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The Mass Incarceration of Minorities

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The process at which the United State has locked up many people in prisons, as well as local jails. Most of the people that have been locked up in vast up in federal and state prisons are a minority. According to my perspective, I have been asking why do minorities have to be locked up? And the only we can solve these problems are coming together as minorities. I stand against the violence of minorities that lives in the United States. The conflicts can be traced back to the slavery period because black people have been treated badly since white people went to Africa to conquer their land and held them as their slaves. When slavery was over, the Caucasian people had no other ways to fight against black people but to put them in prison or have them charged with different charges. How can we overcome the problems that we are facing in our communities?

The prison system in the United State is under strict authority of the state and federal government. Imprisonment is a synchronized authority operated under the constitution of the United State of America. Incarceration is the major way of punishment for law-breaking felony offenses that are committed in the United States. Offenders who commit a less serious crime such as misdemeanor are likely to be sentenced to a shorter local term jail. Why does the United States of America use the incarceration as the major punishments? I think that the reason why incarceration is being used as the major punishment is that the people who control over the country, for instance, white people had no way to prevent minorities from improving their life. They found a way to prevent them from different opportunities; like going to college, doing the community services, and especially being around their families. In many parts of the world, the most content that you will ever find a huge of people in prison in America.

The 13th amendment was created in order to end slavery but if you do a lot of researches, the most interesting thing is how black people have been free but left with nothing. The former slaves were called “ sharecroppers” instead of slaves. Their master had given Black people land to live on and plants some crops. The money that they were mostly spent on their rent. By comparing that with what’s going on in today’s society, it can be traced back to the historical point of view. Because the caucasian people created the laws to reinforce the minorities for minimum wages job, and sending them to prisons.

The establishment of 14th amendments was established for better opportunities of all people. For instance; all people have had equal rights and if you look at it, it is not true. According to “Bobby’s testimony “ in which Black people and white people do not have the same opportunities. Prisons all over the United States treats white people fairy than black people. For examples; white people get better jobs than black people.

I think that it is hard for Black people living in the United State because it is not secure for them to live. Also, it is easier for the black person to get shot and sent to prison because of his skin color. “In the past decade, several influential studies of this period have revealed the relationship between emancipation, the 13th Amendment, and the convict lease program (Lichtenstein, 1996a; Mancini, 1996; Davis, 1999). Built into the 13th Amendment was state authorization to use prison labor as a bridge between slavery and paid work. Slavery was abolished ‘except as a punishment for crime.’ This stipulation provided the intellectual and legal mechanisms to enable the state to use ‘unfree’ labor by leasing prisoners to local businesses and corporations desperate to rebuild the South’s infrastructure. During this period, white ‘Redeemers’ — white planters, small farmers, and political leaders — set out to rebuild the pre-emancipation racial order by enacting laws that restricted black access to political representation and by creating Black Codes that, among other things, increased the penalties for crimes such as vagrancy, loitering, and public drunkenness (Davis, 2000). As African Americans continued the process of building schools, churches, and social organizations, and vigorously fought for political participation, a broad coalition of Redeemers used informal and state-sponsored forms of violence and repression to roll back the gains made during Reconstruction. Thus, mass imprisonment was employed as a means of coercing resistant freed slaves into becoming wage laborers”.

By looking at the history of the United States. For instance, freedom riders, traveled across to the South of United States, fighting for their rights but what we have witnessed is how they were locked up in jail. They were beaten by the police because they were looking for their rights. The things that happened for a long time ago, it still exists in our communities. The black people are being locked up every day because of their skin color.

¨Social learning theories can be broadly understood as a social behavioral approach that emphasizes the “reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral and environmental determinants” of human behavior (Bandura, 1977: vii). In the study of crime and criminality, social learning theory is generally applied and understood as it was conceptualized by Ronald L. Akers in 1973¨. Also, ¨Social learning theory is a general theory of crime and criminality and has been used in research to explain a diverse array of criminal behaviours¨.

The probability that persons will engage in criminal and deviant behavior is increased and the probability of their conforming to the norm is decreased when they differentially associate with others who commit criminal behavior and espouse definitions favorable to it, are relatively more exposed in-person or symbolically to salient criminal/deviant models, define it as desirable or justified in a situation discriminative for the behavior, and have received in the past and anticipate in the current or future situation relatively greater reward than punishment for the behavior (50).

The theory of crime, known as the concentric zone theory is one of the most used theories in the criminal justice world. It enables developing strategies to fight criminal activities development of social groups within the community. The overall goal is for researchers to learn the behaviors of individuals and how criminal activity takes place. The concentric zone theory has many benefits but over time the theory has developed its criticisms. Some researchers have learned that the model is only useful during the rapid growth of urban cities and does not address urban politics. Many believe over time the model was developed, and it was only helpful for that time era. The Burgess’s model may have its faults but, it is still useful in learning and understanding concentric developments in urban areas. (The Burgess Urban Land Use Model)

The concentric zone theory was developed by Ernest Burgess in 1925. This led to the development of the first school of sociology based in Chicago (Dr. Rodriquez, 2016). Since 1925 data collected by various American institutions provided research over a ten-year span increasing research based on the concentric zone theory. The data identified criminal activity and crime spike in various ages, and groups. One example of using data from the concentric zone data is the learned information on juvenile offenders. The research had shown a spike in delinquent criminal activity from the hours 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. which is hours directly after school lets. This implemented school-based activities and diversion programs. Allowing this allowed law enforcement to participate in proactive crime reduction efforts.

“Understandably, most of us would expect that removing criminals—those who would victimize others—from a community would be welcomed by the populace and that both residents and their property would be better off as a result. For most places, that is likely true. Removing a person who has hurt others or who do not respect the property of others is tantamount to removing a thorn from a tenderfoot. But there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that this may not always be the case, because of the effects that time in prison has on individuals and their home communities. There are collateral consequences that accrue to imprisoned people even after their sentences are completed, and some criminologists believe that when the number of felons removed from a community is “too high,” it may actually harm the places where they use to live. And, since most people who are incarcerated return to the same neighborhoods, or very similar places as those they were removed from, their presence in large numbers, when they go home, adds a substantial burden there, too”.

The historical points of mass incarceration are related mostly on slavery. Because it can also be traced back on segregation of white people against black people. The black people were prohibited from different places, for instance, black people were not allowed to go to the same school as white people. Most opportunities were hidden from them, even though black people could have attended school, they would go to school to become farmers, carpenters because it was the things that black people did when during slavery.

“Although the United States has made some progress, it remains a substantially racially segregated nation residentially. And, the country stays very economically segregated as well. It is not surprising that poor people of color have been incarcerated disproportionately during the massive increase in imprisonment that has occurred in the nation since the early 1980s. It is from poor communities of color that a very large number of felons are removed, and to these same neighborhoods that they return when their sentences end. This population churning has been called “coercive mobility” by criminologists. Although it is the intent of legislatures, judges, police, and prosecutors to protect citizens and communities, there is a reason to believe that coercive mobility has the unintended consequence of actually increasing crime and victimization”.

References

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