The New Jim Crow

“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.”

This was a tough book to read, but I am glad that I finally got a chance to finish this as this was a book club pick for the month of June. It took me about three weeks to read it because the subject material is so heavy—I spaced it out with some light and ‘fun’ reads to get a breather in. Michelle Alexander has crafted an informative and engaging work of non-fiction that looks at the intersection of two specific things: race, specifically being black in the criminal justice system, and the impact from the War on Drugs.It is difficult to broach the history of racism in the US, considering just how vast a subject it is, but Alexander makes a good effort on tracing the development from slavery to Jim Crow to the present-day system of mass incarceration. She argues that this present system, though it purports to be ‘colorblind’, is actually a continuation of the attitudes that fostered Jim Crow. However throughout the book she tends to conclude with this argument over and over again, to the point where it felt slightly repetitive; and at one point in the book she says, “Saying that mass incarceration is the New Jim Crow can leave a misimpression.” Yet this is the comparison she has been making for most of the book… of course it is a complex comparison and cannot be reduced to a simple sentence, but I wish she had developed this further in the book itself rather than tacking on a disclaimer towards the end.I also wanted to see more from her in terms of statistics and research, of which she has clearly done plenty. Alexander’s approach is to frame the issues in terms of individual narratives, which has a strong emotional impact on the reader. I understand why she chose this approach, but for me, the best parts were the ones dealing with the history of the Supreme Court’s precedents on racial disparities in the criminal justice system. This is something not everyone will be interested in, true, but it leads more credence to her argument. If Alexander wished to persuade people who are on the fence and not just preach to the choir, then I am not sure her current approach will be as palatable as she might hope. Sometimes Alexander presents specific statistics, but then makes a generalized statement to further her argument; other times she’ll make a significant statement but then not back it up with any footnotes at all. More consistency would have been great. The writing style also did not benefit from veering from emotionally charged stories about individuals in shitty circumstances to the more dry presentation of statistics and facts—a better transition, or perhaps sticking to one type of narrative would have better served readability.Her tone to the audience can also come off as a bit condescending at times; it is as if she assumes her reader will be fairly well-off, white, and generally aware of their racial privilege. This seems at odds with her initial statement that the book is aimed at social justice activists who want to take it to the next level. Still, as a minority reader, the book didn’t really feel like it was meant for me per se. She presents certain statistics or arguments and implies that the reader would ‘never have guessed’ the conclusion just made or that they would never think about such topics themselves. Perhaps have a bit more faith in your reader, or at the very least, recognize that people of all colors and walks of life will be reading this.Since this book focuses on two very specific subsections of the criminal justice system—racial disparity, specifically for black Americans, and drug crimes/War on Drugs—this is not going to be a complete picture of the criminal justice system. But given the complexity of these two topics alone, I don’t fault Alexander for not attempting to address every single problem under the sun. However, when she does speak and make proclamations of mass incarceration more generally, I would have liked some elaboration or at least hints at other elements of disparity in the system since they have bearing if she wishes to make a more general argument. Nevertheless, this is a good primer on these two specific subjects, and I would recommend this book to readers who want to get a small, depressing taste of what the incarceration system is like in the United States.Though I enjoyed the book, what I enjoyed even better was the themes of the book pushing me back to watching HBO's Oz, the network's first one-hour drama series. Oz presents the realities of the prison system and the struggles faced by both those within and without as they were in the 90s, stark and brutal and without commentary. In some ways, it captured a lot of what this book is about but better. This is a book site, I know, but this show is criminally (heh) underrated and deserves a watch if you are interested in mass incarceration and criminal justice. As one reviewer puts it, “…there's no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Since this book first came out a decade ago, it's important to read the preface and the forward for the updates.

The author's thesis is that "The system of mass incarceration created a legal framework by which the rights and benefits of citizenship are routinely stripped away from millions of U.S. citizens labeled "criminals" and "felons" until they mirror...those of non-citizen immigrants within the United States."

It seems obvious to me that that is exactly what has happened, though I'm not sure that I'm convinced that there was a master plan for this. The fact is, it happened, it's happening, and it will take major change to put an end to this horrible crisis.

Alexander gives us a history lesson, a tour of the outrageously discriminatory laws of the past, and argues that each time one of these was overturned, powerful whites found a new way of discriminating against African Americans. She outlines the laws that boxed people of color into poor neighborhoods and ghettos, and how police, seeking funding from the federal government, kept their arrests high during The War on Drugs. The easiest way to do this was to turn these poor neighborhoods into occupied territories. She points out that the "colorblind" laws are simply a new way of not talking about race, rendering the issue invisible.

Alexander is highly critical of many politicians, and not just republicans. She is critical of both former presidents Clinton and Obama for adding on to the problem. (I will admit that it's hard for me to read criticism of Obama. It's not my most objective quality.)

Overall, I found Michelle Alexander's book to be highly informative and eye-opening. The one criticism I have is the amount of repetition.

I'm very glad to have read this! Right now, I am concerned that too many people do not understand what is really meant by defunding the police.

This book is extraordinary. I'd been hearing that I should read it for several years, and had it on my To Read list, but kept shying away. I imagined it would be a dry, academic slog. It is not. While thoroughly researched and meticulously footnoted (notes are at the back), the prose is concise, jargon-free, and dynamic.

I knew the bits and pieces -- the "3 strikes, you're out" laws, the War on Crime, the dearth of public defenders -- but I didn't understand how it all comes together to produce today's American mass incarceration. I learned so much that I'd never realized. It ties together case law (I am NOT happy with the Supreme Court), behavior by prosecutors, plea bargains, the police (and how politicians have funneled funding to the police), and cynical laws passed by our legislators, all into a net that primarily traps African Americans.

We are unique in the world in how high a percentage of our population we have in prison, in how long our jail sentences are, and in how much we limit the rights of former prisoners. I wish every voter in America would read this book.