Are prisons still serving justice?
Bars of metal and barren walls as far as the eye can see. Cold and unforgiving is the harsh reality which over 2.3 million Americans face everyday. The current crime and punishment system is flawed in many ways. The flaws come from the inherent racism and capitalist motives that have been part of the system since the beginning. Justice can no longer be achieved because the foundation on which it is based is cracked. A cracked foundation was never going to work fairly, but that wasn’t the system’s original intention anyway.
Upon closer examination, the main problems lie in the greedy capitalist contributors and institutionalized racism. Combined, they prevent the system from carrying out its supposed goal: justice.
In the United States, prisons are commonly used as a source of revenue. Prison owners as well as private corporations benefit off the system, many utilizing cheap prison labor. Labor has been a part of the system since the very beginning. Many early founding fathers including, “Thomas Jefferson supported punishment through hard labor” as it allowed public infrastructure to be built cheaper. When the 13th amendment was established, an increase in labor costs developed. Plantations needed a new source of cheap labor. Luckily there was a loophole in the 13th amendment which allowed slavery as punishment for a crime. The south fully exploited this loophole through the use of their new Black Codes. The Black Codes were designed to restrict the rights of newly freed African Americans which lead to mass arrests. The convict lease system was born and through the system many of the newly freed slaves ended back on the same plantations on before, often in worse conditions than before. The current prison labor system descends from that same corrupt practice. Nowadays, prisoners are subject to overexploitation in poor conditions with very little wages. Companies such as Victoria Secret, Starbucks, McDonalds, Sprint, and American Airline are just a few of the many national and transnational companies that cut costs by taking advantage of the prison system.
The modern prison industry uses punishment and incarceration as a form of systematic oppression.
The system supports the oppression and criminalization of minorities. One of the main tools is the use of media and the over depiction of people of color as criminals. In 1915, director D. W. Griffith premiered his silent film Birth of a Nation. His movie showcased the Ku Klux Klan in a positive light as they fought against the “savage” black man, prone to violence. The film in actuality was untrue, but it caused a new wave a violence against blacks and the rebirth of the KKK which has lasted through today. The film lead to increased incarceration of blacks and other minorities. Exaggerated charges made more sense when defendants laready seemed criminal in the public eye. Mass media has a long history of preferring to showcase a criminal as being a person of color rather than white. The media controls perception, and they had changed the perception- dehumanizing people of color in the process.
In the 1990s a popular phrase “super predator” emerged as a way to describe black teens in many popular news outlets. The “outbreak” of young black criminals lead to increased arrests, longer sentences, and the passing of legislature that allowed more teens to be sentenced as adults. While the term was a myth, it left a very real, very painful mark on the prison system as over 10,000 children are housed in non-juvenile American prisons and over 3,000 were sentenced to life in adult prison. The media is powerful as it can shape the way in which people view the world. If it shows black criminals, then people are more likely to believe and create their own black criminals.
When the public characterizes people as criminals based on looks, politics will often follow and legalize these beliefs. Crime is commonly used as an excuse for the marginalization of minorities. The “War on Drugs” is one example of the legalized marginalization. Nixon labeled drugs, which at the time was prevalent in many poor neighborhoods, was a crime issue instead of a health issue. The treatment of drugs as a crime issue lead to the overall increase in arrest rates, especially among African Americas. It is no coincidence that sentences for drugs associated with black people were higher than drugs associated with white people. The legal differentiation is a direct attack on the freedom of African Americans. The system sees its prisoners as nothing more than criminals and makes no attempt to rehabilitate them. In a system that targets certain groups and paints them negatively, the targeting group is going to suffer the consequences. None of this oppression is new. The current prison system finds its roots entangled with the long history of slavery, but without change it will remain that way and people will continue to be locked up and unfairly charged simply for the color of their skin.
Along with being systematically racist, the justice system today is not designed to be fair. Minimum sentences are just one of the tools that prevent justice. Minimum sentences don’t account for circumstance and lead to unjust prison time. A 1994 California Law called for life sentences to be imposed as punishment if a person had 2 previous convictions of a “violent or dangerous crime.” The law created increased incarceration rates that overcrowded facilities could not keep up with. When people can no longer receive fair sentencing, the system responsible requires change. The system is clearly flawed when over 90% of the people incarcerated in the US were sent to jail through a plea deal instead of trial. People that do risk trial often end up with significantly longer sentences. Essentially, people are punished more harshly for wanting a fair judicial process. The justice system depends on the stripping of rights and creating a group of people that are unable to stop the corruption. Justice is no longer being served.
Overall the system has many faults and many areas in need of repair. From the exploitation of prion labor to the persistent racism and the lack of overall justice, there are many areas to address. By understanding the crack in the foundation and making small repairs, we can eventually fix the whole. We need to start talking about the future and the steps we can take to rebuild a better alternative. Most importantly we need to start the change now, or it will never be accomplished.
