The Roots and Legacy of the south's incarceration boom

[Nubian_Legend]

It's not news that the United States is the incarceration capital of the world: The 2.4 million people behind bars in the U.S. today is, as Matt Ford at The Atlantic noted, "more than the combined population of 15 states, all but three U.S. cities, and the U.S. armed forces." As Adam Gropnik wrote in hiscompelling 2012 piece, "The Caging of America":

Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today -- perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850.

Shadows of slavery loom over today's mass-incarceration boom, as singer John Legend brought to the attention of a national audience in his acceptance speech at the 2015 Oscars. They are cast by two defining features of our carceral state: the immense racial disparities in who gets sent to jail and prison, and the unique regional roots of mass incarceration in the South.

As Michelle Alexander argued in her pioneering book "The New Jim Crow," incarceration has long been linked to social and racial control. After the Civil War, for example, Southern states passed new laws -- and resurrected old ones -- that cracked down on vagrancy, loitering and other minor offenses, often targeting African-Americans. The South's prison population, especially of African Americans, skyrocketed: In Georgia, incarceration jumped fourfold between 1868 and 1908; in North Carolina, the prison population jumped from just 121 people in 1870 to 1,302 by 1890.

A key driver was the infamous convict lease system, which Southern states used as a source of cheap labor after the end of slavery. Through "vigorous and selective enforcement of laws and discriminatory sentencing," Southerners -- disproportionately African-American males -- were arrested, imprisoned and then leased out to plantations, coal companies, railroads and other private interests, with states taking a share of the profits.

The country's next big boom in incarceration came in the wake of the Southern civil rights movement. Starting in the 1970s, Southern states again led the way in a steep increase in incarceration, fueled by the War on Drugs, new policing strategies and strict sentencing requirements.

Recently, Twitter and Reddit user @MetricMaps posted this time-lapse map charting the growth in the numbers of inmates in state and federal prisons by state. The map dramatically shows how Southern states played in a leading role in the recent incarceration explosion, a pattern soon followed in other areas of the country:

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx133/facingsouth/US_prison_population_1978-2012_zpsw4ki38ck.gif



The latest incarceration boom is marked by profound racial disparities. The profit motive has also played a role: The share of state and federal inmates in for-profit prisons grew by 37 percent between 2002 and 2009.

The two biggest for-profit prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group, Inc. -- which enjoyed a combined $3.5 billion in profits in 2011 -- are based in Tennessee and Florida, respectively, and have drawn fire for lobbying to maintain or boost harsh sentencing laws and other measures that increase the supply of prisoners in their facilities. With the rapid growth of the South's immigrant communities, it's also notable thathalf of detained immigrants are held in for-profit detention centers.

In recent years, economics has also helped provoke a backlash against costly incarceration. Starting in the Great Recession of the late 2000s, when states faced record budget shortfalls, many began looking at ways to trim prison spending -- including reducing harsh sentences for nonviolent offenders and accelerating release times for those education, training, treatment and work programs.

But the legacy of Southern justice remains: Of the 20 states that lock up the most of their residents, 12 are in the South -- and all have incarceration rates that dwarf the rest of the world.

http://www.southernstudies.org/2015/03/dixie-justice-the-roots-and-legacy-of-the-souths-i.html

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://www.southernstudies.org/2015/03/dixie-justice-the-roots-and-legacy-of-the-souths-i.html

No black went to prison during slave times. Their masters administered justice. And killing slaves was a felony. There were no prisons in those days: felons were hanged, lesser crimes were fined or whipped, for all races. If the slave was a chronic problem they sold his ass to a sugar plantation far away. We had a South Florida sugar plantation where we sent our shit birds.

 

[phrodeau]

No black went to prison during slave times. Their masters administered justice. And killing slaves was a felony. There were no prisons in those days: felons were hanged, lesser crimes were fined or whipped, for all races. If the slave was a chronic problem they sold his ass to a sugar plantation far away. We had a South Florida sugar plantation where we sent our shit birds.

The Negro sure had it good back then, eh Cliven?

 

[BotanyBoy]

Look at all the freedom loving in the conservative south...LOL what a bunch of fucking assholes.

 

[The_Trouvere]

When it comes to reducing the crime rate prisons are more effective than
schools.

 

[The_Trouvere]

I would like to model our prison system on the Gulag Archipelago. Convicts should
be required to pay their debts to society with fourteen hours of hard labor a day,
enforced by the whip.

 

[FGB]

You want to fuck up the prison system?

Be a law abiding citizen and encourage others.

It will help some.

Meanwhile, crime pays...big time and you lose.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Hang felons and the prisons will go away.

 

[Nubian_Legend]

You want to fuck up the prison system?

Be a law abiding citizen and encourage others.

It will help some.

Meanwhile, crime pays...big time and you lose.

It will only work when there are enough resources on the ground to make it viable option. Otherwise you're telling people to be lawful in a survival situation. Also, criminal organizations don't care about your previous convictions. Which is more than you can say for most businesses.

 

[Nubian_Legend]

When it comes to reducing the crime rate prisons are more effective than
schools.

Decriminalizing things also reduces crimes.

 

[BotanyBoy]

When it comes to reducing the crime rate prisons are more effective than
schools.

Anything to support that?

You want to fuck up the prison system?

Be a law abiding citizen and encourage others.

You likely break several laws a day, state and federal...take your hypocritical police state loving bullshit and peddle it elsewhere Nazi boy. Your gestapo buddies can come pinch your ass for any number of stupid fucking things should you piss them off enough. Hell they don't even have to prove shit....."TERRORIST!!" boom all civil rights GONE....another republican policy you probably love and support.

Your staunch support for the largest police/prison state for the pure sake of profiteering to have ever existed in the recorded history of human existence is noted though. Freedom loathing dick...

Decriminalizing things also reduces crimes.

But if we don't criminalize everything how will republicans make money off the privatized prisons for non violent offenders they want to lock up for a gubbmint check each year?

They lobbied their ass off and paid BIG bucks for that damn it!!

 

[FGB]

Anything to support that?



You likely break several laws a day, state and federal...take your hypocritical police state loving bullshit and peddle it elsewhere Nazi boy. Your gestapo buddies can come pinch your ass for any number of stupid fucking things should you piss them off enough. Hell they don't even have to prove shit....."TERRORIST!!" boom all civil rights GONE....another republican policy you probably love and support.

Your staunch support for the largest police/prison state for the pure sake of profiteering to have ever existed in the recorded history of human existence is noted though. Freedom loathing dick...



But if we don't criminalize everything how will republicans make money off the privatized prisons for non violent offenders they want to lock up for a gubbmint check each year?

They lobbied their ass off and paid BIG bucks for that damn it!!

Ha! You wish!

I am Squeaky clean!

I 'am a....well, hell I actually was a boy scout!

I've been called " Saint " Francis because I will not cheat or lie even if it cost me time,effort or money.

I might lie to protect a life but that about it.

So go fart flaming chunks!

 

[BotanyBoy]

Ha! You wish!

I am Squeaky clean!

You're not getting it....there are so many laws/rules NO ONE is Squeaky clean.

You and every other adult out there commits between 3-5 federal felonies a DAY.

IF the government wants to bury you they will beat your bitch ass to death with the law and there won't be SHIT anyone can do about it.

And it didn't get that way by accident....Deep red makes HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS a year off law enforcement, prosecution and incarceration of non violent offenders every year. 120 billion a year on cannabis alone....good job Republicans!! Fiscal responsibility at it's finest you guys. Welfare gestapo much?

Ties right back into your beloved war on drugs......anything to find a reason to lock someone up.

Make sure and bullshit a LOT about how much you love freedom while waving your flags.....just remember it's bullshit and you're really supporting republican welfare incentives to lock up other Americans because morality and it makes nigrahs look white women in the EYE!!