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Quote by Michelle Alexander

“The mass incarceration of poor people of color, particularly black men, has emerged as a new caste system, one specifically designed to address the social, economic, and political challenges of our time.”

Quote by Michelle Alexander

Author

Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander is a distinguished professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. Born on October 7, 1967, she is recognized for her expertise in criminal justice and civil rights. Alexander has authored numerous articles and books on the subject of mass incarceration in the United States and its effects on African American communities. more

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“Mass incarceration has become normalized in the United States. Poor folks of color are shuttled from decrepit, underfunded schools to brand new, high tech prisons and then relegated to a permanent undercaste - stigmatized as undeserving of any moral care or concern.”

States Care School Poor United Moral United States Color Mass Concern Prison Folks Brands Permanent Brand New Incarceration Mass Incarceration Undeserving Decrepit

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Black men in ghetto communities (and many who live in middle class communities) are targeted by the police at early ages, often before they're old enough to vote. They're routinely stopped, frisked, and searched without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.”

Men Enough Age Causes Black Community Class Middle Vote Police Reasonable Middle Class Suspicion Ghetto Probable Cause

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Eventually [black men] are arrested, whether they've committed any serious crime or not, and branded criminals or felons for life. Upon release, they're ushered into a parallel social universe in which the civil and human rights supposedly won during the Civil Rights Movement no longer apply to them.”

Men Humans Universe Social Black Rights Crime Movement Serious Human Rights Committed Criminals Civil Rights Release Parallels Arrested Civil Rights Movement Branded Felons

Author:Michelle Alexander

“For the rest of their lives, [black men] can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits. So many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again once you've been branded a felon.”

Men Form Left Black Behinds Benefits Vote Access Discrimination Employment Eras Denied Housing Left Behind Jury Crow Excluded Right To Vote Jim Crow Branded Felons Access To Education

Author:Michelle Alexander

“I say we haven't ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”

America Havens Castes

Author:Michelle Alexander

“In many large urban areas, the majority of working age African American men now have criminal records and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. It is viewed as "normal" in ghetto communities to go to prison or jail.”

Men Age Community Records Subjects Normal Areas Majority Prison Criminals Discrimination African American Jail Urban Ghetto Urban Areas

Author:Michelle Alexander

“One study conducted in Washington, D.C. indicated that 3 out of 4 black men, and nearly all those living in the poorest neighborhoods could expect to find themselves behind bars at some point in their life.”

Men Black Behinds Study Bars Neighborhood Poorest

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Nationwide, 1 in 3 black men can expect to serve time behind bars, but the rates are far higher in segregated and impoverished black communities.”

Men Black Community Behinds Higher Rate Bars Black Community

Author:Michelle Alexander

“A massive new penal system has emerged in the past few decades - a penal system unprecedented in world history. It is a system driven almost entirely by race and class.”

World Past Race Class Driven Decades Massive World History Unprecedented

Author:Michelle Alexander

“The United States does have the highest rate of incarceration in the world dwarfing the rates of even highly repressive regimes like Russia, China or Iran. This reflects a radical shift in criminal justice policy, a stunning development that virtually no one - not even the best criminologists - predicted forty years ago.”

World Years Doe States Justice United United States Policy Development Highest Years Ago Rate China Criminals Russia Radical Forty Iran Regimes Stunning Criminal Justice Incarceration

Author:Michelle Alexander