BROKEN?

In the world’s most eager exporter of democracy, justice is as remote for some as it is for people living in the most troubled parts of the world. The U.S. has slightly less than 5% of the world’s population, but over 20% of its prisoners. There are currently more than 2 million people behind bars, but the number of people under the control of the criminal justice system increases to 7 million when those on probation or parole are included. Over 70 million Americans have criminal records, about the same number as those who have 4-year college degrees.

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. 

Broken? was created by New York City high school students who took part in a human rights photo-journalism and documentary program sponsored by the UNIS Human Rights Project and PROOF: Media for Social Justice.

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.

At its core, “Broken?” asks us to consider four questions: How did the land of the free become the world’s biggest jailer? Is the US criminal justice system broken or is it doing exactly what it was designed to do? Can a system that was designed by men who did not believe that everyone was equal, be just? And if not, how do we change it?