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  • Essay / Mass Incarceration as Modern Slavery in the United States

    The 13th significantly highlights key aspects comparing slavery to mass incarceration. Jim Crow laws were passed after slavery, from 1877 until the 1960s. People think that the Jim Crow laws were just a set of anti-black laws, but it was more than that, it This was the way of life, people had to respect these rules. Jim Crow laws were reinforced by the belief that whites were superior to blacks in every way. Crazy laws like blacks and whites couldn't eat together, or blacks couldn't show affection to each other, because it was insulting to whites. (Pilgrim, 2000). The 13th Amendment prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, but when people go to prison, they are not rehabilitated, they are given tasks to do all day against their will, but because they are in prison, they have no choice but to do so. The 13th Amendment does not apply to them, because they are locked up. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayMass incarceration, started after our 37th President Richard Nixon, who was in office from 1969 to 1974, wanted to crack down on drugs, have a drug-free America by 1995. That's when the "war on drugs" began. Laws against drug possession in the 1970s became stricter, people were sentenced to mandatory minimum sentences, which led to an increase in the prison population with non-violent drug offenders. (Pilgrim, 2000). Under the administrations of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton, mass incarceration began. The problem with mass incarceration is that 2.3 million Americans are imprisoned, and one in four prisoners worldwide is in the United States. (Morgan, 2016) Mass incarceration has impacted African American communities due to the 2.3 million Americans in prison, 40% of whom are African American men. (Film “13th” by Ava DuVernay). African Americans were seen more as a threat and a target. African Americans were treated as lower class than Caucasians, but mass incarceration was also linked to social class. Most African Americans in the 60s and 70s lived in poverty, most of them turned to selling drugs to get out, not get in. problems, but to bring some type of income to the household. In the African American community, crack cocaine was an epidemic. So was cocaine, but since crack was cheaper to make and obtain, that's what was sold and smoked. Cocaine was more associated with Caucasians and crack cocaine with African Americans. Crack was sentenced to a heavier sentence than cocaine; someone who goes to prison for crack automatically receives a mandatory minimum sentence of 5, 10, or 20 years depending on location, but someone with cocaine has to have 100 times that to even receive a such a long prison sentence. This took people away from their children, at the time laws were passed to protect us African Americans. (FAMM, 2016).Keep in mind: This is just a sample.Get a custom essay now from our expert writers.Get a custom essayNowadays, I don't believe that criminal justice can be reformed. With the president-elect we have now and the racism he has brought to light, it has shown how Americans really feel. To change the system, you must first fix what is wrong and..