Name: Jack Rosen
Social Justice Group: War and Violence: How race affects conviction rates in NYC (B)
Date of Fieldwork: February 1, 2025
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Documentary
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork:
For this fieldwork, our group watched “13th,” a documentary regarding the historical context of the criminal justice system in the U.S. The documentary begins just after Emancipation in 1865 and goes through the years to discuss the modern-day criminal justice system. Many people may wonder, why is it so important to start right after slavery? The answer lies in the Black Codes. Following 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment proclaimed Emancipation for everyone except prisoners. It was basically used for whatever person wanted to use, so it was mass exploited. Since the South was filled with ex-Confederate sheriffs and judges, Black Americans would be incarcerated back into a system where they could be used as “slaves.” And nobody seemed to care because it was allowed by the constitution.
It’s also important to recognize the mass incarceration rates during the presidencies of Clinton, Reagan, and Nixon. During Nixon’s presidency, he introduced a rhetoric titled “A War on Drugs,” which intentionally targeted Black Americans and anti-war activists. You could serve time in prison for the simple “misdemeanor” of smoking marijuana. A quote from Nixon’s campaign team stated “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be against the war or to be black. But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and black with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.” During Reagan’s presidency, he enforced Nixon’s war on drugs even more. His actions led the public to believe propaganda portraying Black children as “Superpredators.” This resulted in blanket statements about black people that portrayed them as bad people. And because of that, it made it easier to accept that they should go to prison. During Clinton’s term, he was nothing short of ruthless towards criminals. He created Mandatory Minimums, the Three Strikes Your Out law, and the 85% law. These laws ensured people would be put away for life if they committed three crimes, people would have to serve 85% of their sentence, and more.
Note that many of those laws were not created by presidents. A somewhat-known nonprofit has corporations working with a select few republican senators to make laws that directly benefit the corporations focused on. Its name is ALEC: American Legislative Exchange Council. Laws like Mandatory Minimums, SB1070, and Stand Your Ground Laws have all had serious repercussions, including the publicized tragedy of Trayvon Martin, but have also had major money cuts for places like the CCA, Walmart, and other companies. However, not only ALEC corporations benefit from the criminal justice system. Private corporations like Victoria’s Secret and JCPenny run on cheap prison workforces. The fires in California were given prisoners to do the firefighting. It is just crazy to think about how much we rely on prisons and how so many people are biased against because of race.
The 13th provided us with the most detailed history of the criminal justice system in the U.S. so far. It is an amazing documentary, and I recommend you watch it.
