Mass Incarceration of African Americans

Mass Incarceration of African Americans

Introduction

Since they won their civil rights after a long struggle, hundreds of thousands of African American have lost their liberty in the last five decades. African Americans, now contribute to a large proportion of inmates in US prisons—a number larger than that was at the time of Brown v. Board of Education with the rate risk of their imprisonment doubled. Since the United States has become a country with the largest jail population, black and colored people are the ones who have been affected the most. Research studies concerning the issue indicate an alarming figure of black men's imprisonment rate 6.5 times higher than that of white Americans. As the jailed population in United States grew six times between 1972 and 200, more than 10 percent of the African American in their twenties are in prison and almost 50 percent of remaining black population at the high risk of lifetime imprisonment.

The massive increase in the prison population of US in the recent years has surpassed all of the western societies. As a research declared it one of most unprecedented events in the entire history of United States—a scar on the face of liberal democracy (David Garland), this extraordinary growth was low its largest number to young African Americans. Moreover, most of people who are being sentenced to lifetime in prison today are black Americans with nearly one-third of African Americans men with the age between 21 and 29 facing the criminal justice system—either in prison, on probation, or on parole on any given day. Furthermore, the disparity between the rate of imprisonment of black and white Americans is increasing with the rise in the number of incarcerated population. This rapid increase in the rate of imprisonment of black people have deeply impacted their communities in many ways and the ethical, political, cultural and political implications have far reaching effects. The paper aims at exploring the nature, causes of increased rate of African Americans' incarceration in the United States with an overview of history of the issue and its ethical implications.

Discussion

In this section, we will explore the historical development of the distinctive nature of mass incarceration of African Americans, examining the issue in light of phenomenon of racial discrimination.

Brief History of African Americans' Mass Incarceration

The twenty first century marked a new beginning in United States which is unique in its nature with no parallel in international community and historical precedent. In the last three decades of last century and the first decade of twenty first century, the number of incarcerated people in the United States is larger than those of imprisoned in any other country around the world with no such of example in the history of nation itself. By the year 2006, more than 7 million people had become the target this transformed policy and were facing the criminal justice system. By the same year, the population of prison inmates in United States has increased at a rate higher than that ...