The Prison Industrial Complex

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The “interests of higher officials of the government that uses policing, imprisonment, and surveillance to solve economic, social, and political problems,” is called The Prison Industrial Complex. Angela Davis, “an American political activist, academic scholar, and author”, was one hundred percent against The Prison Industrial Complex. She once said that “this was a conspiracy to wipe out the black community.” Being as though, low income communities and African American men and women are targeted everyday proves her right. Not only are they targeting the men and women of our community, they are after the children also. The “School to Prison Pipeline” is something that is used to send African American children to prison right after high school. …show more content…
A huge part of African Americans lives in some form of poverty. The communities are filled with drugs and violence, the only reason for that is because they feel as though there is no way out of the “ghetto or hood”. Being as though all of this is happening within these poverty induced communities they are easy targets for the justice system. The mass incarceration of African Americans is caused because they are often “racially profiled” because of the color of their skin or the way they are dressed. Imprisoning us is like the modern day enslavement. It is said that “from the day we are born up until the day we day we have a dollar sign on our head and a target on our back.” To elaborate, this means that African Americans, mainly men and young men, are already considered as an inmate without being aware. It is more likely for an African American to go to prison for a misdemeanor such as distribution of drugs, than for a white male to go to prison for molesting a child. The charges against someone that committed a misdemeanor is far more crucial than they are for someone that committed a felony. Many African Americans were charged five to ten years with no bail, sometimes life, just for a misdemeanor crime. A child molester will more likely get charged at least a year or two with bail. All of this is because the justice system is getting paid to send people of color to prison for long periods of time. They are treated poorly in prison, and when they come out they still have to face the reality that there is no guarantee that they will be able to get a job and make a living because of their record of misdemeanors. African Americans must take control of what happens in their communities so the justice system will not have a reason to break up families and send us to
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