Module 9 Racism and Criminal Legal System

• Incarceration after slavery

  • end of slavery, number of black convicts in south rises bc of vagrancy laws

  • african american tesitimonies disregarded

  • convict lease system comes bc prisons not fast enough to house new convicts

    • covicts leased to highest bidder to basically be slaves (legal under 13th amendment

  • prisons source of social control, stigma associated to being labeled felon

Mass Incarceration in the United States

• strict drug enforcement, repeat offendor laws and mandatory sentencing

  • usa unique in these laws that contributes to non violent inprisonment

Rise of Mass Incarceration

• mass incarceration new phenomenon and diverges from mid 20th century attitudes

  • mid 20th century: incarcerarion ineffective at controlling crime, prison was last resort

  • 1970, mandatory minimums were eliminated

• 1980s

  • mass incarceration associated with war on drugs

  • anticrime rhetoric could win elections, competition for tough on crime

  • increase in incarcertation, not associated with increase in crime because crime rates fluctuated

Mass Incarceration in a Global Context

• usa stands alone in rate of incarceration

  • mostly from war on drugs and moral panic from crack

Race and Mass Incarceration

• racial disparties in usa incarceration

• 13% of population, 30% of imprisoned

• hispanics 18%, 22% of nations prison population

• black men 6x as likely to be incarcerated than white men

  • most of disparity due to imprisonment for drug crimes, even tho races sell drugs at same rate

  • black men more likely to go to jail than complete bachelors degree

Inefficacy of Mass Incarceration

• increase of inprisonment does not equal decrease in their crimes

• changes in economy, fluctuations in durg market and community led responses have more prnounced effects on crime

• diminishing returns: incarcerating repeat violent offenders reduces crime while incarcerating non violent offenders has minimal effect on crime rates

• incarceration of drug sellers does nothing to reduce drug crimes bc demand for drugs too high

mass incarceration and war on drugs

• zealous enforcement of drug laws affects people of color even tho white ppl more likely to use and sell drugs

• anti drug abuse act, first to dish out mandatory minimums for drug possession. five years for possession of crack

race, class, gender and mass incarceration

• women incarceration rates rose in context of war on drugs

  • women of color is incarcerated at a higher rate than white women

  • women more likely than men to have been primary caregivers prior to being incarcerated, more direct and immediate effect on their children

  • women more likley than men to experience sexual abuse in prison

Institutional Racism in Criminal Legal System

• Racial Profiling

  • black and latino drivers more likely to be pulled over

• Sentencing Disparities in death penalty

  • those accused of killing white people 3x more likely to be sentenced to death than people who kill black ppl

Economics of Mass Incarceration

• consequence of laws passed at both state and federal

• reaganomics, set of economic policies that involved heavy cuts to wide variety of social programs

• neoliberalism , label for ideology stating that open markets, liberalized trade and privitization

Prison Industrial Complex

• prison industrial complex, vats network of prisons, jails, courts, police officers, and other elements that purport to reduce the amount of criminal activity

• willie horton ad

Beyond Incarceration: Collareral Consequences

• Impact of Mass Incarceration on Families and Children

Mano Suace- Mano Dura: Legitimacy Policing and Latino Stop and Frisk

• study: examines how police unit used courtesy and respect in its engagement with a criminalized popularion, gang associated latinos, while relying on stop and frisk

  • conducted during ride along study

  • finding: stop and frisk, used with reform practices like courtesy policing. community and courtesy policing

  • argument: community and courtesy policing drawn on strategically in interaction and ultimately interwined with and constrained by the racial bias at the heart of punitive policing practices like stop and frsik

• proactive policing and punitive policing

  • punitive policies focused on proactive intervention and police saturation extend a historical pattern of racialized criminilization in use of stops

• terry v ohio

  • officers can pat down suspects when they have resonable suspicion of criminal activity » concept of preventative/preventing crime before it occurs » stop and frisk

• increased criticism of racial profiling and racialized police violence » police departments attempt to implement reforms and improve community police relations » “courtesy policing”

• methods: police ride alongs with the gang suppression team

• findings (in depth)

• - four dominant outcomes of legitimacy policing continuum

  • care and frisk

    • “stops a way to care for community members”/check ins

    • conversation » detainment + search, cop believed that it prevented gang associated latinos from becoming involved in crime

    • in ride along he stopped a man who worked in gang prevention advocacy who said that it was causing his clients to lose trust in police. his work connected kids with school entrollment, employability

    • stop and frisk = surveillance, one cop said that he remembers what items are on each person

    • people in the neighborhood understood it was to gain their trust just to arrest them later on » deep mistrust

    • example on how it starts with profiling: two men were fixing a bike, cop comes up to them and asks what theyre doing, they say putting it up to honor their brother, cop acts sympathetic and asks to search them, they say yes bc theyd ont wanna cause trouble, they get searched, cop drives away and thinks he did a good thing by checking up on them and when he really just profiled them

  • surveillance as tough love

    • paternalism, many thought of it as being treated like animals; indignity and violation

    • pull over to get info on them even for stupid things, and them surveil them

  • punitive responses to non compliance

    • mano suave when officers are complied with

    • mano dura when they do not get the complaince that they want

      • non compliance can be anything, the david guy who he said dont touch him and then they started being violent with him

      • respect= instant compliance

  • police abuse as conflict resolution

    • happens most with non complaince, and then can also escalate into targeted abuse and harassment

    • example of jaime who was suing for police abuse and he was abused even further and told he wasnt going to win the case

Punishing Pregnancy: race, incarceration and shackling of pregnant prisoners

• shackling of pregnant prisoners during labor and childbirth

• shackling orgins with black women through historical devaluation, regulation, and punishment of their exercise of reproductive capacity in three contexts: slavery, convict leasing and chain gangs

• argument:

  • intersection of race and gender explains why female prisoners are masculinzed, yet uniquiely punished as women during pregnancy and childbirth

    • stereotypes abt black women demonstrate how mechanisms of subordinazation evolved from chattel slavery

    • shackling is manifestation of punishment of “unfit” or “undiserable” women for excercising reproductive choice

• drug related arrests of black women 888% increase because of war on drugs (1980-2003)

• 2,000 children oer year born to incarcerated mothers

• sterotype of black women: promiscious and bad mothers, presented as lacking fundamental aspects of gender identity

  • 1996 california, birth control as condition of probation

• pregnant prisoners denied medical trearment during labor, degraded during strip searches, shackled while trying to nurse and have their children removed from them in 24 hrs

  • huge medical risk for mom and baby especially in emergency c section

• establishes how female prison system was built with black women in mind, establisgment of how enslavement of black children was maintained through the sexual exploitation of black women as slaves (dehumanization of them and their children)

• 3rd question, challenges its nuetrality by showing how the prison system was built off negative sterotypes of black women

• TEXTBOOK INTEGRATION

  • women incarceration rates rose in context of war on drugs

    • women of color is incarcerated at a higher rate than white women

    • women more likely than men to have been primary caregivers prior to being incarcerated, more direct and immediate effect on their children

    • women more likley than men to experience sexual abuse in prison