The New Jim Crow: The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration
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.
Recommended Citation
Caldwell, Kayla and Davis, Caless, "The New Jim Crow: The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration" (2014). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 150.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2014/posters/150
Poster Number
53
Additional Mentoring Department
Sociology
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.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Pichardo, Nelson