My Bias Is... Hatred For Mass Incarceration
Mass incarcerations which are strong symptoms of the prison industrial complex, are extreme problems in America. We must come to grips with this, and understand the lack of sound judgment in putting people away for nonviolent offenses and also anyone who is a first-time offender. It can also be said as well; the nature of the crime doesn't justify the disposition of the case to the matter or longer sentence for less advantaged people. Are these the answers of an empathetic, yet, logical society?
If you choose for this to be an asset in constructing, and reaffirming law and just order, then we need to look at ourselves as an authoritative, driven society with the affection for a militarized police force. Then, the last question is. . . Are you looking for a new world, such as a progressive society with goals of life? Or do you model towards a prison world?
- K. G. Bethlehem.
Let's see what experts and activists has to say. . .
“The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.” - Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
"We have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. 'America, land of liberty and freedom?' You know, that's baloney. More than 2 million Americans are behind bars now. Communist China has four times the population and they have 1.5 million people behind bars."
-Gary Johnson
"The prison industrial complex, to put it in its crassest term, is a system of industrial mass incarceration. So there's what you call bureaucratic thrust behind it. It's hard to shut off because politicians rely upon the steady flow of jobs to their district that the prison system and its related industries promise."
- Eugene Jarecki
“More Black men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began...”
-Michelle Alexander
"There is no cost difference between incarceration and an Ivy League education; the main difference is curriculum."
-Paul Hawken
“You can kill someone in Kentucky and be eligible for parole in 12 years, but we have people in jail for marijuana sales for 55 years, life, 20 years, 25 years. We’ve gone too far in all of this, and then when you add up the numbers, even the white kids and black kids use marijuana at about the same rate and in national surveys the arrests and incarceration rate is four times greater for black males than it is for white males.”
-Rand Paul (KY Senator-Republican)
“I believe that there will be ultimately, a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone, and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think it will be based on the color of the skin...” - Malcolm X
