also lead to the destruction of African American communities and

have seriously crippled the African American race from progressing. The War on Drugs is

responsible for the absence of African American Males within the household which leads to

broken families within the African American community. When it comes to crime, law

enforcement are way more likely to go after and make sure they arrest African Americans vs

Caucasians. It seems every time we think we score a victory for equality in this country there is

always a new oppressive plan that’s put in place to replace the old one. When you think about it

the War on Drugs didn’t fail, it did exactly what it was supposed to do.

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References

1. Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of

Colorblindness. , 2010. Print.

2. Chang, T. F. H., & Thompkins, D. E. (2002). Corporations go to prisons: The

expansion of corporate power in the correctional industry.

3. Davis, Lois M., Robert Bozick, Jennifer L. Steele, Jessica Saunders and Jeremy N. V.

Miles. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education: A Meta-Analysis of

Programs That Provide Education to Incarcerated Adults. Santa Monica, CA: RAND

Corporation, 2013.

4. http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet

5. Jaeger, Kyle. 5 Charts That Prove the War on Drugs Is a Nightmare. Published by

ATTN August 31, 2015.

6. Wagner, Peter. "Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2016." Mass Incarceration: The

Whole Pie 2016. Prison Policy Initiative, Mar.-Apr. 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

7. Harrison, Steve. "For Small Amounts of Marijuana, Blacks Are Far More Likely than

Whites to Go to Jail in Charlotte." Charlotteobserver. N.p., 12 Feb. 2016. Web. 22

Apr. 2016.

8. Miles, Kathleen. "Just How Much The War On Drugs Impacts Our Overcrowded

Prisons, In One Chart." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 3 Apr. 2014.

Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

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9. Moore, Lisa D., and Amy Elkavich. "Who’s Using and Who’s Doing Time:

Incarceration, the War on Drugs, and Public Health?" American Journal of Public

Health. American Public Health Association, May 2008. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

10. Merritt, Jeralyn. "Reagan's Drug War Legacy." Alternet. N.p., 18 June 2004. Web. 22

Apr. 2016.

11. Moore, Antonio. "The Black Male Incarceration Problem Is Real and It's

Catastrophic." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Apr. 2015. Web. 22

Apr. 2016.

12. Lopez, German. "How America Became the World's Leader in Incarceration, in 22

Maps and Charts." Vox. N.p., 11 Mar. 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

13. Guo, Jeff. "America Has Locked up so Many Black People It Has Warped Our Sense

of Reality." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

14. Papa, Anthony. "40th7 Anniversary of the Rockefeller Drug Laws: A Window of

Opportunity for a Better Path." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 July

2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

15. Mann, Brian. "The Drug Laws That Changed How We Punish." NPR. NPR, 14 Feb.

2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.