Mass Incarceration As A Result Of Racial Discrimination And Bias In America

“Land of the free, home of the brave”. One of America’s many slogans that put the country on a pedestal as a beacon of hope to be viewed by the rest of the world. We may be brave as a nation, but by no means are we the land of the free, especially during the age of mass incarceration that is fueled by a multitude of factors. It is without a doubt that America has the highest incarceration rate out of any other country, and the largest prison population as well, yet here we are claiming to be a nation that upholds freedom as something to die for. The documentary “13th” that details effects of the 13th Amendment provides insight on how many prisoners we really have in America. In 1985, the prison population was 760,000, now fast forward almost 30 years to 2014, where it was up to 2.3 million. The numbers do not lie, and they stand as proof that the prison population will only continue to grow greater. But why do they keep growing you might ask? With any growing population, crime is bound to increase as well, but for years the flawed system has allowed for factors such as race and biases among society to stall and impede serving justice to those who truly deserve it. Unfortunately it is ever more likely that an innocent person, or someone who has committed a minor crime is severely punished. Through the story of a man named Malcolm Alexander and the case of Brock Turner, it can be seen how racial discrimination and bias play key roles in turning America’s criminal justice system into a scapegoat for certain criminals.

This is Malcolm Alexander, he is an African American man who was falsely imprisoned for 38 years after the victim of an armed robbery and rape in 1979 misidentified him as the perpetrator of the horrific act 4 months after it had occurred. The real perpetrator was a black man like Malcolm, and allowed for the white victim to easily misidentify him especially when trauma and confusion from the event made her forget parts of the incident. In 1980 Malcolm was falsely accused of sexual assault following an interaction with a different white woman, leading to his photo being added to a photo array that was used to identify a suspect from the 1979 rape, and resulted in Malcolm being charged, with zero evidence he was the perpetrator. He was sentenced to life and served 38 years as an innocent man, simply because he was black, until he was finally exonerated in 2018. Malcolm’s life was taken from him, 38 years that he would never get back, all due to tentative accusations based on his race.

Brock Turner’s case is the complete opposite to Malcolm’s, as Turner did in fact commit a disgusting crime, but somehow came out on top when comparing their situations. Turner is a white male, a Stanford student, and supposedly came from a very respectable family and upbringing in Ohio. On January 22, 2015, Turner was caught by 2 fellow students sexually assaulting an unconscious 22 year old woman, which resulted in him fleeing and being arrested. Turner was expected to be imprisoned for as much as 14 years, but the heaviest charges were dropped, and in the end he was sentenced to 6 months of county jail, 3 years of probation, and had to register as a sex offender for life, and still after being a blatant rapist, had his sentence reduced to 3 months of jail. Judge Aaron Persky believed Turner was not prone to committing another crime, and decided to go easy on him due to having no previous record. Communities were outraged that a rapist was to serve only 3 months of jail time, with many citing his race and prestige of attending Stanford as key factors to him basically being let free, while others defended him and claimed did nothing wrong, his father even claiming that it was a 'steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life'.

As seen from both cases, race and bias most certainly determine whether you will be seen and charged appropriately as a criminal in this flawed system. To put it into perspective, an innocent man was jailed for 38 years, while a rapist was jailed for 3 months. These examples just further prove how our criminal justice system accounts for race and background of an individual instead of simply looking at the crime committed. This graph here illustrates the results of racial bias in regards of incarceration, showing the state and federal prison population of blacks, whites, and hispanics, with blacks being 13 percent of the nation’s population yet make up 33 percent of the prison population. Fortunately since 2007 the gap between blacks and whites has decreased, showing slight signs of hope for a reduction in prisoners in the future.

America’s criminal justice system is evidently flawed as can be seen, with its bias based on race fueling the fire that has been raging in the age of mass incarceration. Malcolm Alexander and Brock Turner are just two of many stories that help show flaws in the system as well as aid in bringing attention to this issue of much needed reform. In no version of America should an innocent person ever face more jail time than a sexual offender, yet this is the reality we live in. Until reform occurs America will truly never be the land of the free, it will only be known as the land where we have freedom to imprison whoever we choose.