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kpete

(71,901 posts)
Thu May 26, 2016, 08:48 AM May 2016

What is Mass Incarceration?

An overview of how the U.S. government locked millions of people in cages to be forgotten.
Over the past 30 years, the U.S. has put in place radical, unprecedented policies and practices that attempted to address crime through prioritizing harsh and disproportionate punishment, rather than prevention or rehabilitation. By 2010, 7.25 million Americans were under some form of correctional control ¹— either in prison or jail, or on probation or parole — up from 1.84 million in 1980.²

The term “mass incarceration” refers to the unique way the U.S. has locked up a vast population in federal and state prisons, as well as local jails.
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How did this happen?

The “tough on crime” punishment philosophy of the 1980's and 90's, combined with a heinous “War on Drugs,” led to legislation under Republican and Democratic administrations that used a jail cell as a first, rather than last, resort for people who broke the law.

This uncompromising posture, which often exploited racial fear, became an essential part of running a political campaign. For years, elected officials competed with one another on how brutally they would be willing to punish people who broke the law, especially regarding drug-code violations. Legislators enacted policies that led to more people being locked away for increasingly smaller offenses, and combined them with further policies that kept people locked up longer.

The prison population skyrocketed.



https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*Da-uq9GNvDQrDTQVB0ZZKA.jpeg

Way More:
https://medium.com/@dan_nott/what-is-mass-incarceration-ff737196580#.5jnmulqlz

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What is Mass Incarceration? (Original Post) kpete May 2016 OP
in Honduras it's the "mano dura," but that just loops right back to Clinton again MisterP May 2016 #1
In China, "Mass Incarceration" quickly becomes mass-murder condoned by Xi Jeffersons Ghost May 2016 #2
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