The prison system in America is one that is extremely flawed. Instead of encouraging rehabilitation, it encourages punishment and the beating down of individuals who are incarcerated. This beating down, however, only affects a select group of people, the poor. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of this is the USC admission scandal where rich parents falsely listed their rich children as athletes in order to get them into a competitive school. This crime can be considered as fraud and bribery, yet the parents that decided to commit these crimes are only serving two months in prison. Why is that? The system is flawed and it is pinned against a select group of people, people of color, but more specifically, Black men. Throughout American history, it has been a battle for many select groups of people to gain their right to vote. Even after Black people were given the right to vote, White racists still found a way to make things unequal with the creation of Jim Crow laws.
The creators of these laws tried to mask the injustice with the phrase “separate but equal”, however, this equality was never enforced and was never possible if things were going to be separate from another race. The reality of things is the fact it was separate but unequal. Even though Black people had gained the right to vote, there were still voting restrictions placed on the voters based on literacy and the ability to read, which they sometimes couldn’t meet. Currently, those that are released from jail, aren’t allowed to vote. This justice system starts to resemble the old Jim Crow Laws by hindering thousands of Black men from being able to vote. This mass incarceration of Black men hinders the strength of Black voices while increasing the strength of White voices.
Leave a Reply