The New Jim Crow

Between 1987 and 2007 the national prison population tripled in America. In 2008 a dark milestone was reached: the US incarcerated one out of every 100 of its citizens. This is an incarceration rate higher than what is found in repressive regimes such as China and Iran.

That's right. If you want to stay out of prison you'd be more free in China and Iran.
The United States incarcerates more people than any country in the world, including the far more populous nation of China. At the start of the new year, the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults. China was second, with 1.5 million people behind bars, and Russia was a distant third with 890,000 inmates, according to the latest available figures. Beyond the sheer number of inmates, America also is the global leader in the rate at which it incarcerates its citizenry, outpacing nations like South Africa and Iran. In Germany, 93 people are in prison for every 100,000 adults and children. In the U.S, the rate is roughly eight times that, or 750 per 100,000.
Beyond the sheer number of those incarcerated in the US the racial composition of this group is also of interest. In 2008 1 out of 9 black men between the ages of 20-34 were incarcerated. For whites over the age of 18 the incarceration rate was 1 out of 106. The US incarcerates more of it racial minority populations than any nation in the world. As a comparison, the US incarcerates a greater proportion of its black citizens than did South Africa under apartheid.

The problem worsens when you go on to consider life after prison. Those who leave prison with a felony conviction are effectively disenfranchised, politically and economically. Upon leaving prison, or merely taking a plea bargain to avoid prison, you will find yourself unable to vote. Functionally, what we are witnessing in America is what some have called "the New Jim Crow" where under the label "the War on Drugs" (started under Nixon and ramped up under Reagan) black men are being swept up into the prison system and being removed from voting rolls.

In addition, with a felony conviction on your record your ability to get a job is greatly impaired. And yet, with a felony conviction, you will be unable to apply for federal assistance to help feed yourself or your family. You are also unable to receive federal loans to pursue higher education to better your life. You are, in effect, locked into a life of poverty, with all the generational effects that might have.

All this, perhaps, wouldn't be so bad if black men used drugs more than white men. But that's not the case. Drug use is the same. The only difference is that blacks are arrested, convicted and, thus, politically and economically disenfranchised at a higher rate.

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23 thoughts on “The New Jim Crow”

  1. Do you know the ratio of violent crimes in these countries or the types of prisons in each country. A few years back the guy who brought produce to our school(I'm a public school teacher)when asked why we got such crappy apples, told us that the grade A apples went to the prisons. 

  2. You are probably already aware of this, Dr. Beck, but I think the film "The House I Live In" will be a must watch for you and every American. Embarrasing disclaimer, I haven't had a chance to see it....but I have heard several long, thorough interviews and descriptions from the writer/director and can't wait to soak in the full film. This issue is exactly what it is about. The effects of the drug war on America, minorities and the economy. It is a true, massive problem (our "war on drugs" and rate of incarceration) that is to infrequently brought up in political debates.

  3. Thank you for this. I teach a Basic Skills class within Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh. I see men in there with incredible potential for making positive contributions in society through creativity, intelligence, and leadership. I tell them that they can use their incarceration to become angry and bitter, and become the monsters society wants them to be, or they be about becoming the man they know they can be. About 60% of state inmates committed non-violent crimes. 4 of 5 drug convictions are for possession, not dealing. A banker can drink vodka at the corner bar no problem, but a small bag of weed will land you in jail for several months. If the banker gets a DUI on his way home, his lawyer will make sure he never does jail time. If you can't afford to pay for the legal system, they will lock you up and forget about you. In England, they used to have debtors prisons for those who couldn't pay their bills. We have debtors prison for those who can't afford legal representation.

  4. This is an extremely difficult read for me. On the one hand I am scandalized by the incarceration tragedy. On the other hand I am frightened by the author's conclusion that the world outside the prisons will be a less safe place when we stop shoving the problem into dehumanizing jails. After all, it is this world outside the prison that people who do not do drugs or rob or commit violence (including, for example, my child) get to inhabit.

    Is it possible that we can only stop being cruel to our fellow humans at the expense of being willing to expose ourselves, and our children, to greater risks of encountering crime? Is it possible that the most faithful, most charitable ways of ordering our society will include less "safety"--in human terms?

    On the one hand, given the statistics in this article, I think it may be naive to deny any costs to reducing imprisonment, or suggest that the "war on drugs" is simply racist. Some things I"ve read suggest that entrenched poverty, not race, is most closely correlated both with drug-related imprisonment--but also with drug-related theft and violence. However unfair it may be, society has more at stake in getting people "off the street" if they are poor desperate junkies, rather than coddled rich junkies--because poor desperate junkies are more likely to hurt someone else.

    And yet the outcome is the same: Massive human suffering, largely borne on the backs of people who are not middle class whites. Even if it requires sacrifice on our parts, we must do something about this. Help me know what steps I can take.

  5. I feel this wouldn't be a good topic for me to articulate my views and concerns, as a Police Officer in one of the largest cities in America I've seen true evil in violence and in drugs (that bag of weed that sends so many people to jail cost a lot of innocent men and women in Mexico their lives). As a Christian and a Police Officer I struggle with compassion at times and it's even harder since I attend an inner-city mission based Church of Christ. I look at life in a simple way; don't buy drugs don't do drugs don't rob people don’t break into peoples house etc. etc.  If you do choose to do these things then take your punishment and stop blaming the system. We want to be so humane to those in prison but where was there humanity when they committed their crime. I come from a very different perspective than most and have a lot to say on subjects like this and have to admit that prison ministry is something I may never be able to do with an open heart and mind, but I must stop here in hopes of not getting on a rant that may offend some.  Dr. Beck love the blog and enjoyed every class I took of yours. 

  6. we all must look at this one day ....
    and say the one aspect of society you cannot fix is being STUPID

  7. I remember well the "war on drugs" and "get tough on crime" campaigns, many of which were waged in promise before elections.
    It is so easy to rationalize such statistics. I have just finished Manning Marible's Malcom X, a well researched revisionist biography of the fiery and controversial black leader who died in 1965. Malcom would applaud your observations and at first saw the lack person's salvation in the radical Nation of Islam's reaction to American apartheid. After his foreign travels and exposure to a less militant form of main stream Islam as he interacted with various Muslum leaders, he continued to develop. He began to at see the possibility of political
    approaches and became less reactive to integration. Marble argues persuasively that Malcom never lost his revolutionary fervor and support for the struggles against colonial domination by Western powers, he also came to believe that humanity goes deeper than the color of one's skin. His changing views and dissolution net with the

  8. NOI and it's corrupt leadership plus his growing worldwide popularity saw a violent, abrupt end to his short life perpetrated by those who saw these changes as a threat. I can tell you one thing. Malcolm X saw a lot more clearly than us white folks are generally ready to admit. Could he just possibly be cheering you on as one of the great cloud of witnesses who valiantly searched for that city...

  9. I think both race and class come into it.  I used to work at a university supervising student internships, and the majority of the student in the program were white and middle class.  At least one third of them had used drugs at some point on a fairly regular basis - mostly weed.  I also spent a number of years working with low-income Latino and African-American teenagers, and I can definitely tell you that if a poor black or brown kid from South LA and a white middle class kid in Santa Barbara or Malibu were caught with the exact same amount of weed, their experiences in the criminal justice system would be VERY different.  The chances of the white middle class kid going to jail would be miniscule, while the other kid could very well end up in juvie.  That's due to a combination of factors, and a rich black kid would probably fare better in the system than a poor white kid.  Being able to afford a good lawyer makes a HUGE difference. (Although the disparities in sentencing for possession of crack vs. possession of cocaine are just straight up racism, as far as I'm concerned.)

    I think as a society we need to learn to distinguish between violent criminals and non-violent drugs users.  Most drug users are not particularly dangerous.  If we want to get them off the streets, why not offer them the chance of drug treatment for their addiction, vocational training, and large amounts of community service rather than incarceration? It would cost less, and yes - the treatment wouldn't work for everyone, but California's prison recidivsim rate is 65% - so it's not like that's exactly a stunning success.

    Other countries have much lower incarceration rates than we do AND they have much less violent crime, so it's not a given that a more humane approach necessarily leads to less safety for the non-criminals among us.  Every single Western European country has both an incarceration rate that is 7% - 25% of ours and significantly less violent crime.  There's more to that than just jails, of course, but clearly, we are doing something very, very wrong in this country.

    As for steps - that's a hard one.  If you live in California, you can vote in favor of Prop 26 to reform the three strikes law. Politicians push the "tough on crime" talk because it's what gets them elected.  Advocate for a more humane approach.

  10. I think you understate Alexander's argument, which is not just that there is mass incarceration of black folks, but that the historical trajectory from slavery to now has now been one of slavery and emancipation, but one wherein the criminal "justice" system has created criminality as a way to continue the enslavement of black folks (and in more recent years increasingly brown folks). It does not matter that drug use is the same, it would be just as bad even if black folks used drugs more than white folks that our nation is so committed to killing black folks and controlling black folks lives as necessarily disposable that it will tolerate the abuses of black life through the prison system. And it's quite disturbing reading these comments by a bunch of white people talking about how scary black and brown criminals would be if prison systems were abolished. 

    What's scary is the cold and calculated rationality of white folks--white Christians--whose fear of death requires the sacrifice of black life on the altar of American civil society. It is absolutely incorrigible.

  11. I think you understate Alexander's argument, which is not just that there is mass incarceration of black folks, but that the historical trajectory from slavery to now has not been one of slavery and emancipation, but one wherein the criminal "justice" system has created criminality as a way to continue the enslavement of black folks (and in more recent years increasingly brown folks). It does not matter that drug use is the same, it would be just as bad even if black folks used drugs more than white folks that our nation is so committed to killing black folks and controlling black folks lives as necessarily disposable that it will tolerate the abuses of black life through the prison system. And it's quite disturbing reading these comments by a bunch of white people talking about how scary black and brown criminals would be if prison systems were abolished. 

    What's scary is the cold and calculated rationality of white folks--white Christians--whose fear of death requires the sacrifice of black life on the altar of American civil society. It is absolutely incorrigible.

  12. Dr. Beck, Thanks for writing about this important issue. Louisiana is currently the prison capital of the world. I work at an HBCU in New Orleans and I have lost a number of students to the prison system for small crimes. The crazy part is that their white counterparts that go to Tulane, a predominately white institution in uptown New Orleans, have much higher rates of drug possession and intent to distribute but less criminal charges/ jail time. There are more young black men in jail than in college, and that is incredibly problematic. I'm not sure how we let it get this out of hand, but now is definitely the time to turn things around. 

  13. Dr. Beck, Thanks for writing about this important issue. Louisiana is currently the prison capital of the world. I work at an HBCU in New Orleans and I have lost a number of students to the prison system for small crimes. The crazy part is that their white counterparts that go to Tulane, a predominately white institution in uptown New Orleans, have much higher rates of drug possession and intent to distribute but less criminal charges/ jail time. There are more young black men in jail than in college, and that is incredibly problematic. I'm not sure how we let it get this out of hand, but now is definitely the time to turn things around. 

  14. "More free in China or Iran." Please! You can get caned (beaten that is) for minor violations in China and your hands cutoff for stealing in Iran. I don't really see your point. If you don't want your life ruined, stop breaking the law! Just because we incarcerate more people indicates nothing other than our preferred form of punishment is incarceration over other dastardly things! And as someone who grew up in poverty and surrounded by minorities, I think it's crap to lay blame on that as a reason for crime. I had ample opportunity to do drugs, deal them, and otherwise and i didn't choose that because it was wrong. As i said before, quit breaking the law!

  15. What about the fact that blacks and whites use drugs at the same rate, but blacks are MUCH more likely to get punished for it?


    Also, if you have a felony, even if you stop breaking the law, your life is completely ruined. You can't get a job, you're limited in what kinds of assistance you can receive, and you can't vote. What this does is it makes it so we actually prevent criminals from participating in normal life, even after they've served their time (and even if it was a non-violent offense).


    Is it any surprise then that if you can't get a job or any support, that you would end up entering a life of crime to support yourself and your family?

  16. While racism may indeed be present in the arrest and prosecution of blacks over whites, blacks can improve their cultural situation by refraining from breaking the law. I don't deny that racism is still a problem in this country, but that doesn't excuse criminal behavior.

  17. Is it really wise to ruin someone's life because of something they did as a teenager, though?


    One of the core beliefs in Christianity is redemption. And a lot of crimes that we ruin people's lives over aren't even violent crimes.

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