“It had long been true, and prisoners knew this better than anyone, that the poorer you were the more likely you were to end up in jail. This was not just because the poor committed more crimes. In fact, they did. The rich did not have to commit crimes to get what they wanted; the laws were on their side. But when the rich did commit crimes, they often were not prosecuted, and if they were they could get out on bail, hire clever lawyers, get better treatment from judges. Somehow, the jails ended up full of poor black people.” PeopleIfsLongEndsFactsWantedLawSidesBlackPoorRichCrimeJudgingPrisonCommittedLawyerCleverCommitGet BetterTreatmentJailPrisonerBlack PeopleBail Book:A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present Source: A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present
“All I did in Chicago was to exercise my legal right to speak on my own behalf and I was given four years in jail as a result. But I think the most serious injustice perpetrated by the court system in America is the inability of a black man to get a jury of his peers.” ThinkingMenYearsAmericaSpeakGivenBlackMy OwnResultsFourSeriousExerciseCourtInjusticeJailChicagoFour YearsPeersBehalfInabilityJuryCourt System Author:Bobby Seale
“The drug war has nothing to do with making communities livable or creating a decent future for black kids. On the contrary, prohibition is directly responsible for the power of crack dealers to terrorize whole neighborhoods. And every cent spent on the cops, investigators, bureaucrats, courts, jails, weapons, and tests required to feed the drug-war machine is a cent not spent on reversing the social policies that have destroyed the cities, nourished racism, and laid the groundwork for crack culture.” WarWholeKidsCultureSocialBlackCommunityJusticeCitiesPolicyDrugCreatingWeaponsRacismTestsMachinesResponsibleCourtContraryDestroyedDecentNeighborhoodCracksJailCentsCopProhibitionDealerBureaucratsWar On DrugsInvestigatorsGroundworkSocial Policy Book:No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays Source: No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays
“If you're black, you were born in jail, in the North as well as the South. Stop talking about the South. Long as you south of the Canadian border, you're south.” IfsWellsLongBlackBornTalkingSouthBordersJail Author:Malcolm X
“If you're white and you're rich in the USA, if you get busted for drugs, you get a good attorney, and you in all likelihood serve no time. But if you're poor, black, Hispanic, or poor and white for that matter, you can get put in jail.” IfsMatterBlackWhitePoorRichDrugUsaJailAttorneyHispanicLikelihoodBusted Author:Rand Paul
“Nobody Black had learned anything from the `Letter from the Birmingham Jail' or from the `I Have a Dream' speech. That was a revelation of white people.” PeopleDreamBlackWhiteSpeechLettersRevelationsJailBirminghamI Have A Dream Speech Author:Andrew Young
“Sometimes the stereotypes that a lot of people have are of black men in jail or who don't take care of their kids, so I think it's always important to have that.” PeopleThinkingMenImportantSometimesCareKidsBlackTake CareJailStereotype Author:Morris Chestnut