1. Steiker, Carol S. Mass Incarceration: Causes, Consequences, and Exit Strategies 9.

1
( (2017): 1-6. Web.

Streiker's article is an introduction to what mass incarceration is. It revolves around the causes,

consequences, and exit strategies used. Steiker’s introduction paragraph is a annotated

bibliography of Volume 9:1 at Moritz College of Law, Harvard Law School. Steiker separated

each part into three questions. The first question ‘why did this change occur.’ The second

question ‘what has this change wrought? What are the consequences of mass incarceration for

american society?’. And the third question is ‘how can we reverse course?’.

2. Alexander, Michelle. New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

Place of Publication Not Identified: New, 2016. Print.

Alexander starts off the book with a preface that states who she is, what she does, and the

purpose for her book. Michelle Alexander is a civil rights lawyer. Alexander’s target audience

are people who truly care about the rights issues that she believes Americans face still to this

day.

The introduction to the book starts off with what the main topic would be, discrimination

towards black Americans. Alexander uses multiple examples in the beginning talking about

housing, voting, and employment. Alexander was inspired to write this book after seeing

Obama’s election. According to her, there was no change in the racial caste system. What the

author saw was more racially biased in the criminal justice system. The example used in the

introduction would be the war on drugs. It states that, “after the media was filled with images of

crack babies and crack whores, Some in the black community thought that it was a government

plan..” Then it goes on to saying that it resulted in higher incarceration. What this has to do with
her main cause, justice for black Americans, they are twenty times more higher to be

incarcerated than any other race, according to alexander.

In the first chapter of the book, Alexander makes it clear of the history of race and racism that

has happened in America. Alexander first talks about slavery and how it happened in quick rapid

numbers. Alexander mentions white supremacy and how it endorsed the enslavement of blacks

in America. In 1870, the 14 and 15th amendment were to put into place. This helped prove

education, and clothes to the black. But, some things still lacked such as being able sue and

voting went down. In the 60’s and 70’s, poverty was split. Conservatives said that the

community was ‘welfare queens’ and cheats, compared to liberals who looked statistics in

changes. Law and order became more of a viewing thing in 1968. When Reagan ran for office,

the budgets for war on drugs were cut. When Clinton came into office, it did not make things

better, it in fact started the undercut for a ‘racial war’.

The second chapter is called The Lockdown. Throughout this chapter, Alexander discusses what

the system really is and what its aim is for busting drugs. The first one being with police and how

they are able to search anybody if they feel like they need to due to suspicion. This correlates

with what her purpose is because according to the author, innocent people of color rarely fight

back because their afraid of harassment and retaliation. Then it states that in the 1980’s swat

teams became more common for conduct of drug raids.

3. CQ Press. "Prison Reform." Prison Reform 17.13 (n.d.): 1-24. CO Researcher. Web.

Organizing into paragraphs;what each is about.

In the article Prison reform, it is organized into different paragraphs with different subjects. The

first subject is The issues. Under it talks about nonviolent drug offenders be sent to prison,

should prison provide more rehabilitation, and should prisons be better protected against rape.

The second is the background. This one talks about how there is a prisoner take over in new york

and how that can be debated into a new prison policy. It also talks about it is now more common

to become more tough on crime now that it has doubled. It also mentions how some ignore

danger signs that can turn into prison riots. Also, overcrowding and dominate prisoners against

others. The third is the current situation in which prisons face today. This paragraph alone talks

about how California is in a crisis because overcrowding and they only until June to figure out

how to fix it. Then, how to help prisoners re-enter society and start fresh. The fourth is The

outlook on the system. This one talks about how some people think it will take decades to re-

think of a new prison policy. The fifth is sidebars and graphics. This one talks about how the

Northeast is the lowest in percent, inmate population has reached over 2 million since 2005,

there's more mental distortion due to isolation, more than 50 percent of prisoners are nonviolent,

the key events of everything started in 1971, and in Texas officials have been ignoring outbursts.

It also mentions that american prisons are mostly populated with african americans and the issue

at hand is should government relook over a reform act. The sixth one is further notice. This one

mentions how to contact for more information, the sources used, and additional articles to read

up on.

4. CQR. "Sentencing Reform." Sentencing Reform 24.2 (n.d.): 1-24. Print.

Organizing into paragraphs;what each is about.

The first section talks about the issues. This talks about should mandatory sentences be rolled

back and are lengthy sentences necessary to protect the outside world. The second is background.

Background talks about after 1960 lawmakers started to favor prison over rehab. It also talks

about reduce sentencing and budget deficits for surgering populations. The third one talks about

the current situation. Along with this is bill proposals that go along with relax mandatory

minimums and how at least 30 states took action for mandatory sentences. The fourth is outlook.

This involves the public opinion on long prison terms for nonviolent. The fifth is sidebars and

graphics. This one mentions the federal inmate went down by 2.7 percent, 3rd of adults favor

mandatory, more than four times as serving life sentences, they key events of 1967, how their

going to keep children out jail and trouble, and should mandatory sentencing be abolished. The

sixth is the fourth research. This paragraph talks about more information, and where a person can

find more information.

5. Chase Madar • February 3, 2015. "A Republican Against Prisons." The American

Conservative. American Conservative, 3 Feb. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2017.

In this article by Chase Madar, Madar has a discussion with Mark Earley about incarceration,

politics, and religion. Mark Earley worked in Virginia for 10 years as a republican senate. Mark

believes that if somebody looked at the way things are being run now with incarceration they

wouldn’t like it. He mentioned that in the 80’s and 90’s, policies were more driven by what the

constitution wanted. Madar had mentioned the death penalty. Earley had to say this about the

death penalty, that our system has a hard time getting it right as to who deserves it and so forth.

Along with this interview, the mention religion. Madar had mentioned Christianity and
incarceration. Earley said that he wasn’t sure that a faith was behind it, but government policies

and politics are definitely. What was taken out of the interview is that Madar sees incarceration

has a social evil instead of a policy issue.

6. Lehrer, Eli. "Responsible Prison Reform." National Affairs. National Affair, Summer

2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2017.

<http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/responsible-prison-reform>.

In the article Responsible Prison Reform by Lehrer, Lehrer talks about how incarceration is a

problem in this country. He first starts off with mentioning crime and punishment. What he has

to say about crime and punishment is that the justice system was terrible toward the african

americans in this country and other minority groups. He uses Jim Crow as an example taking

what happened to them to further more his point such as rioting, lynching, and outright abuse.

Then he says that in the 50’s and 60’s, the civil rights movement won its first big victory. In the

paragraph the war on crime it talks about individual centered crime. This section mentions four

classic purposes that the criminal justice system uses. The first would be the risk of punishment

for somebody who weak from committing crime. The second would be locking up people

because the incarcerated can not ‘prey’ on society. The third would be that incarceration denies

people from choices that forces them to live around unpleasing situations. The fourth would be

rehab including drug screening, classes to help them when they get out, and so forth. The next

paragraph is the cost of incarceration. This section says that in a year it cost $10,00 for low

security and $100,000 for high. Just alone in 2010, 50 billion was spent on on prisons and jails

alone. Then to further his argument and point he states that african americans merely make up

13% of population but 40% of inmates. The next section talks about effective punishment. This
section involves that it isn’t doing enough because they are not being taught how to move away

from their bad habits, but merely just punishing them for doing it. He believes that getting help

should be apart and be viewed as a form of punishment because most of the time it is forced and

not something most will do willingly. It may cost more according to him, but money well spent

because the odds of them committing the same crime will drop drastically. The next section is

human detention. This section talks about how inmates shouldn’t suffer drastically with the

conditions each inmate has. Although, it is mentioned that they should at least be uncomfortable.

This section talks about how sexual violence is up in prisons because violence can not permitted

behind bars. In 2003, the country passed a rape act to help settle it a bit. Nonsexual violence is

also a problem within the system. Some racial ideologies try to run the system, even though

gangs are rare, it happens. He also mentions how prisons should start looking into new

technology to help inmates. That includes books, education, and GED programs. The last section

is back to society. This section talks about how 600,000-700,000 inmates leave the system and

go into the real world again. All federal inmates get special training to life outside prison. He

gives a suggestion to lawmakers and how to help inmates more. He says they could restore a

traditional parole processing program.

7. Kaste, Martin. "Is It Possible To Let More People Out Of Prison, And Keep Crime

Down?"NPR. NPR, 16 July 2015. Web. 13 Nov. 2017.

In this article, Kaste talks about how Obama planned to change the incarceration, stating that the

US holds 5% of the population but 25% is in the system. A decline in prisons happened in 2011

due to overcrowding. About 5-6 people daily where going home. Mostly they were all nonviolent

charges. It’s main goal is to keep people out that don’t need to be in for that long such as for
stealing. A prosecutor in compton said that he doesn't think the reforms are helping at all because

more people are being locked up. The logic there is that when they are not in the streets, they can

not commit more crimes. One thing that’s keeping them from letting out more people are the

resources. They believe that there are not enough resources available currently to teach how to

not commit crime and how to be a good citizen. They believe that they won’t learn from their

mistakes, but more crime will be committed.

8. Blades, Joan, and Grover Norquist. "Prison Reform Is Where Democrats, Republicans

Converge in Congress." Time. Time, 17 June 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2017.

In this article, it talks about the decisions and differences faced between republicans and

democrats. What they both agree is that america has a greater population in prison than out. Just

alone in 2011 more than 2 millions adults were in jail and prison. In california, one year it costs

50,000 for putting a person into prison. The debate here is the cost on the war on drugs and

taxpayers money. Conversatives pride themselves on not where there money is going but the

education that is coming from it. The number of people that have been incarcerated has jumped

500% since 1980.