When Michelle Alexander’s explosive book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, hit the bookshelves in 2012, millions of Americans were awakened to the shocking cruelty of a criminal justice system that had been running amok for over three decades. The racial dimension of mass incarceration is its most striking feature. No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities.
As Michelle Alexander documents in minute detail, the tough-on-crime stance inevitably intersected with the deeply racist underpinnings of our corrections institutions to create a prison population of over 2 million by the end of 20th century—over 60% of whom were black or brown. There is no state in the country where African American rates of imprisonment reflect their proportion of the overall U.S. population. Here in New Jersey, African Americans make up approximately 15% of the population, yet 60% of the those incarcerated.
The reality of our criminal justice system at all levels—national, state and local– stands as an extreme distortion and violation of a just and democratic society. The results are mass incarceration and deprivation of civil and human rights for millions of U. S. citizens, and disproportionately for people of color. This system is one of racial and social control that conflicts with basic Unitarian Universalist values and beliefs including: justice, equity and compassion in human relations; the inherent worth and dignity of every person; and the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.