Another Stab at the Constitution

We are a nation dedicated to liberty and equality. So it is a particularly tragic irony that America leads the world in imprisonment and that a large proportion of those serving sentences are people of color. Sometimes prison sentences -- even the most severe -- are a rational response to crime. But often, sentences are the product of a political process in which politicians are scared of appearing soft on crime so they do not even question the reasonableness of a proposed criminal law. It is the norm, not the exception, for politicians to reflexively push for harsher sentences without considering empirical evidence about what level of sanction is necessary for deterrence or what impact a sentence will have on communities. It is an environment long on rhetoric and short on reflection.

 

By: Rachel E. Barkow

 



America imprisons over two million of its population majority of these people are of color. America has this image as being the nation dedicated to liberty and equality but its actions says otherwise. Politicians are in fact scared of appearing soft on crime so they don’t question the unreasonable criminal law that is having an effect on half of our population. Politicians would rather push for harder sentences than rather consider the evidence or the impact that it has on a community especially the African American community.  

Why I picked this quote, is because it relates to a lot of the things that I’m learning and reading about now. I’m reading a book called The New Jim Crow and I saw a movie called The House I Live In. Both pieces are very insightful as to why America imprisons so many people of color. The book talks about there being roughly 2.3 million people in jail over 1 million are African American and over 500,000 are there because of nonviolent crimes such as drug related. The movie and the book talks about the reason why this is happening, because of the supposed war on drugs. At this time the government was spending a lot of time and money on this war. Which created more prisons, and more cops in predominantly African American communities. At one point the movie talks about, politicians who wanted to run for president or even have their voice heard by the public had to talk very strict on crime, to show that America did not fear this war. This supposed drug war is putting many blacks in jail and having a major effect on the communities. Which the government knows what they are doing but doesn’t seem to want to change it. That’s why I picked this quote by Rachel E. Barkow.