Mass Incarceration A Small Look Into Our Predicament

AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES Mass Incarceration A small look into our predicament Brandon 4/27/2015 I. Overview of Mass Incarceration Throughout the last the couple of years in the United States African Americans have become synonymous with many of problems with the country. This includes the rising drug problem of our country, the increased violence on our streets, many of the gang-related activities that have become prevalent in our country. One of the biggest for African American’s is our involvement in our prison systems, our â€Å"mass incarceration. Mass incarceration is a term I use for a system that has been in place since the end of the civil war that took advantage of the economic problems of the country and lingering†¦show more content†¦Keeping black people in these rough areas his lowered public opinion of them in the eyes of not just other races but other black people as well. Many of them result to committing crimes or going to jail or causing trouble because that is all they know. Something like going to jail which is normally a big event in a family’s life has become so mething very common in African American culture, something akin to graduating high school or getting married. It has become something so commonplace that it is seen as the norm in many black communities. The black community is now synonymous with many of the biggest problems in our society which includes drugs, robbery, murder and much more. II. Creation of Mass Incarceration Since the topic of this paper has been clearly been stated one of the first questions that may come to mind would probably be how did all of this come about. This change in our country didn’t occur immediately but was the product of a long time of planning and manipulation of state African Americans had been left. One of the first tools used keep black people from learning was the creation of the black codes. These were laws in put in place to keep African Americans in positions of menial labor and farm work. One of the biggest codes of the black codes was the vagrancy laws that were put in place mostly in the southern regions of the