The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness  By Michelle Alexander

“The New Jim Crow" is now part of the lexicon of racial inequality analysis and racial justice advocacy due to Michelle Alexander’s book.  A civil rights lawyer, legal scholar and activist, she looks at the racial dimensions of policing and imprisonment in the US and argues that the criminal justice system enforces a racial caste system.  While the book is a carefully researched legal and social analysis, it is far from cold or clinical; Alexander also makes an impassioned plea for greater compassion - for all of us to care more about the people our criminal justice systems nets through discriminatory policing and campaigns, like the War on Drugs, the people it locks into cages in the millions, the people whose rights and chances it curtails or eliminates even after they are technically "freed" from imprisonment.  

Compiled below are some links to articles, sites and more, on topics and recent events related to what is covered in the book.  Reading these articles is not required; they are for our reference and to help us make connections. If you have not had time to read the book, checking out a few of the links may be useful, perhaps starting with the New Jim Crow website, which summarizes the book's argument.

Update [11/15/14]: If you read one thing along with or instead of the book, read this Huffington Post article, which pulls together everything: Ferguson, the New Jim Crow, systemic, institutionalized racism.

Stats on incarceration and felon disenfranchisement:

The website of the Sentencing Project, headed by Mark Mauer, whose reports are cited throughout The New Jim Crow, is an excellent resource, with the latest stats on people in prison (2.2 million) and those out of prison but disenfranchised. It has a good, brief review of Prop 47, the sentencing reform measure we passed in California in this month's election.

Sentencing and imprisonment of women:

Women of color are victims of discriminatory policing and sentencing, along with men; the case of Marissa Alexander in Florida is a recent, prominent example.  Women inmates were sterilized without their consent in California prisons, and due to pressure from activist groups like Justice NOW, the state recently instituted restrictions on sterilization; but women incarcerated during their reproductive years are effectively barred from parenting.  Women who have police records may be especially vulnerable to police abuse, as suggested by the recent case of the Oklahoma City cop who serially sexually assaulted African American women with records.

Militarization of police and overpolicing:

Ahead of the grand jury decision on the killing of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson, St Louis (STL) police are spending big money on riot gear, including tear gas grenades and rubber bullets, which they used along with drones and armored carriers during the Ferguson protests in August.  Stockpiling of military gear by police departments around the US has been going on for some time, and Rodney Balko has traced the history of this in a major book.  HRW had researchers on the ground during the height of the Ferguson protests; it issued reports on police intimidation of protesters and a letter calling on Missouri's governor to review the law enforcement responses.

Criminalization of communities of color and men of color:

The Ferguson protests, ongoing, are a response not only to Mike Brown's killing but also to general, daily mistreatment of the community by the police, which the Department of Justice is investigating. This report reveals how some STL municipalities fund themselves by serially fining low-income people, mainly African Americans, effectively criminalizing poverty.  Khalil Gibran Muhammad wrote an important book on the criminalization of black communities. On the fear of black men, Jamelle Bouie's article is brief and excellent; and on the worth of black men, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts’ piece is powerful and eloquent.

  

Implicit bias:

Bouie's article references implicit bias, as does Alexander's book.  Studies reveal that while people may not consciously think they have racial bias, it may operate on an unconscious level.  The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University is leading research on implicit bias, which impacts policing, school discipline, employment and even health care. Implicit bias has been shown to figure into doctors' perceptions of black patients' pain, and in how much pain medication doctors prescribe to children.

Myth of colorblindness:

Implicit bias studies also help to debunk the myth of colorblindess.  Race remains a real determinant in the contexts named above and more, so claiming not to see it or refusing to see it denies individual and collective experiences of discrimination based on race—and our nation’s history. And talking about or considering race is not in itself discriminatory (or racist): Justice Sonia Sotomayor had to explain this to Chief Justice John Roberts. In Ebony, Jamilah Lemieux gave a woman of color's view on "colorlessness" and the imaginary “post-racial.”

School-to-prison pipeline and juvenile justice:

LA Unified School District has recently taken measures to reduce criminalized school discipline, the source of the school-to-prison pipeline.  Elizabeth Calvin, Senior Children's Rights Advocate based at HRW's LA office, is a leader in the fight for reforms in the California juvenile justice system.  Chicago-based anti-incarceration activist Miriame Kaba's Project NIA site and US Prison Culture blog are invaluable resources on criminalization and incarceration of youth, and on youth activism in response.

Alternatives to punitive justice:

Project NIA also advocates for the abolition of prisons.  Prison abolitionists, many of them feminists, argue that prisons themselves are a form of violence and that we can find an alternative to our current punitive model in a community-based, transformative approach. Restorative justice is another model aimed at reducing or preventing incarceration, especially of youth.