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Mass Incarceration Quotes

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Mass Incarceration Quotes

“Despite claims that these radical policy changes were driven by fiscal conservatism...the reality is that government was not reducing the amount of money devoted to the management of the urban poor. It was radically altering what the funds would be used for....Funding that had once been once used for public housing was being redirected to prison construction.”

PovertyRacismAusterityMass IncarcerationPrison Industrial Complex
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“There is absolutely nothing surprising about a severely stigmatized group embracing their stigma. Psychologists have long observed that when people feel hopelessly stigmatized, a powerful coping strategy–often the only apparent route to self-esteem–is embracing one's stigmatized identity. Hence, 'black is beautiful' and 'gay pride'–slogans and anthems of the political movements aimed at ending not only legal discrimination, but the stigma that justified it. Indeed, the act of embracing one's stigma is never merely a psychological maneuver; it is a political act–an act of resistance and deviance in a society that seeks to demean a group based on an inalterable trait. As a gay activist once put it, 'Only by fully embracing the stigma itself can one neutralize the sting and make it laughable.”

Self EsteemMass IncarcerationStigmatizationStigmas
Author:Michelle Alexander
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“I believe that there are four institutions in American history that have shaped our approach to race and justice but remain poorly understood. The first, of course, is slavery. This was followed by the reign of terror that shaped the lives of people of color following the collapse of Reconstruction until World War II. ....The third institution, "Jim Crow," is the legalized racial segregation and suppression of basic rights that defined the American apartheid era. ....The fourth institution is mass incarceration.”

JusticeRacismSlaveryJustice SystemReconstructionIncarcerationJim CrowMass IncarcerationInstitutional Racism
Book:Just Mercy
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“Jim Crow and mass incarceration have similar political origins...both caste systems were born in part, due to desire among white elites to exploit the resentments, vulnerabilities and racial biases of poor and working-class whites for political or economic gain. Segregation laws were proposed as part of a deliberate and strategic effort to deflect anger and hostility that have been brewing against the white elite away from them and toward African Americans. The birth of mass incarceration can be traced to a similar political dynamic. Conservatives in the 1960s and 1970s sought to appeal to the racial biases and economic vulnerabilities of poor and working-class whites through racially coded rhetoric on crime and welfare. In both cases, the racial opportunists offered few, if any, economic reforms to address the legitimate economic anxieties of poor and working-class whites, proposing instead a crackdown on the racially defined "others." In the early years of Jim Crow, conservative white elites competed with each other by passing ever more stringent and oppressive Jim Crow legislation. A century later, politicians in the early years of the drug war competed with each other to prove who could be tougher on crime by passing ever harsher drug laws- a thinly veiled effort to appeal to poor and working-class whites who, once again, proved they were willing to forego economic and structural reform in exchange for an apparent effort to put blacks back "in their place.”

CrimeRacism In AmericaWar On DrugsJim CrowMass Incarceration
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“Because the drug war has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, when drug offenders are released, they are generally returned to racially segregated ghetto communities--the places they call home. In many cities, the re-entry phenomenon is highly concentrated in a small number of neighborhoods. According to one study, during a twelve-year period, the number of prisoners returning home to "core counties"--those counties that contain the inner city of a metropolitan area--tripled. The effects are felt throughout the United States. In interviews with one hundred residents of two Tallahassee, Florida communities, researchers found that nearly every one of them had experienced or expected to experience the return of a family member from prison. Similarly, a survey of families living in the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago found that the majority of residents either had a family member in prison or expected one to return from prison within the next two years. Fully 70 percent of men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five in the impoverished and overwhelmingly black North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago's West Side are ex-offenders, saddled for life with a criminal record. The majority (60 percent) were incarcerated for drug offenses. These neighborhoods are a minefield for parolees, for a standard condition of parole is a promise not to associate with felons. As Paula Wolff, a senior executive at Chicago Metropolis 2020 observes, in these ghetto neighborhoods, "It is hard for a parolee to walk to the corner store to get a carton of milk without being subject to a parole violation.”

Social JusticePrisonSegregationJim CrowMass Incarceration
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“For more than a half century, the Right has waged a relentless campaign against the goals and achievements of the Sixties’ movements for racial, social and economic equality. From Reagan to Trump, there has been an endless hammering away at caricatures of dopey hippies, traitorous peace protestors, bra-burning feminists, dangerous Black radicals, and commissars of political correctness.”

HistoryCrimeHuman RightsCivil RightsLos AngelesBlack Lives MatterJim CrowMass IncarcerationCriminal Justice ReformAfrican American Studies
Author:Mike Davis, John Wiener
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“He didn’t proselytize at the get-togethers,” Otis recalled. “His talks with us dealt with standing together, respecting our traditions, defending our communities, treating our women with love and care, being responsible toward our children and not taking abuse from the racists in our society.” (On Malcolm X)”

Los AngelesBlack Lives MatterJim CrowMass IncarcerationMalcolm XCriminal Justice ReformAfrican American Studies
Author:Mike Davis, John Wiener
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“Meanwhile the biggest industry in Los Angeles County was bleeding tens of thousands of entry-level semiskilled jobs. Blue-collar workers everywhere felt the tremors of the so-called Eisenhower Recession of 1958, but in Southern California the primary reason for layoffs was the advent of the Space Age. (Set the Night on Fire)”

Human RightsCivil RightsLos AngelesBlack Lives MatterBlack HistoryJim CrowMass IncarcerationCriminal Justice Reform
Author:Mike Davis, John Wiener
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“With respect to parole, in 1980, only 1 percent of all prison admissions were parole violators. Twenty years later, more than one third (35 percent) of prison admissions resulted from parole violations. To put the matter more starkly: About as many people were returned to prison for parole violations in 2000 as were admitted to prison in 1980 for all reasons. Of all parole violators returned to prison in 2000, only one-third were returned for a new conviction; two-thirds were returned for a technical violation such as missing appointments with a parole officer, failing to maintain employment, or failing a drug test.”

Criminal JusticeParoleMass IncarcerationPrison Industrial Complex
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“There are hundreds of political prisoners right now in America’s jails who were so taken by Malcolm [X’s} spirit that they became warriors and the powers that be understood them as warriors. They knew that a lot of these other middle-class [black] leaders were not warriors; they were professionals; they were careerists. But these warriors had callings, and they have paid an incalculable and immeasurable price in those cells.”

LeadershipRacismAfrican AmericansPolitical PhilosophyWarriorsRacial DiscriminationBlack History MonthMass IncarcerationAfrican American HistoryPolitical PrisonersMartyrsFreedom FightersMalcolm XPrison ReformAfrican American MenConscientious ObjectionBlack Liberation MovementCareeristsBlack RevolutionariesBlack LeadershipBlack Middle ClassBlack ProphetsIndustrial Prison ComplexPolitical Advocacy
Book:Black Prophetic Fire
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“We're trying to help people on death row. We're trying yo stop the death penalty, actually. We're trying to do something about prison conditions and excessive punishment. We want to free people who've been wrongly convicted. We want to end unfair sentences in criminal cases and stop racial bias in criminal justice. We're trying to help the poor and do something about indigent defense and the fact that people don't get the legal help they need. We're trying to help people who are mentally ill. We're trying to stop them from putting children in adult jails and prisons. We're trying to do something about the poverty and hopelessness that dominates poor communities. We want to see more diversity in decision-makingroles in the justice system. We're trying to educate people about racial history and the need for racial justice. We're trying to confront abuse of power by police and prosecutors.”

Criminal Justice SystemMass IncarcerationJustice And MercyCriminal Reform
Book:Just Mercy
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“We're trying to help people on death row. We're trying to stop the death penalty, actually. We're trying to do something about prison conditions and excessive punishment. We want to free people who've been wrongly convicted. We want to end unfair sentences in criminal cases and stop racial bias in criminal justice. We're trying to help the poor and do something about indigent defense and the fact that people don't get the legal help they need. We're trying to help people who are mentally ill. We're trying to stop them from putting children in adult jails and prisons. We're trying to do something about the poverty and hopelessness that dominates poor communities. We want to see more diversity in decision-makingroles in the justice system. We're trying to educate people about racial history and the need for racial justice. We're trying to confront abuse of power by police and prosecutors.”

Criminal Justice SystemMass IncarcerationJustice And MercyCriminal Reform
Book:Just Mercy
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“If you're an amateur, professional, or aspiring journalist in any city in the U.S., a good story for you would be to dig into the budget and number of employees that your local police department devotes to all forms of public relations. There's a reason they try to hide it.”

JournalismLaw EnforcementCriminal Justice SystemMedia ManipulationMass IncarcerationCopagandaThe Mafia In BluePunishment BureaucracyPolice BudgetsPolice Are Defunding Our Cities
Book:Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News
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“Copaganda leaves the public in a vague state of fear. It manufactures suspicions against poor people, immigrants, and racial minorities rather than, say, bankers, pharmaceutical executives, fraternity brothers, landlords, employers, and polluters.”

Law EnforcementCriminal Justice SystemMedia ManipulationMass IncarcerationCopagandaThe Mafia In BluePunishment BureaucracyIgnoring Elite Criminality
Book:Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News
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“The third job of copaganda is to convince the public to spend more money on the punishment bureaucracy by framing police, prosecutors, probation, parole, and prisons as effective solutions to interpersonal harm. Copaganda links safety to the things the punishment bureaucracy does, while downplaying the connection between safety and the material, structural conditions of people's lives.”

Law EnforcementCriminal Justice SystemMedia ManipulationMass IncarcerationCopagandaThe Mafia In BluePunishment BureaucracyPunishment Vs Justice
Book:Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News
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“Cultural copaganda is all around us--from the CIA , starting in the 1950s funding projects like the Iowa Writers' Workshop or fronting literary magazines to influence modern journalism and fiction writing, to the DEA paying Hollywood in the 1990s to insert drug war propaganda into popular television shows, to the vast array of police and military consultants who shape every fictional TV series, podcast, or movie that touches on crime. Shows like COPS and Law & Order have done a lot to distort society's understanding of what the punishment bureaucracy does.”

PropagandaLaw EnforcementCriminal Justice SystemMedia ManipulationMass IncarcerationCopagandaThe Mafia In BluePunishment BureaucracyCultural Propaganda
Book:Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News
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“The entire genre of police procedurals mythologizes punishment bureaucrats and the allegedly sophisticated technologies they wield. And it's not just Hollywood--fictional copaganda planned and paid for by the police and their industry allies is on TikTok and Youtube, and it's behind many community groups, online posts, neighborhood listserv emails, and charitable campaigns that seem genuine to the unassuming public.”

Law EnforcementCriminal Justice SystemMedia ManipulationMass IncarcerationCopagandaThe Mafia In BluePunishment BureaucracyPolice ProceduralsCop ShowsCop Shows Are Propaganda
Book:Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News
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“The concept and terminology of "mugging" as opposed to, say, "robbery" was created as part of the panic, even though there was no evidence that this ill-defined activity was increasing. This is similar to the creation of the term "carjacking" in Detroit in the early 1990s.”

Law EnforcementCriminal Justice SystemMedia ManipulationMass IncarcerationCopagandaThe Mafia In BluePunishment BureaucracyMuggingCarjacking
Book:Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News
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“There is a gulf between the image and reality of the punishment bureaucracy. Copaganda creates that gulf. It is the system of government and news media propaganda that promotes mass incarceration, justifies the barbarities and profits that accompany it, and distorts our sense of what threatens us and what keeps us safe.”

Law EnforcementCriminal Justice SystemMedia ManipulationMass IncarcerationCopagandaThe Mafia In BluePunishment Bureaucracy
Book:Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News
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“The very existence of the prison forecloses the kinds of discussions that we need in order to imagine the possibility of eradicating these behaviors. Just send them to prison. Just keep on sending them to prison. Then of course, in prison they find themselves within a violent institution that reproduces violence.”

AbolitionMass IncarcerationPrison Industrial ComplexPrison AbolitionCarceral State
Book:Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement
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“This may sound naive, but I didn't fully imagine that little girls grow up in this country with stories like yours. And that, I am sure, you are not the only one. That little girls grow up in tents and start smoking cigarettes by age eight. So seamlessly have we (those in power) written over stories and lives like yours that, to someone like me, it is very easy not to hear about lives like yours. Not to know or imagine they exist. Not to know that public policy is failing you. Not to know that the prison system is an impoverished and wholly inadequate response to your experience and that it, too, is failing you. Which means it's failing all of us.”

Social JusticePrisonHuman RightsMass IncarcerationCriminal Justice ReformPrison Reform
Book:I Have Waited for You: Letters from Prison
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“States do not grapple with decarceration strategies & explore alternatives bc of an ethical recognition of the continuing harms of prisons or an understanding of the intertwined histories of capitalism, white supremacy, & punishment in the US, but rather bc coffers are empty, and prisons & punishment consume ever-growing portions of shrinking revenues.”

Mass IncarcerationPrisonsCriminal Justice ReformPrison ReformDecarceration
Book:For the Children?: Protecting Innocence in a Carceral State
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“Person-situation fit: There is considerable evidence to support the idea that people prefer situations that 'fit' with their dominant personality characteristics. Extroverts tend to like busy environments, whereas introverts prefer less stimulating places. When a person gets stuck in an antithetical environment for a long period of time (like a prison or university), his or her personality will tend to change over time to better fit the situation.”

IntrovertsExtrovertsMass IncarcerationPrisonsPersonality ChangeEnvironmental Influence
Book:The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts
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“It my be helpful, in attempting to understand the basic nature of the new caste system, to think of the criminal justice system-the entire collection of institutions and practices that comprise it-not as an independent system but rather as a gateway into a much larger system of racial stigmatization and permanent marginalization. This larger system, referred to here as mass incarceration, is a system that locks people not only behind actual bars in actual prisons, but also behind virtual bars and virtual walls-walls that are invisible to the naked eye but function nearly as effectively as Jim Crow laws once did at locking people of color int a permanent second-class citizenship. The term mass incarceration refers not only to the criminal justice system but also to the web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control those labeled criminals both in and outside of prison. Once released, former prisoners enter a hidden underworld of legalized discrimination and permanent social exclusion. They are members of America's new undercaste.”

Mass IncarcerationUnderclass
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“If we want to do more than just end mass incarceration—if we want to put an end to the history of racial caste in America—we must lay down our racial bribes, join hands with people of all colors who are not content to wait for change to trickle down, and say to those who would stand in our way: Accept all of us or none.”

PeopleIfsWayWantEndsHandsAmericaWaitingAcceptingColorMassDown AndLaysBribeCastesIncarcerationMass IncarcerationTrickle Down
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it's necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and-perhaps-we all need some measure of unmerited grace.”

PeopleNeedsBelieveStatesSufferingI BelieveNationsCommunityJusticeLevelsCompassionGraceMassMercyExtremesAbsencePunishmentUnfairUnjustDecencyAbusiveIncarcerationVindictiveMass IncarcerationMistreated
Author:Bryan Stevenson
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“Dunbar-Ortiz strips us of our forged innocence, shocks us into new awareness, and draws a straight line from the sins of our fathers-settler-colonialism, the doctrine of discovery, the myth of manifest destiny, white supremacy, theft and systematic killing-to the contemporary condition of permanent war, invasion and occupation, mass incarceration, and the constant use and threat of state violence.”

WarStatesUseFatherLinesSinWhiteDestinyViolenceConditionsAwarenessMassDrawsDiscoveryConstantThreatKillingMythDoctrineContemporaryInnocencePermanentShockOccupationManifestColonialismWhite SupremacyInvasionOur FatherTheftSystematicSupremacyStraight LinesForgedIncarcerationSettlersMass IncarcerationManifest Destiny
Author:Bill Ayers
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“One in three young African American men is currently under the control of the criminal justice system in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole - yet mass incarceration tends to be categorized as a criminal justice issue as opposed to a racial justice or civil rights issue (or crisis).”

MenYoungThreeJusticeIssuesRightsMassCrisisPrisonCriminalsCivil RightsAfrican AmericanJailJustice SystemCriminal JusticeIncarcerationParoleCriminal Justice SystemRacial JusticeMass IncarcerationProbation
Author:Michelle Alexander
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“I really think we were charting a course to having a more sane response to mass incarceration, to drug use, and to understanding that the war on drugs has resulted only in the empowerment of vast criminal enterprises and the destruction of democracies around the world. And all that is coming to a miserable, horrific halt.”

ThinkingWorldWarUseCoursesUnderstandingDemocracyDrugMassEmpowermentDestructionResponseCriminalsAround The WorldMiserableEnterpriseSaneHaltWar On DrugsHorrificIncarcerationDrug UseMass IncarcerationCharting
Author:Ayelet Waldman
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“The legalization of drugs, a proliferation of a public health approach to drug use and drug addition, a compassionate mental health system. And can we just say gender equality and the end of mass incarceration and the final shedding of the vestiges of a slave-based nation? Can we have that, too? Can I have it all?”

EndsUseNationsDrugApproachMassMental HealthSlaveFinalsGenderCompassionateGender EqualityPublic HealthProliferationIncarcerationDrug UseMass IncarcerationHealth System
Author:Ayelet Waldman
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“Mass incarceration is a policy that's kind of built up over the last four decades and it's destroyed families and communities, and something we need to change. And it's fallen disproportionally on black and brown communities, especially black communities, and it's kind of a manifestation of structural racism.”

NeedsKindLastsBlackCommunityFourPolicyMassRacismBuiltDecadesDestroyedFallenManifestationBrownNeed A ChangeIncarcerationBlack CommunityMass Incarceration
Author:John Legend
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“For children, the era of mass incarceration has meant a tremendous amount of family separation, broken homes, poverty, and a far, far greater level of hopelessness as they see so many of their loved ones cycling in and out of prison. Children who have incarcerated parents are far more likely themselves to be incarcerated.”

ChildrenHomeParentLevelsPovertyGreaterBrokenAmountMassPrisonSeparationErasLoved OnesHopelessnessCyclingIncarcerationMass IncarcerationBroken Homes
Author:Michelle Alexander
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“Middle-class white children, children of privilege, are afforded the opportunity to make a lot of mistakes and still go on to college, still dream big dreams. But for kids who are born in the ghetto in the era of mass incarceration, the system is designed in such a way that it traps them, often for life.”

WayChildrenStillsDreamBigsKidsOpportunityBornWhiteMistakeClassMiddleCollegeGoes OnMassPrivilegeErasMiddle ClassTrapsGhettoIncarcerationMass Incarceration
Author:Michelle Alexander
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“I think this mythology - that we're all beyond race, of course our police officers aren't racist, of course our politicians don't mean any harm to people of color - this idea that we're beyond all that (so it must be something else) makes it difficult for young people as well as the grown-ups to be able to see clearly and honestly the truth of what's going on. It makes it difficult to see that the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement manifested itself in the form of mass incarceration, in the form of defunding and devaluing schools serving kids of color and all the rest.”

PeopleThinkingWellsMeanIdeasKidsAbleSchoolFormYoungCoursesDifficultRaceRightsMovementColorPoliticianMassPoliceHarmHonestlyMythologyCivil RightsRacistServingOfficersCivil Rights MovementPolice OfficerIncarcerationBacklashMass Incarceration
Author:Michelle Alexander
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