From policing, to jail, to sentencing, to prison, to post-prison experiences, the disparate impacts of mass incarceration on poor people and people of color have been well documented. There are now more men of color under correctional control in the U.S. than there were enslaved in 1850. Blacks and Hispanics make up around 28% of the US population but account for 56% of its prisoners. If current trends continue, one in three Black males born in the U.S. in 2001 can expect to be incarcerated in his lifetime, compared to one in six Hispanic males and one in seventeen White males.
In a 2018 report to the United Nations, the research and advocacy organization the Sentencing Project concluded that through its creation and perpetuation of policies that allow for these racial disparities, the U.S. is violating its citizens’ human right to equal treatment under the law.
These disparities are not by accident, nor a symptom of poverty or poor choices, but rather evidence of a new racial caste system at work, according to Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Like Jim Crow laws and slavery before it, mass incarceration operates like a caste system. It uses the law to discriminate and stigmatize a certain group of people, defined largely by race and class, and locks them into a permanent second-class status. Furthermore, the U.S. criminal justice system is broke on purpose and that is what “makes Black lives matter less,” writes Paul Butler, author of Chokehold: Policing Black Men.
Using the city as their classroom, they trained with photographers, videographers and journalists and met with academics, lawyers, and activists. They also met with over 40 formerly incarcerated people to hear and record their stories and to take their portraits.
Under the Trump administration, there has been a resurgence of “tough on crime” and “law and order” rhetoric. At the same time, a growing movement has emerged to end mass incarceration, the result of the advocacy and organizing efforts of those most impacted by the criminal justice system. This project amplifies the voices of those who have been caught up in the U.S.’s 40-year unprecedented experiment in punishment and brings into focus its human costs. It also highlights the resilience of those who have survived and been at the forefront of reform. Through the stories in this project, we hope to add to the voices demanding a criminal justice system that respects human dignity and delivers safety, repair and justice.
The U.S. has just over 20% of the world's prisoner population.
This is true. Over 70 million Americans have criminal records, the same number as those who have 4-year college degrees.
Kalief Browder, from the Bronx, spent three years on Rikers Island because he was unable to pay the $3000 bail and was unwilling to plead guilty to a crime that he did not commit. Arrested in 2010, at the age of 16 for allegedly stealing a backpack, he was charged with robbery and assault. While at Rikers, Kalief was beaten by guards and other inmates and spent much of this time in solitary confinement. In 2013, all charges against him were dropped and he was finally released. In 2015, at the age of 22, unable to overcome the emotional and psychological trauma caused by his incarceration, Kalief Browder committed suicide.
Chapter One