DOCUMENTARY: THE 13th AMENDMENT

The United States population represents the 5% of the world’s population. However, the number of prisoners in the U.S. represents the 25% of the world’s population (2.3 million people) . United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. 

Netflix recently released a documentary about mass incarceration and the inequality of the criminal justice system of United States. 

*All the data and statements below were taken from the documentary.

The 13th amendment of the American Constitution (December 1865) declared slavery unconstitutional “except as a punishment for crime”. 

Slavery was an economic system, therefore, they needed to find a new way of making money. 

African Americans were criminalized. If you were a criminal, the 13th amendment didn't apply to you. Black men were, and still are, represented as criminals, as “a threat to White women”. One illustrative example of this representation is the movie Birth of a nation where black men are represented as rapists. We can even see a white woman throw herself out of a cliff to avoid being raped by a black man.

The representation of black people, especially black men, as criminals is how social injustice and police brutality against black people is justified.

Jim Crow's segregation laws (1876 – 1965) turned civil right activists into criminals. 

Black leaders were considered, by the FBI, as the greatest internal threat to the nation.
Fred Hampton (Black panthers’ leader) was killed by the police while he was sleeping in his house. He had been able to unite blacks, whites, Puerto Ricans and Native Americans.
Assata Shakur (leader of Black Liberation Army) was presented by the media as a dangerous criminal. Angela Davis (black civil rights activist and feminist) was in the FBI list of the 10th most wanted fugitives. 

In 1964, the peak of the civil rights movements coincides with an increase in the crime rates, this two variables were related. Hence, in 1970 began the “era of mass incarceration”.

Richard Nixon (president of th United States between 1969 and 1974) declared the war on drugs, but also to the black political movements of the day (black panthers, black power…), the antiwar movement, the movements for women’s liberation and the movements for gay liberation. He linked antiwar/ hippies with marijuana and black people with heroin. 

Ronald Reagan (president of the United States between 1981 and 1889) declared the “modern war on drugs”. His order coincided with an economic crisis. A new kind of cocaine (crack) appeared. It was linked to the Black and Latino communities. The time in prison was the same for 1 ounce of crack cocaine than for 100 ounces of powder cocaine.

Economic inequality, hyper segregation and drug abuse were criminalized in the “war on drugs” of Nixon and Reagan. 

At the same time, black people were overrepresented in the news as criminals what created a fear used again to justified cruelty and injustice towards black people. The idea of black people being criminals was believed by white people, but also by the black people themselves. 

The minority youth was then refered to as “superpredators”.

The elections of 1988 between Michael Dukakis and George H. W. Bush were decided by who was tougher on crime. The case of Willie Horton (who was presented as the movie prototype of the black rapist) was used for Bush to declare Dukakis softer on crime because he was in favor of promoting weekend prison passes for the prisoner.

Nixon, Reagan and Bush (all Republicans) were elected because they were “tougher on crime”. Bill Clinton (Democrat) had to show he could also be tough on crime to win the elections in 1992. To do so, he began supporting the death penalty. But more importantly, he approved the 3 strikes and you are out law for which the third violent crime meant 25 years or life imprisonment. Today there is still people suffering because of this. He had publicly regretted this law. Although this is not the only law Bill Clinton approved. He established the mandatory sentencing that stablished mandatory minimum time in prison. To understand how this affected the non-white people we must take into account 95% of the elected prosecutors in the USA are White. In 1994, Clinton passed another law towards law enforcement incarceration: the federal crime bill, which meant more prisons and more police officers in the street. This bill he has also admitted it was “a mistake”.

In 2012, as the teenager Trayvon Martin was killed, people began to question the American law. In these case, the shooter couldn’t be arrested because of the Florida laws called “stand your ground” which declared that “you can kill someone if you feel threatened”. This was also the reason why the shooter was declared “not guilty”. Today this law is still in order and you may hear about people wanting to abolish it.

Another unknown issue the documentary brings to light is the actions of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) to which companies like Wal-Mart belong. The documentary also reports Wal-Mart as “the biggest seller of long guns in the U.S." and "has been the largest retailer of bullets in the world”. ALEC had supported laws like the “stand your ground” ones.  

CCA is the first private prison corporation in the U.S. In the late 80s and early 90s incarceration became a growth industry. ALEC and CCA pushed to authenticate laws such as “three strikes and you are out”, minimum sentencing laws… They needed to have their prisons full to make money.

In 2010 another controversial law was approved known as “SB1070” this rule gave the police the right to stop anyone who they thought looked like an immigrant.  Detention facilities were created as prisons for immigrants and the so-called “crimmigration system” began. Additionally probation and parole were privatized as the American Bail Coalition became member of ALEC. The prison overcrowding problem was solved by GPS monitorizing and the home confinement system. Other ALEC members are phone, health and food services; you can imagine their role on the prisons.

The case of Kalief Browder is used to exemplify the problem involving the inequalities of trial: “the system simply cannot exist if everyone decides to go to trial”. Bail is too expensive for most of the people: “there are thousands of people in jails right this moment that are sitting there for no other reason than because there are too poor to get out”. The criminal justice benefits the rich. Often they get the chance to confess and get less years of sentence or go to trial and risk getting a longer sentence.
Kalief Browder couldn’t make bail and didn’t want to plead guilty so he spent three years in solitary confinement despite being innocent.

People who are defined by the criminal justice system as criminals lose a lot of citizen rights like the right to vote. After jail, it is very difficult for them to move forward. They find trouble looking for a job, for students loans, business licenses, food stamps, private rentals on a house, life insurance… The documentary afirm they suffer “over 40 000 collateral consequences”.  

 A lot of cases of police brutality against black people are strictly related to mass incarceration. Everyday we can find a new case of black men and women being killed or being unjustly arrested.

Finally, I want to leave two statements to reflect on: 

• Human beings are not born to be locked up and encaged.
• Most people wouldn’t keep their pets in the kind of conditions that we keep people in.
• The actual felon is the former slave.