Hyperincarceration
What is the distinction between Hyper and Mass Incarceration?
Hyper refers to a disproportionate collective, rather than equal parts of a diverse populous.
Who suggested the idea of a “Prison Industrial Complex”?
Angela Davis
What parallels of Michelle Alexander’s explanation of New Jim Crow can we see through Just Mercy Clip #1?
Alexander talks about ‘closing the court doors’ and we see that here through the denial of retrial; also shows symbolic production of race in that since they are black men they are already criminals.
What characteristics make up Triple Selectivity? Why in that order?
Class, Race, and Place… because when you look at the demographic makeup of incarcerated peoples these three characteristics are most prevalent
Just Mercy Clip #2: How does this depiction of the PIC mirror Slave Labor in American History?
Through the 13th Amendment, prisons were able to build a system of racist labor exploitation.
How does Michelle Alexander describe and define the concept of "mass incarceration" and its impact on communities of color?
The Impact of mass incarceration on communities of color is very intense, it leads to family disruption, poverty and unemployment. It prolongs racial inequality by targeting and punishing people of color.
In Just Mercy Clip #1, We see John McMillian Jr. gets arrested for speaking out during the trial - how do his and his father's arrests portray the theory of hyperincarceration?
(criminalizing poor Black men from bad part of town; they are criminals before they even stepped foot in the court room).
What are the differences between the prison industrial complex and the Penal Industrial complex?
prisonIC - focuses on private entities, and has an economic foundation; talks about Black people as “slave laborers”; prison reform includes getting rid of private prisons and having community facilities for rehabilitation.
penalIC- systems based; institutions, discusses the relationships between various social institutions and their impact on prisons, emphasis on prison building; holistic reform approach
According to Forman, how does the New Jim Crow analogy overlook other aspects of mass incarceration?
Overemphasized racial roots, overlooked the rise of crime rates that factored into the prison boom (pg 13)
Black people are now involved in policy creation and are overrepresented in the police force (at least in DC), but don’t change criminal policy
Does not take into account more violent crimes which there is an overrepresentation of African American people in those violent offenses categories – too focused on war on drugs
How are women affected by the hyperincarceration of poor black men?
They are left to keep their families afloat and often turn to the paradoxically challenging Welfare System
What is the key similarity between the Military and Prison Industrial Complex?
The sustaining of more war/crime for the sake of profitization
How is the war on drugs the impetus of the New Jim Crow?
The war on drugs opened up a new path of legalized discrimination and became the engine of mass incarceration; through the war on drugs, the government is able to target poor black communities and incarcerate black people and other POC for reasons like drug possession which they would otherwise ignore if it was a white person.
What is meant by “Welfare to Workfare”?
it is suggested that once you qualify and reap the benefits of the Welfare System, you will be able to organize yourself into joining the workforce, however more often than not this actually forces folks into poor paying service industry jobs.
If both Prison and the Military operate as these “Industrial Complexes”, what does that suggest about other potential complexes?
Anything can be a complex, and therefore none of it necessarily has any meaning.
What are the limitations of labeling mass incarceration as the New Jim Crow?
-Differences in stigma
-“Absence of racial hostility” in mass incarceration
-“White victims of racial caste”
-“Black support for ‘get tough’ policies”