The Land of the Free?

In the third grade, I watched Legally Blonde for the first time and became sure of two things: I would go to Harvard, and I would become a lawyer to fight against injustice. As I prepare to apply to law school, I am troubled by the justice system that I am choosing to be a part of. A system that disproportionately incarcerates African Americans and Latinos at alarming rates. One in three African American boys born today will enter the prison system at some point in their life. Because of the overuse of incarceration in this country, we, the self-proclaimed land of the free, find ourselves with the world’s largest prison population.

Last week, President Obama announced new initiatives to help former inmates after release. Among these actions was a call for Congress to pass legislation to “ban the box” identifying former arrests and convictions on job applications. A day earlier, 6,100 federal inmates were released on retroactive applications of new sentencing guidelines. However, approximately 2.4 million people remain in state and federal prisons in the United States.

The War on Drugs caused an explosion in the use of the criminal justice and prison systems. In 1968, President Johnson declared that the government would take actions to curtail the production, distribution, and consumption of narcotics. In the 1980s, the prison population began skyrocketing and has since quadrupled.

From policing to reentry, practices became highly racialized. Crack cocaine, a cheaper version of powdered cocaine, was specifically targeted and vigorously prosecuted. The majority of crack dealers were African Americans, and enforcement techniques targeted these communities. In 1986, Congress passed laws that created a 100 to 1 sentencing ratio for the possession or trafficking of crack as compared to powdered cocaine. Five grams of crack, for example, carried a five-year minimum sentence, the same as 500 grams of powdered cocaine. These new guidelines established sentencing standards that effectively took away judicial discretion and mandated lengthy sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Crack cocaine prosecutions led to racial disparities in the prison system.

Local police departments were incentivized to make as many drug-related arrests as possible. Police officers disproportionately surveilled African American and Latino neighborhoods even though studies show drug use and possession are higher among whites. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws pressured people, even innocent ones, to take plea bargains rather than risk uncertain and possibly astronomical sentences by going to trial. African Americans are ten times more likely to be incarcerated for drug offenses and serve as much time for nonviolent offenses as whites do for a violent offense. Once in prison, conditions are inhumane. And after release, former inmates find themselves in a catch-22. Parole often requires parolees to seek employment and pay incarceration fees, but employers are hesitant to hire former convicts. When legal employment opportunities are limited, some will turn to the illegal economy of the street to get by, thus increasing the likelihood of returning to prison. Felony charges also disqualify people from receiving housing assistance, food stamps, and many other public benefits. Felons are also precluded from voting, thereby taking away one of the most fundamental rights of a citizen. It is no wonder that the recidivism rate in the United States is consistently around two-thirds.

Why does the phenomenon of mass incarceration persist even after crime declined in the early 2000s? First, mandatory minimum sentencing laws continue to weigh over sentencing hearings. Only recently have states like Ohio, Delaware, and Massachusetts begun to reform mandatory sentencing. Second, people are still serving out sentences for nonviolent drug offenses from ten, twenty, or even thirty years ago. Only some states, and very recently the federal government, have begun implementing retroactive release for time served to match the new sentencing revisions. Third, because opportunities after release are so limited, prisons are provided a steady flow of inmates. Lastly, the privatization of prisons has provided special interests groups with huge revenues and lobbying power to keep prisons full.

A lot needs to be done to put an end to the era of mass incarceration.

Mandatory minimum sentencing and three strikes laws need to be reformed in all states. Moreover, new sentencing guidelines need to be applied retroactively.

More resources need to be allocated to helping former inmates reintegrate after their release. Additionally, resources need to be put into schools instead of prisons to help communities prevent young boys and girls from ending up in prison. Programs like My Brother’s Keeper have been successful in helping to keep children in school and provide them a second chance after release.

The privatization of prisons needs to stop. We cannot continue to let private companies profit off the pain that communities of color suffer when their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters are locked up.

Policing practices need to be altered so that policing means safety not surveillance. We must recognize that there are terrible flaws in current practices that have led to racially-charged violence. Black lives matter, and communities of color need to be protected not persecuted.

Finally, we need to change the culture of our criminal justice system. We need to show compassion and reassess the goal of incarceration. As Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, reminds us: “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”

Tania Amarillas '16, a Government Concentrator, lives in Quincy House.