Ban The Box Analysis

The police practice of carding is fundamentally perceived as a race and class issue that has come to define a tumultuous relationship between police and people of colour from the past to modern-day, causing a mistrust in police and the system. The practice of police stops allow police to operate in a grey area by obtaining evidence and information through psychological intimidation, many times directed to youth. The recent call for legislation and accountability of police has brought the issue to the forefront of media and public concern. There have been many police and community based investigations on the practice, one being the Police and Community Engagement Review (PACER). PACER stipulated that the police were going to go forward

In her book “The New Jim Crow” (2010), Michelle Alexander, a civil rights lawyer and an activist in the civil rights movements, that many people think has long been concluded, argues that the results of prison go well beyond the walls of the facility and can even have a perpetual effect on a person's life. Alexanders exact words on page 142 are “ Once labeled a felon, the badge of inferiority remains with you for the rest of your life, relegating you to a permanent second-class status.” Alexander supports her claim by interviewing people and describing their experiences in prison and their life after prison. She also informs the reader of laws that make it harder for felons to not only get jobs, but also limits their access to housing, and

According to Alexander, the punishment that a convict suffers within prison is nothing compared to the punishments that await the convict on the outside. The first obstacle that convicts face directly following their release is whether or not they will find a place to sleep. Once labeled a felon, an ex-convict faces various forms of discrimination in housing, employment, and other necessary resources. Under Jim Crow, housing discrimination was legal on the basis of race while under mass incarceration, housing discrimination is legal against labeled felons on the basis of their prior criminal convictions (Alexander, pg 142-145). In his “get tough on crime” policies, President Clinton passed the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act, which permitted public housing agencies to evict drug offenders, convicts, as well as deny housing to any person that was believed to be involved with illegal drugs.

The recommendation calls for civil rights advocates to put mass incarceration on their agenda similar in the ways civil rights advocate’s affirmative action agenda. In my opinion, America is at a turning point where mass incarceration is slowly fading away with state lawmakers trying to cut prison cost. Being labeled as a felon is a stigma that can and will follow individuals for the rest of their lives. However, there is a change in the atmosphere and how society view individuals with felony records. Opportunities are slowly becoming available such as jobs and education, allowing these individuals to reenter society.

From there, the employer is able to refuse to hire them if they have checked yes. If the “felon” needs a place to stay, they can also be discriminated against by public housing. Additionally, in some states, being branded a criminal results in the ineligibility of receiving food stamps. Just as Nixon intended, the so-called “war on drugs” has also disrupted black communities. In cities of extreme incarceration, communities find it hard to reconstruct their economy as people are more than likely working low-paying jobs due to being refused again and again by higher paying jobs for being a criminal.

Not even countries known for locking up its citizens, like China, Iran, or Russia come close to the United States’ 700 people living behind bars for every 100,000 people (Kelley & Sterbenz, 2014). Unfortunately, the problem with mass incarceration is not limited to living behind bars. Alexander expertly guides the reader down the rabbit hole of the additional ramifications of being labeled a felon in American society: the complexity of laws that prohibits felons from public assistance, like housing or food stamps, legislation that take away felons’ voting rights, regulations that make it legal for employers to discriminate against felons, and statutes that control felons’ movements and their affiliations. The New Jim Crow further highlights a series of court precedents that make it impractical for defendants to claim the police, the prosecutors, or the justice system is undeniably racist as a defense. Arguably, being a person of color, who is labeled a felon, makes it legal for the rest of society to prevent you from participating in a free society

Over the past 40 years U.S. incarceration has grown at an extraordinary rate, with the United States’ prison population increasing from 320,000 inmates in 1980 to nearly 2.3 million inmates in 2013. The growth in prison population is in part due to society’s shift toward tough on crime policies including determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing laws, and mandatory minimums. These tough on crime policies resulted in more individuals committing less serious crimes being sentenced to serve time and longer prison sentences. The 1970s-1980s: The War on Drugs and Changes in Sentencing Policy Incarceration rates did rise above 140 persons imprisoned per 100,000 of the population until the mid 1970s.

Prison reform has been an ongoing topic in the history of America, and has gone through many changes in America's past. Mixed feelings have been persevered on the status of implementing these prison reform programs, with little getting done, and whether it is the right thing to do to help those who have committed a crime. Many criminal justice experts have viewed imprisonment as a way to improve oneself and maintain that people in prison come out changed for the better (encyclopedia.com, 2007). In the colonial days, American prisons were utilized to brutally punish individuals, creating a gruesome experience for the prisoners in an attempt to make them rectify their behavior and fear a return to prison (encyclopedia.com, 2007). This practice may have worked 200 years ago, but as the world has grown more complex, time has proven that fear alone does not prevent recidivism.

They just assume it was something bad and they won’t hire them. Alexander Acknowledges that “You’re now branded a criminal ,a felon, and employment discrimination is now legal against you for the rest of your life. ”(Alexander3) Jobs have the right to not hire a criminal if they don’t want it is not discriminating by law. So basically if you don’t know someone that owns a business or knows someone in a job that can explain to the person that hires that you’re a change person and wants the opportunity to excel in life you will not get a job nowhere.

A regulation in which only certain convicted felons should be stripped of those specific rights. Problems with being a convicted felon have recently sprung out of control. Background checks have made an appearance into a multitude of situations, such as finding a career or finding a place to live, making it almost impossible to do so. To begin, in the early 2000’s, EEOC released a background search that must be done on all applicants applying for a position. With such restrictions set, as well as the ban of any convicted felon to work in child care, health

A finding from a study done by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that 67.8 percent of ex-convicts were rearrested. Two-thirds of them spent their time in prison waiting for the release, only to go back into that dirty old cell again. Why don’t they try to get a real job, earn their own living and cherish the second chance we grant them. Let’s step down from the moral high ground for a second. Often released prisoners lack the skills and knowledge to keep up with the pace of society.

Racial Profiling is probably one of the most controversial debates in law enforcement. The point of this paper is to bring to the attention of the public about why racial profiling is morally wrong. For years this has been a big problem. It seems like nowadays law enforcers assume that people of different race are more likely to commit crimes due to stereotypical assumptions.

However, one main point struck my attention, as quoted from the article, “participants with criminal records frequently end up incarcerated, incurring probation or parole violations, or detained awaiting resolution of new charges.” Hence, with this statement it really is an eye-opening statement because it is a true

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

After working with these men for months, you begin to look past the societal mask they are forced to wear due to their past mistakes, and begin to see them as real genuine people. [Thesis and Preview] Life after prison affects all realms of a community. Through the process of leaving prison, to jobs, and to living conditions, I hope we have a better understanding on life after incarceration from this speech.