Criminal Injustice: Institutionalized Inequity in a"fair and blind" legal system (2012)

Undergraduate: La'Naeschia O'Rear

Faculty Advisor: Kia Caldwell
Department: African, African American & Diaspora Studies

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Factors contributing to the overrepresentation of African Americans in the criminal justice system include historical coercive forms of labor such as slavery and convict leasing, the War on Drugs and the use of law enforcement tactics in the education system. According to recent statistics, 7 million African Americans are under control of the criminal justice. Scholars, journalists and social commentators alike have paid attention to the mass incarceration of African American men, a trend that skyrocketed in the 1980s and still persists today. Traditional analysis of mass incarceration recognizes that incarceration has adverse effects on African Americans and their communities; however, it fails to examine structures and institutions that directly impact crime policy and the criminal justice system. This paper examines the links between slavery and the Prison Industrial Complex in regards to labor and race, while also closely looking at the War on Drugs and it’s impact on the criminalization of blacks and the development of tough zero tolerance disciplinary policies in educational systems. This work also addresses the loss of social, political and economic capital amongst African Americans as a result of mass incarceration.