In this Opinion piece, Kimberly Johnson calls attention to a huge problem in American society: Racism is embedded in our criminal justice system and White supremacy makes it hard to root out.
To understand where and how racism shows up in the US Criminal Justice system, begin by watching this short overview video from Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative, "Slavery to Mass Incarceration." Then, check out more information in this guide about mass incarceration in the US and Oregon.
Read this article from Heather Ann Thompson, Department of Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan, to learn more about the racial history of criminal justice in the US.
Listen to this story for an example of racism in just one aspect of the justice system: the jury selection process.
In the novel, Tracy Beaumont writes to Innocence X, a non-profit organization that helps exonerate innocent people who are incarcerated.
There are several organizations in the US doing work similar to that of Innocence X. Check out the film Just Mercy (link in the box on the right) to learn about Bryan Stevenson and his work at the Equal Justice Initiative. Explore the links below to learn more about this and other organizations dedicated to generating awareness and reforming various aspect of our criminal justice system.
"Mass incarceration has failed. 25 percent of the world's prisoners are locked up here in the U.S. despite our country representing just five percent of the global population. Attempting to address social problems such as poverty, homelessness, and mental illness by incarcerating more people has not worked. We need to take a different approach to crime: one that hasn't shown itself to be discriminatory toward people of color and those living in the margins."
"The Prison Education Program was established in 2016, building on over 10 years of for-credit classes through the Inside-Out Program, a national educational model that brings college students together with incarcerated men and women to study as peers in a seminar behind prison walls..."
In addition to Inside-Out, the Prison Education Program offers book discussions, workshops, lectures, and more. Click the link to learn more:
"Mass Incarceration" is shorthand for the following phenomenon: "After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of imprisonment in the United States more than quadrupled during the last four decades. The U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. Just under one-quarter of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons. The U.S. rate of incarceration, with nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail, is 5 to 10 times higher than the rates in Western Europe and other democracies." - the 2014 NRC report The Growth of Incarceration in the United States:
Read this short essay from Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, to learn about the changes over time that led to our current situation.
Bruce Western from The Atlantic explains Mass Incarceration through visualizations (Western differentiates between 'prison' and 'jail.' Read about the differences in these terms from Merriam-Webster. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, definitions may vary by state).
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, "Oregon has an incarceration rate of 582 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than many wealthy democracies do." Click the "Oregon Profile" link below for more information.
Incarceration Rates: Comparing Oregon and Founding NATO Countries (Prison Policy Initiative)
Oregon Incarceration Rates by Race/Ethnicity, 2010 (Prison Policy Initiative)
The Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. abolished slavery except as punishment for crime. This created a loophole after slavery where incarcerated people could be used as an unpaid labor force (Source: "Thirteenth Amendment Certified With Loophole Permitting Slavery As Punishment For Crime").
Explore other primary source documents from the Library of Congress:
After the abolition of slavery, according to The Equal Justice Initiative, "Many Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries passed laws authorizing the 'leasing' of predominantly Black state prisoners, who worked for no pay, in inhumane and deadly conditions, often while serving unjust sentences."
To learn more of this history, check out this book by Douglas A. Blackmon, an American writer and journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for this work in 2009:
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II by
"In this groundbreaking book, Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history--the re-enslavement of black Americans from the Civil War to World War II--in a moving, sobering account that explores the insidious legacy of white racism that reverberates today."
In 2016, the documentary film 13th debuted on Netflix. According to a New York Times review by Manohla Dargis, the film explores the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States."
"Premised as a historical survey that maps the genetic link between slavery and today’s prison-industrial complex, 13th explodes the 'mythology of black criminality' as The New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb at one point in the film refers to the successive and successful measures undertaken by political authorities to disempower African Americans over the last three centuries. The academic and civil-rights advocate Michelle Alexander unpacks how the rhetorical war started by Richard Nixon and continued by Ronald Reagan escalated into a literal war, a 'nearly genocidal' one. The Southern Strategy is unmasked as a political calculation that decimated black neighborhoods but won the southern white vote."
Read more from an interview of the film's director Ava DuVernay by Juleyka Lantigua-Williams:
Along with the film, 13th, Michelle Alexander's book delves into the origins of the current situation of mass incarceration in the US.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by
As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status, much like their grandparents before them, who lived under an explicit system of control.--Book jacket.
According to an article from The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, "The prison population began to grow in the 1970s, when politicians from both parties used fear and thinly veiled racial rhetoric to push increasingly punitive policies. Nixon started this trend, declaring a “war on drugs” and justifying it with speeches about being “tough on crime.” But the prison population truly exploded during President Ronald Reagan’s administration. When Reagan took office in 1980, the total prison population was 329,000, and when he left office eight years later, the prison population had essentially doubled, to 627,000. This staggering rise in incarceration hit communities of color hardest: They were disproportionately incarcerated then and remain so today"
"Incarceration grew both at the federal and state level, but most of the growth was in the states, which house the vast majority of the nation’s prisoners.[ ...] These changes were spurred in part by laws like the 1994 Crime Bill, which gave states money to perpetuate policies that bred bloated prisons." (emphasis added)
Read more:
According to the Justice Policy Institute, many schools have adopted zero-tolerance policies and outsource discipline to juvenile courts and officers. Unfortunately, "Black students are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled than white students" (Source: "The school to prison pipeline, explained").
This graphic below is from the Advancement Project from 2013.
Long Description of "School-to-Prison Pipeline Infographic" for Web Accessibility
In this podcast episode from The Aspen Institute, international nonprofit organization, Dr. Monique Morris discusses how this situation affects young Black girls in particular.
According to this essay from Ta-Nehisi Coates below, " The negative credential of prison impaired the employment efforts of both the black man and the white man, but it impaired those of the black man more. Startlingly, the effect was not limited to the black man with a criminal record. The black man without a criminal record fared worse than the white man with one. 'High levels of incarceration cast a shadow of criminality over all black men, implicating even those (in the majority) who have remained crime free,' Pager writes."
RAICES, The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, is a non-profit organization devoted to defending the rights of immigrants. At the link below, explore the various aspects of immigration -- higher detention rates, more expensive bail bonds, greater risk of deportation, longer stays, more frequent solitary confinement, and highest asylum rejection rates -- that disproportionately affect Black immigrants.
In a Washington Post article, Carl Lindskoog (Assistant Professor of History at Raritan Valley Community College) raises an important question about due process: "So how did the United States transform from a country that rejected immigrant detention on the grounds that it was unnecessary and inhumane into one that imprisons more than 400,000 people every year for immigration-related violations and can legally detain individuals indefinitely?" (emphasis added)
Detain and Punish: Haitian Refugees and the Rise of the World's Largest Immigration Detention System by
Honorable Mention, Latin American Studies Association Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Isis Duarte Book PrizeImmigrants make up the largest proportion of federal prisoners in the United States, incarcerated in a vast network of more than two hundred detention facilities. This book investigates when detention became a centerpiece of U.S. immigration policy, revealing why the practice was reinstituted in 1981 after being halted for several decades and how the system expanded to become the world?s largest immigration detention regime.From the Krome Detention Center in Miami to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to jails and prisons across the country, Haitians have been at the center of the story of immigration detention. When an influx of Haitian migrants and asylum seekers came to the U.S. in the 1970s, the government responded with exclusionary policies and detention, setting a precedent for future waves of immigrants. Carl Lindskoog details the discrimination Haitian refugees faced and how their resistance to this treatment?in the form of legal action and activism?prompted the government to reinforce its detention program and create an even larger system of facilities. Drawing on extensive archival research, including government documents, advocacy group archives, and periodicals, Lindskoog provides the first in-depth history of Haitians and immigration detention in the United States.Lindskoog asserts that systems designed for Haitian refugees laid the groundwork for the way immigrants to America are treated today. Detain and Punish provides essential historical context for the challenges faced by today?s immigrant groups, which are some of the most critical issues of our time.
Acoording to it's website, the Advancement Project is a "multi-racial civil rights organization [r]ooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice." At this link you'll find resources like webinars, essays, and letters about immigrant justice.
DecarcerationOne of the major reforms to the US Criminal Justice system revolves around reducing the prison population or "decarceration." Listen to these podcasts episodes to learn more.
Read About Various ReformsThe links below provide overviews and expert perspectives on a number of issues related to Justice System reform in the US. For articles from CQ Researcher, Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, and Sage Reference, use your UO Duck ID to access the information through UO Libraries.
Season 2 of In the Dark from American Public Media (APM) explores the story of "Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Winona, Mississippi, who was tried six times for the same crime. Flowers spent more than 20 years fighting for his life while a white prosecutor spent that same time trying just as hard to execute him."
The Real Cost of Prisons Comix by
Collects three comic books published by the Real Cost of Prison project.
Shades of Freedom by
In Shades of Freedom, Higginbotham provides a magisterial account of the interaction between the law and racial oppression in America from colonial times to the present, demonstrating how the one agent that should have guaranteed equaltreatment before the law--the judicial system--instead played a dominant role in enforcing the inferior position of blacks. The issue of racial inferiority is central to this volume, as Higginbotham documents how early white perceptions of black inferiority slowly became codified into law. Perhapsthe most powerful and insightful writing centers on a pair of famous Supreme Court cases, which Higginbotham uses to portray race relations at two vital moments in our history. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 declared that a slave who had escaped to free territory must be returned to his slaveowner. Chief Justice Roger Taney, in his notorious opinion for the majority, stated that blacks were "so inferior that they had no right which the white man was bound to respect." For Higginbotham, Taney's decision reflects the extreme state that race relations had reached just before the Civil War.And after the War and Reconstruction, Higginbotham reveals, the Courts showed a pervasive reluctance (if not hostility) toward the goal of full and equal justice for African Americans, and this was particularly true of the Supreme Court. And in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which Higginbothamterms "one of the most catastrophic racial decisions ever rendered," the Court held that full equality--in schooling or housing, for instance--was unnecessary as long as there were "separate but equal" facilities. Higginbotham also documents the eloquent voices that opposed the openly racistworkings of the judicial system, from Reconstruction Congressman John R. Lynch to Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan to W. E. B. Du Bois, and he shows that, ironically, it was the conservative Supreme Court of the 1930s that began the attack on school segregation, and overturned theconvictions of African Americans in the famous Scottsboro case. But today racial bias still dominates the nation, Higginbotham concludes, as he shows how in six recent court cases the public perception of black inferiority continues to persist.In Shades of Freedom, a noted scholar and celebrated jurist offers a work of magnificent scope, insight, and passion. Ranging from the earliest colonial times to the present, it is a superb work of history--and a mirror to the American soul.
Just Mercy by
The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.
Just Mercy [DVD] by
A powerful and thought-provoking true story follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley. One of his first and most incendiary cases is that of Walter McMillian.
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by
"Devil in the Grove, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, is a gripping true story of racism, murder, rape, and the law. It brings to light one of the most dramatic court cases in American history, and offers a rare and revealing portrait of Thurgood Marshall that the world has never seen before. As Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns did for the story of America's black migration, Gilbert King's Devil in the Grove does for this great untold story of American legal history, a dangerous and uncertain case from the days immediately before Brown v. Board of Education in which the young civil rights attorney Marshall risked his life to defend a boy slated for the electric chair--saving him, against all odds, from being sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit."
Are Prisons Obsolete? by
Since the 1980s prison construction and incarceration rates in the U.S. have been rising exponentially, evoking huge public concern about their proliferation, their recent privatisation and their promise of enormous profits. But these prisons house hugely disproportionate numbers of people of colour, betraying the racism embedded in the system, while studies show that increasing prison sentences has had no effect on crime. Here, esteemed civil rights activist Angela Davis lays bare the situation and argues for a radical rethinking of our rehabilitation programmes.
Cruel and Unusual: the American Death Penalty and the Founders' Eighth Amendment by
"This indispensable history of the Eighth Amendment and the founders' views of capital punishment is also a passionate call for the abolition of the death penalty based on the notion of cruel and unusual punishment"
Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at Racial Prejudice in the U.S. Criminal Justice System by
Racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system is much debated and discussed, but until now, no single volume has covered the full expanse of the issue. In Bias in the Law, sixteen outstanding experts address the impact of racial bias in the full roster of criminal justice actors. They examine the role of legislators crafting criminal justice legislation, community enforcers, and police, as well as prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, judges, and jurors. Understanding when and why bias arises, as well as how it impacts defendants requires a clear understanding how each of these actors operate. Contributions touch on other crucial topics--racialized drug stigma, legal technology, and interventions--that are vital for understanding how the United States has reached this moment of stark racial disparity in incarceration. The result is an important entry into understanding the pervasiveness of racial bias, how such bias impacts legal outcomes, and why such impact matters. This is an issue that is as relevant today as it was fifty--or even one hundred fifty--years ago, and collection editors Joseph Avery and Joel Cooper provide a glimpse at how to proceed.
No Mercy Here: Gender, Punishment, and the Making of Jim Crow Modernity by 
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by 
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America by
Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants, this fascinating book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.
The Supreme Court on Trial: How the American Justice System Sacrifices Innocent Defendents by
The chief mandate of the criminal justice system is not to prosecute the guilty but to safeguard the innocent from wrongful convictions; with this startling assertion, legal scholar George Thomas launches his critique of the U.S. system and its emphasis on procedure at the expense of true justice. Thomas traces the history of jury trials, an important component of the U.S. justice system, since the American Founding. In the mid-twentieth century, when it became evident that racism and other forms of discrimination were corrupting the system, the Warren Court established procedure as the most important element of criminal justice. As a result, police, prosecutors, and judges have become more concerned about following rules than about ensuring that the defendant is indeed guilty as charged. Recent cases of prisoners convicted of crimes they didn't commit demonstrate that such procedural justice cannot substitute for substantive justice. American justices, Thomas concludes, should take a lesson from the French, who have instituted, among other measures, the creation of an independent court to review claims of innocence based on new evidence. Similar reforms in the United States would better enable the criminal justice system to fulfill its moral and legal obligation to prevent wrongful convictions. "Thomas draws on his extensive knowledge of the field to elaborate his elegant and important thesis---that the American system of justice has lost sight of what ought to be its central purpose---protection of the innocent." -- Susan Bandes, Distinguished Research Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law "Thomas explores how America's adversary system evolved into one obsessed with procedure for its own sake or in the cause of restraining government power, giving short shrift to getting only the right guy. His stunning, thought-provoking, and unexpected recommendations should be of interest to every citizen who cares about justice." -- Andrew E. Taslitz, Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law "An unflinching, insightful, and powerful critique of American criminal justice---and its deficiencies. George Thomas demonstrates once again why he is one of the nation's leading criminal procedure scholars. His knowledge of criminal law history and comparative criminal law is most impressive." -- Yale Kamisar, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego and Clarence Darrow Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Michigan
Inequality, Crime, and Health among African American Males by
Imprisonment, homicide, non-lethal assault and other crime, chronic and infectious disease, substance abuse, suicide, and accidents all contribute to the much wider gap in the community-level sex ratios found among African Americans compared to those observed found among other ethnic and racial groups in the United States. This wide array of causes and correlates of African American male mortality, disability, and confinement suggests an area in need of interdisciplinary inquiry that examines the intersection between public health and public safety. Health analysts and social scientists across many disciplines have studied the disproportionately high levels of disease, disability, premature death, and exposure to the criminal justice system in African Americans communities extensively. To date, there has been little overlap between the diverse literatures even though the very same factors leading to crime and punishment among African American males often contribute to their poor physical and mental health profiles. This book addresses this omission by including chapters exploring the multifaceted dimensions of the varied disadvantages faced by African American males. Authors draw from an array of theoretical and methodological frameworks to illustrate how poor outcomes and sharp disparities among individuals and communities can be linked to the interplay of multiple factors operating at multiple levels. This volume is a useful resource for serious scholars and makers of public policy who seek to understand the causal interplay among economic and racial inequality, gender, crime, punishment, and health outcomes among all African Americans.
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy by
"On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York to protest years of mistreatment. Holding guards and civilian employees hostage, the prisoners negotiated with officials for improved conditions during the four long days and nights that followed. On September 13, the state abruptly sent hundreds of heavily armed troopers and correction officers to retake the prison by force. Their gunfire killed thirty-nine men--hostages as well as prisoners--and severely wounded more than one hundred others. In the ensuing hours, weeks, and months, troopers and officers brutally retaliated against the prisoners. And, ultimately, New York State authorities prosecuted only the prisoners, never once bringing charges against the officials involved in the retaking and its aftermath and neglecting to provide support to the survivors and the families of the men who had been killed. Drawing from more than a decade of extensive research, historian Heather Ann Thompson sheds new light on every aspect of the uprising and its legacy, giving voice to all those who took part in this forty-five-year fight for justice: prisoners, former hostages, families of the victims, lawyers and judges, and state officials and members of law enforcement. Blood in the Water is the searing and indelible account of one of the most important civil rights stories of the last century."
From JSTOR's Reveal Digital, explore American Prison Newspapers using the link below:
According to this article from The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, "Along with meatpacking plants and long-term care facilities, prisons have emerged as some of the biggest Covid-19 clusters." (emphasis added)
Click this infographic from The Lancet to view the original source and to download a text-accessible pdf version. Note the sections on Structural Racism and Incarceration and their effects on the health of Black people in particular.
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