Critical Reflection # 7 — Our Prison System
In Amnesty or Abolition? Felon, illegals and the case for a new abolition movement by Kelly Lytle Hernández describes the history of our country’s (especially California’s) prison system and the disproportionate races in prison. In California, about 10% of residents are prisoners, parolees, felons, or undocumented immigrants, for which democracy nor freedom is guaranteed. They are denied access to voting, public housing, food stamps, educational loans, and employment and are forcibly removed from their families and communities (pp. 54). Currently, as well as in the past, prisons have placed a target on “illegal and criminal aliens.” The US expanded the limitations on legal entry banning “Chinese workers and all ‘lunatics, idiots, convicts, those liable to become public charges, and those suffering from contagious diseases’” (pp. 57). All contract workers, polygamists, anarchists, beggars, epileptics, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, unaccompanied minors, people with tuberculosis, and women of immoral purpose. Limitations were placed on Japanese immigrants, and later all Asians were prohibited from entering, which created a national origins system that favored Western European immigrants. The US border control targeted Mexican immigrants and illegal Mexican workers and deported them. The government began to use the terms “criminal alien” to label someone with a criminal record and “deportable alien” for someone without a criminal record. “Today, over 60 percent of all deportations from the United States are triggered by criminal convictions, mostly traffic offenses, nonviolent drug crimes, and immigration-related violations” (pp. 63). The country’s per-capita prison population skyrocketed starting in the 1970s. “A total of seven million people — or 3.2 percent of the total adult population — are currently under some form of correctional supervision, and an estimated 50 million people have criminal records” (pp. 63). Due to new drug laws, California’s prison population increased by about 500% between 1982 and 2000. “Like immigration control, mass incarceration is a zone of racial inequity. African Americans and Latinos, together, constitute 67 percent of the total state-prison population, but the rate of incarceration is significantly higher for the former” (pp. 64).
All these statements are relevant to a majority of the people at my community partner, as most of Bayside MLK Academy’s population is African American and Latino. Those two races are especially targeted and are often treated worse than say a White person, who may have committed a similar crime. I don’t know about the students at this school specifically, but it is not unlikely that many of them have a family member who has been imprisoned. If a child’s parent has been imprisoned, that sets up a difficult home environment for the child. Combined with many other possible hardships that families may suffer from, for example, poverty, these children’s early years are being impacted. It makes it more difficult to focus on school work and ultimately can cause them to fall behind. A good education is arguably one of the most influential factors for being successful. If these students don’t learn how to read and end up dropping out of school, it makes them extremely more likely to be imprisoned. These points above also help confirm that our government is a corrupt system that only benefits those in power. Jobs, housing, education, and many other areas are all affected. It is designed for minorities to struggle and the majority to make a profit.
This article talks about how the coronavirus is affecting prisons, which are at high-risk for spreading the virus rapidly. Prisons are often very overcrowded and unhygienic. One of the most simple yet beneficial things to help prevent contracting the virus is washing your hands or using hand sanitizer. However, many prisons have poor facilities for washing your hands. Many of the sinks don’t work and they often lack paper towels and soap. Additionally, hand sanitizer is considered contraband, making it even more difficult to be hygienic. Prisons are so isolated from the rest of the country's health system. They struggle to provide even basic health services and would ack the skills and resources to handle an outbreak. The rest of society is practicing social distancing and self-quarantine, but these practices aren’t possible in the prison setting. Prisons cannot simply be shut down like schools. Some jurisdictions are considering early release or medical furlough for those who are sick or elderly. However, this poses a threat to blocking the pathway out of prison. If there is a major outbreak of coronavirus in prisons, they are at high risk for serious illness and death, as access to healthcare is difficult. It is anticipated that people will die behind bars due to coronavirus who would have probably survived if they were in the community.
