Land of Imprisonment, Home of the Unjust

The podcast episode discusses mass incarceration and its impact on minorities, particularly people of color. It explains that mass incarceration is the overpopulation of prisons, which has been a growing issue since the 1970s. The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world, and minorities are disproportionately affected by discrimination and criminalization. Black youth are confined at a much higher rate than white youth, and black people are more likely to be discriminated against by the law. Harsher laws, such as mandatory minimums for drug offenses, have contributed to the rise of mass incarceration. The podcast suggests that alternative punishments, such as community service, could be a better solution for non-violent offenders. It encourages listeners to take action to address this issue. Hello listeners and explorers of Spotify and welcome to my podcast this will be my first ever episode of this podcast and I'm still figuring out the name but for now we'll call this Nightcast. I'll be your host today and our topic will be mass incarceration and the effects that discrimination against minorities has had on an overtime. Before we get into the nitty-gritty I wanted to take a moment and explain just what mass incarceration is. This issue of mass incarceration is the overpopulation of prisons in any form of prison institution. Essentially prisons not having enough space for prisoners. The overpopulation of prisons has been an issue since the 1970s when campaigns that focused on crime were put in place by people in power like legislators that demanded harsher sentence laws, executives both state and local levels ordering law enforcement to be tougher on crime and prison staff that were forced to house a growing population with limited resources as stated by Vera Institute of Justice. Since then it's been a growing issue that is even more of a problem today. A study done by prison policy initiatives stated that we have thousands of federal state and local tribal systems. Together these systems hold almost 2 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,850 local jails, 1,510 juvenile correctional facilities, 186 immigration detention facilities, and 82 Indian country jails as well as military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the United States territory. I don't need to tell you that this is a ridiculous amount. You want to know something even more insane? The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world. Now I know you might be asking why is it so important? Why is it being so long-winded? And what does this have to do with discrimination? Well I could answer all those questions but I'll only answer the ones that matter. The reason I'm stressing this so much is that minorities, specifically people of color, are known to be targets of criminalization. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone though. It's shown in local news stations, newspapers, and even commonly used social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Sure these might pertain to issues in some way but that's not what I'm focusing on. No. I'm looking at the stone-cold undeniable facts. One of them is that juvenile, is that the juvenile justice system confines black youth over four times the rate of white youth as stated by Wendy Sarr of Prison Policy Initiative. This seems like it wouldn't be that big of an issue that would affect the general masses but it does. If black teenagers origin are already facing this sort of discrimination then what does that mean for the black populace as a whole? I'll tell you what it means. It means that overall black people are more likely to be discriminated against by the law. Jim Gramlich, the senior writer and editor of Pew Research Center, focuses his writing on issues like criminal justice, immigration, and other legal affairs. He stated that his article, The Black Imprisonment Rate at the End of 2018, was near twice the rate among Hispanics and more than five times the rate among whites. With Hispanics being 70, wait, 797 per 100,000 and with whites being 268 per 100,000. With that, with the percentage of black people being imprisoned at a higher rate than those of other of the other two races, does it make you question why? As far as I'm aware it's because of discrimination. There has to be more behind this unbalanced ratio. There just has to be. This leads us to the amount of African Americans going to prison for drug offenses. It's a ridiculous thought, I know. Not every person that is black goes to jail for holding on to drugs. So how would that be collaborating with the rise of mass incarceration? Well, it's relatively simple to answer that question. It's because of harsher laws. An article called Criminal Justice Facts, written by an organization called the Sentencing Project, it is stated that the number of Americans incarcerated for drug offenses has skyrocketed from 40,900 in 1988, 1980, to 400,000, wait, 403,926 in 2019. Furthermore, harsh sentencing, such as mandatory minimums, keep many people convicted of drug offenses in prison for longer periods of time. In 1986, people released after serving time for federal drug offenses had spent an average of 22 months in prison. Per reference, in the 1980s, federal drug offenses warranted possibly a single year at most. People who receive sentences like this would usually spend three years and three months in prison on average. Now that doesn't seem fair, now does it? The amount of time that they are forced to stay in jail is being expanded. In 1986, two months was a big deal, but now it's even more drastic of a change. It went up from one to three years to ten years. Holding someone in a prison cell for a long-term warrant shouldn't be an issue in today's world, but it is. Luckily enough, I think I may have a solution for it. During my research, I stumbled across a quote from James Cohen, author of The History of Mass Incarceration, who said the following, in 2016, Brennan Center examined convictions and sentences for 1.46 million people behind bars nationally, and found that fully 39 percent, or 576,000, were in prison without any public safety reason, and could have been punished with a less costly and damaging way, such as community service. Isn't it interesting how something so simple, almost trivial sounding, might be one of the best solutions out there? I mean, think about it. These people, at least in this case, were not a threat to public safety in the slightest. Couldn't those people volunteer and do something meaningful while getting out of jail? I think it's the better option than simply allowing African-Americans to be racially discriminated against, especially when you find out that African-Americans make up 80 to 90 percent of people in prison because of drug charges. It's a terrible slippery slope to be on, but how can we change this? I am asking you, whoever's listening, no matter how big or small the issue, you can always take the first steps to fix it. So, I ask you now, what will you do next?