Mass Incarceration In America

[Abstract] Since the days of Jim Crow, the presence of racism and discrimination in the United States has continued to evolve. Mass incarceration as a result of the War on Drugs has disproportionately affected minority communities by using a “tough on crime” approach to target people of color. While these African and Hispanic Americans make up less than half of the United States population, these two groups have the highest imprisonment rate of any demographic. The differences in experiences with law enforcement between people of color and white Americans demonstrate that a racial bias is present in our criminal justice system that is primarily exercised through the disproportionate arrest of African Americans for drug crimes. The racism which African Americans have experienced through slavery and Jim Crow has not gone away, but instead it has taken a new form in mass incarceration as a result of the War on Drugs. This embodiment of institutionalized racism has failed in its alleged purpose to be tough on crime, and has instead been used as a way to target minority communities in ways white Americans do not experience