Michelle Alexander Quotes About Prisons

• Today there are more African-Americans under correctional control, in prison or jail, on probation or parole, than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. There are millions of African-Americans now cycling in and out of prisons and jails or under correctional control or saddled with criminal records. In major American cities today, more than half of working-age African-American men either are under correctional control or are branded felons, and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives.

  Michelle Alexander

  War, Men, Cycling

  "Legal Scholar: Jim Crow Still Exists In America". "Fresh Air" with Dave Davies, www.npr.org. January 16, 2012.

• There are more African Americans under correctional control, in prison or jail, on probation or parole, than were enslaved in 1850 a decade before the civil war began.

  Michelle Alexander

  War, Jail, African American

  "The mass incarceration of the Black community: an interview with Michelle Alexander, author of ‘The New Jim Crow’". Interview with Minister of Information JR Valrey, sfbayview.com. April 4, 2012.

• If you ask for good schools, you aren't likely to get them. If you ask for jobs or economic investment, you won't get that either. But what we have learned, is that the one thing that poor folks of color can ask for and get are Police & Prisons.

  Michelle Alexander

  Jobs, School, Color

• Muchos delincuentes son enviados a prisión a edades tempranas, etiquetados como delincuentes en su adolescencia y trasladados de sus decrépitas y mal financiadas escuelas del centro de la ciudad a flamantes prisiones de alta tecnología.

  Michelle Alexander

  School, Years, Cities

  Michelle Alexander (2013). “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, p.150, The New Press

• Private prison companies are now listed on the New York Stock exchange and are doing quite well in a time of economic recession (and depression in some communities). But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

  Michelle Alexander

  New York, Community, Economic Recession

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• Sin embargo, los acusados de delitos relacionados con las drogas suelen ser personas pobres de color. Suelen ser acusados de delitos graves y enviados a prisión.

  Michelle Alexander

  Color, People, Drug

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• We must build a movement for education, not incarceration. A movement for jobs, not jails. A movement that will end all forms of discrimination against people released from prison - discrimination that denies them basic human rights to work, shelter and food.

  Michelle Alexander

  Jobs, Jail, Rights

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• The system functioned relatively automatically, and the prevailing system of racial meanings, identities, and ideologies already seemed natural. Ninety percent of those admitted to prison for drug offenses in many states were Black or Latino, yet the mass incarceration of communities of color was explained in race-neutral terms, an adaptation to the needs and demands of the current political climate.

  Michelle Alexander

  Race, Color, Racism

  Michelle Alexander (2013). “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, p.58, The New Press

• ... as recently as the mid-1970s, the most well-respected criminologists were predicting that the prison system would soon fade away. Prison did not deter crime significantly, many experts concluded. Those who had meaningful economic and social opportunities were unlikely to commit crimes regardless of the penalty, while those who went to prison were far more likely to commit crimes again in the future.

  Michelle Alexander

  Meaningful, Opportunity, Experts

• For many, whether they go to prison or not is far less about the choices they make and far more about what kind of cage they're born into.

  Michelle Alexander

  Choices, Cages, Kind

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• ¿Qué se espera que hagan las personas que salen de la cárcel? ¿Cómo se espera que sobrevivan? No pueden conseguir trabajo, se quedan sin vivienda e incluso los cupones de alimentos pueden estar fuera de su alcance. Bueno, aparentemente lo que esperamos que hagan es que paguen cientos o miles de dólares en tasas, multas, costas judiciales y manutención de menores atrasada (que sigue acumulándose mientras estás en prisión).

  Michelle Alexander

  Jobs, Children, People

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• El complejo carcelario-industrial emplea a millones de personas directa e indirectamente. Jueces, fiscales, abogados defensores, guardias de prisiones, empresas de construcción de prisiones, policías, agentes de libertad condicional, secretarios judiciales... la lista es interminable. Muchas comunidades rurales predominantemente blancas han llegado a creer que sus economías locales dependen de las prisiones para obtener empleo.

  Michelle Alexander

  Jobs, Believe, White

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• Uno de cada tres jóvenes afroamericanos se encuentra actualmente bajo el control del sistema de justicia penal en prisión, en la cárcel, en libertad condicional o en libertad condicional - sin embargo, el encarcelamiento masivo tiende a ser categorizado como un problema de justicia penal en contraposición a un problema de justicia racial o de derechos civiles (o crisis).

  Michelle Alexander

  Men, Rights, Jail

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• The mythology around colorblindness leads people to imagine that if poor kids of color are failing or getting locked up in large numbers, it must be something wrong with them. It leads young kids of color to look around and say: "There must be something wrong with me, there must be something wrong with us. Is there something inherent, something different about me, about us as a people, that leads us to fail so often, that leads us to live in these miserable conditions, that leads us to go in and out of prison?"

  Michelle Alexander

  Kids, Color, Numbers

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• In a growing number of states, you're actually expected to pay back the costs of your imprisonment. Paying back all these fees, fines, and costs may be a condition of your probation or parole. To make matters worse, if you're one of the lucky few who actually manages to get a job following release from prison, up to 100% of your wages can be garnished to pay back all those fees, fines and court costs. One hundred percent.

  Michelle Alexander

  Jobs, Numbers, Pay

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• Los sindicatos de guardias de prisiones se han convertido en poderosas fuerzas políticas en algunos estados, sobre todo en California.

  Michelle Alexander

  Powerful, Prison Guards, California

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• Mandatory minimum sentences give no discretion to judges about the amount of time that the person should receive once a guilty verdict is rendered. Harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses were passed by Congress in the 1980s as part of the war on drugs and the "get tough" movement, sentences that have helped to fuel our nation's prison boom and have also greatly aggravated racial disparities, particularly in the application of mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine.

  Michelle Alexander

  War, Giving, Judging

  "Michelle Alexander: “Zimmerman Mindset” Endangers Young Black Lives with Poverty, Prison & Murder". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. July 17, 2013.

• The education justice movement and the prison justice movement have been operating separately in many places as though they're in silos. But the reality is we're not going to provide meaningful education opportunities to poor kids, kids of color, until and unless we recognize that we're wasting trillions of dollars on a failed criminal justice system.

  Michelle Alexander

  Meaningful, Kids, Opportunity

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• What does this system seem designed to do? As I see it, it seems designed to send people right back to prison, which is what happens about 70% of the time.

  Michelle Alexander

  People, Doe, Prison

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• For those interested in learning more about corporations and private individuals profiting from the caging of human beings, I highly recommend the book "Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money From Mass Incarceration."

  Michelle Alexander

  Book, Corporations, Making Money

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• Mass incarceration has become normalized in the United States. Poor folks of color are shuttled from decrepit, underfunded schools to brand new, high tech prisons and then relegated to a permanent undercaste - stigmatized as undeserving of any moral care or concern.

  Michelle Alexander

  School, Color, United States

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• Kids are growing up in communities in which they see their loved ones cycling in and out of prison and in which they are sent the message in countless ways that they, too, are going to prison one way or another. We cannot build healthy, functioning schools within a context where there is no funding available because it's going to building prisons and police forces.

  Michelle Alexander

  Crecer, Escuela, Niños

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• About 70% of those released from prison return within a few years, and the majority of those who return in some states do so in a matter of months because the challenges associated with mere survival on the outside are so immense.

  Michelle Alexander

  Years, Challenges, Survival

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• In response to the advocacy of groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, most states adopted tougher laws to punish drunk driving. Numerous states now have some type of mandatory sentencing for this offense - typically two days in jail for a first offense and two to ten days for a second offense. Possession of a tiny amount of crack cocaine, on the other hand, was given a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison.

  Michelle Alexander

  Mother, Jail, Hands

  Fuente: www.truth-out.org

• The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison.

  Michelle Alexander

  Hombres, Negro, Estados Unidos

  Michelle Alexander (2013). “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, p.6, The New Press

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