1. What does Alexander say about the scale of African Americans in the Criminal Justice system?
There is a large scale of African Americans being incarcerated in the Criminal JUstice System which has alluded to them losing some of their rights. Some African Americans have avoided long sentences and are forever labeled as feloners. Alexander also states that this creeping system is becoming similarly to a caste system.
2. Why does Alexander say that people of color are swept into the Criminal Justice System when young whites are about as likely to be using drugs as young people of color?
She says it is a reinstitution of the Jim Crow Laws. She calls them the “New Jim Crow Laws” which marginalize these African Americans. They are recognized as as felons when they commit fairly minor and harmless crimes at youngs ages in poor communities.
3. What did Ronald Reagan do with respect to the drug “war”?
He directed his policies against the African American Community. He turned the rhetorical war against drugs to a literal one. He would declare the drug war for racial politics. The “War on Drugs” would be declared as a scheme for Republicans known as the Southern Strategy. This would appeal to poor and working class whites because they are always threatened by the gangs of African Americans.
4. How were poor and working class whites affected differently than wealthy whites in the South after the Civil Rights movement?
They were suffering more as they were socially demoted as Alexander stated. They were now at risk of being busted for crimes in the town with the blacks. They were also forced to compete for jobs on the same platform as the African Americans who they thought were inferior to them.
5. What happened in poor communities of color after the drug war began?
There was a mass incarceration of poor communities of color. After drug war was declared, crack was spreading through communities. They were often targeted more than the people of colors even thought it was proven that white.
6. What does Alexander say about the impact of federal grants on local police departments?
After the war on drugs were declared, drug convictions increased and drugs arrest increased by 1000%. They thought it was because of drug abuse of the low class citizens, but a major factor is the flow of federal funding to the police departments for the arrests of drug convictions. As Alexander put it, they looked for “low hanging fruit”.They would pull over, check, and search as many people as possible to ensure and increase the flow of funds to their local police departments.
7. What does Alexander say about the relationship between the number of drug arrests and federal grants funding streams?
Alexander pointed out that the number of drug arrests increased as the flow of federal grants funding increases. Those numbers of drug arrests would increase so that local police departments could keep their funds from the government.
8. What does Alexander say about sweep tactics used in communities of color as compared to the use of such tactics in ghettoized communities?
Sweep tactics used in these public communities would have raised opposition. However, these tactics are enforced in ghettoized communities in which people can’t do much about it. They are violent as the police officers suffer very little repercussions from their actions.
9. What does Alexander say about the circumstances of persons who are released from prison?
They face repeated actions of brutality and discrimination even if they are trying to re-enter society that never seemed to help them in the first place. Alexander spent years representing victims of racial profiling and police brutality. It is so difficult for them to re-enter society because they have already been disenfranchised and discredited. They become a second-class citizen even after they leave prison.