The New Jim Crow: The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration

Presenter Information

Kayla Caldwell
Caless Davis

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Campus where you would like to present

SURC Ballroom C/D

Start Date

15-5-2014

End Date

15-5-2014

Keywords

Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration, War On Drugs

Abstract

The presentation relates the social, economic, and political consequences of the War on Drugs. The thesis presented is that the War on Drugs has led to the mass incarceration of largely African American male youth and that constitutes a new form of racial oppression. Since the War on Drugs began the prison incarceration rate for nonviolent drug offenses has risen from 300,000 to 1.3 million. Of those arrested for drug offenses, three-quarters have been black and Latino despite equal rates of drug use between blacks and whites. The consequences include voter disenfranchisement, employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and ineligibility for college student loans. It is our thesis that this mass incarceration in a modern day is a reflection of the Jim Crow of the antebellum South.

Poster Number

53

Faculty Mentor(s)

Pichardo, Nelson

Additional Mentoring Department

Sociology

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May 15th, 2:29 PM May 15th, 5:00 PM

The New Jim Crow: The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration

SURC Ballroom C/D

The presentation relates the social, economic, and political consequences of the War on Drugs. The thesis presented is that the War on Drugs has led to the mass incarceration of largely African American male youth and that constitutes a new form of racial oppression. Since the War on Drugs began the prison incarceration rate for nonviolent drug offenses has risen from 300,000 to 1.3 million. Of those arrested for drug offenses, three-quarters have been black and Latino despite equal rates of drug use between blacks and whites. The consequences include voter disenfranchisement, employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and ineligibility for college student loans. It is our thesis that this mass incarceration in a modern day is a reflection of the Jim Crow of the antebellum South.