Michelle Alexander (1) (1967–)

When the United States now has a prison population of nearly the same size and proportion as Stalinist Russia during the Great Purges, you know there's something deeply wrong with this country. (We have 760 per 100,000, the Soviets had ~800.) 1.6 million people out of 300 million are in prison today in America (The Gulag held 1.7 million in 1953). That's more than all of Hawaii. This population includes almost 100,000 minors, and even an increasing proportion of the elderly.

How did this show more happen? Racial prejudice through law is not new, of course. After the end of slavery, southern Democrats enforced racist laws, effectively cutting off the newly freed populations from voting rights, jury duty, and so forth. This was the first Jim Crow.

There was a brief refuge with the Kennedy and Johnson administrations of the 1960s, and the civil rights movement. The Voting Rights Act killed the first Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Bill and desegregation did too. However, after the assassinations of the late 1960s, when JFK and RFK and the Reverend King and Malcolm X all fell, bloodied martyrs, war riots and a fear of the loss of public order choked the American public.

In 1968, Richard Nixon promised them law and order, to be 'tough on crime'. He used covertly racist advertising, setting the 'inner city' and the 'peacenik' against the 'silent majority'. He began the War on Drugs. Then came Ronald Reagan, who described welfare fraud, and whipped up racist panic about crack babies, crack heads, gangbangers. His stories were lies. Drug usage was on the decline among black communities when he made his first self-righteous crusades in 1982. But here, the laws were biased, punishing crack over powder cocaine. Crack was cheap, favored by blacks, and cocaine, used by whites, was not as heavily prosecuted. The majority of drug users are white (being the majority of the population) but the majority of those imprisoned are black.

What is the state of drugs today? Drug abuse/dependence among white and black youth is roughly equal, ~8% as of 2013. However, blacks are ten times more likely to be apprehended by whites It has remained at this point since the beginning of the drug war, and even after the exponential increase in police spending in the drug war.

How is the new Jim Crow implemented beyond drugs? First, through searches and seizures, and the dismantling of the 4th amendment. Second, through the pressures of the judicial system. Third, through the extremely harsh treatment which these prisoners now receive.

The legal protections of the fourth amendment have been largely curtailed in the drug war. Property can be confiscated and homes invaded on unproven allegations. 'Material self-interest' allows law enforcement to target anyone, anywhere, for any reason.

The judicial system has been complicit in this new aggressive policy. Mandatory minimum sentencing has led to disproportionately long sentences for even minor counts of personal possession. Heavy mandatory penalties against non-violent offenders - e.g., fifty years prison for minor amounts of personal possession, are now upheld by the Supreme Court. So there goes the Eighth amendment as well.

Government privatization of the prison system, with market incentives gone perversely wrong. When prisons are privatized, what is their means of making a profit? Tacit support of 'tough-on-crime' laws, increasing prisoner intake, earning a profit by cutting out amenities, keeping their 'guests' there as long as possible. Imagine a hotel with mandatory attendance, how else would they make money?

Twenty years ago, former prisoners could at least earn a living with manufacturing jobs. They'd stay out of the customers' eyes. Now, these jobs have vanished. What's left are those jobs at the very bottom, or nothing at all.

This is the Gulag Archipelago of our age. It is a hidden state within a state, where we dump our poor, our tired, our huddled masses. This book is essential reading, not just for the activist or the politician, or the social worker, not even only for those in poverty who know this already, but the average American voter. It is time to stand up against the George Wallaces and Jan Brewers and Joe Arpaios of the world. Time for the Freedom Riders of history to march again against bigotry, and this time to fight for a more lasting place in the sun. show less

"Jarvious Cotton's great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation; his father was barred by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole."

“African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell prohibited drugs show more than whites, but they are made criminals at drastically higher rates for precisely the same conduct.”

“The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.”

Over the last couple of years I have read a few excellent books on the horrors of mass incarceration. It is always a complete slap in the face and the frightening thing is, it has even become worse after Obama took office in 2008. What this superbly written and researched book does, is tie in all the other sinister travesties that have been put in place, to keep blacks and other minorities in virtual leg-chains. Prisoners in their own impoverished communities without the right to vote, stripped of their humanity and walled off from having a decent existence. Protests have been igniting across America for months now, to address these injustices. Lets pray, that we see some kind of change.
This is an outstanding book and should be required reading. It was published in 2010 and this 10th Anniversary edition, features an excellent foreword that takes us up through Trump's election.

**Also a terrific audiobook edition. show less

A meticulously researched and expertly argued critical analysis of the racial motivations of the War on Drugs. This far-reaching history details the birth and death of the Jim Crow era and what political forces moved in to fill the void after its demise. It explores the way the modern American ethos of color-blindness has allowed an racially targeted system of oppression to flourish beyond a veil of justice. It documents the progressive powers granted to law enforcement and the building show more pressure to continue producing criminals or lose their funding. It examines the bloated prison system, fattened over time by mandatory minimum sentences, and makes suggestions to activists on how to approach dismantling the system.

I found this book to be extremely discouraging, convicting, and inspiring. It is eloquently written and hauntingly direct in details. A lot of these ideas have passed into general knowledge, and while nothing in this book was particularly surprising, it was very difficult to see it all laid out so clearly. However, I believe this book is necessary reading for the American public. It's hard to be aware of the bizarre nature of the world you live in, until you are shown an alternative, and America is very much alone in the industrialized world for pursing this system of criminal justice. show less

4.5/5

A gutting and gripping detailed account of how the powers that be in the United States have created another version of Jim Crow laws with the mass incarceration of black and brown men, supported by a populace that is both complicit and ignorant of how big a problem it has become. Alexander argues that the War on Drugs that the American government started in the 70's and 80's is not only imprisoning large and disproportionate amounts of black men for small drug possession charges, but show more also creates roadblocks after imprisonment that prevent them from the ability to lead successful and meaningful lives in their communities. All of this on top of the social stigma associated with being a 'lawbreaker', and we find ourselves in a situation where there is a silent under caste in the US consisting majorly on racial minorities who have little hope of escaping their circumstances. The US government, and the Supreme Court have even backed-up all of these laws, empowering law enforcement and prosecutors with monetary incentives and legal immunity to racially profile, as well as preventing legal challenges against this system from being heard in the future. Alexander makes it clear that our societies cyclical nature of institutionalized discrimination and suppression, followed by 'brief moments in the sun' will not change unless we address the underlying issues of unintentional racism, the pitting of one race/class against each other, and the apathetic attitude that many have across the political spectrum. This cycle might indeed be especially hard to break because it rests upon the use of race neutral reasoning and language unlike it's the cycles of slavery and Jim Crow before it.

Like I said, it's a gutting read. I think since the book was initially published in 2010, race issues have returned to a greater awareness within the collective minds of society, and yet we find ourselves in much the same situation, making the book just as powerful and applicable as it was on initial release. Alexander is an excellent writer, but she doesn't muddle the writing with extra adornment which suits the point of the book. She is clear, concise, and returns the reader consistently to to her major points of emphasis to make sure that they remember them. She backs up her arguments with exhaustive citation that show she really did the work. She is convincing and the writing itself is very accessible, making for a book that could be a good entry point for someone with limited knowledge on the issues at hand. I especially appreciated that Alexander didn't shy away from criticizing the relatively fresh Obama administration, and make clear that his inauguration does not change the issues at hand, and even in some ways could make them harder to overcome.

Having not read many book concerning racial issues I view this book very highly. I can see how it would be a foundational piece of material of the more contemporary literature on the topic, though I could easily be mistaken. It's the type of book that makes you want to become better informed and active, which I see as the highest compliment that you can give to a piece of non-fiction writing. Luckily, Alexander's source material is extensive, and readily available. show less