Public Health or Law & Order

Mass Incarceration

Ragini Srikrishna

A National Guardsman stands at the ready at a Detroit intersection during the summer riots of 1967.

Do we now live in a

post-racial society?

But aren’t we seeing ever more black folks doing well?

1 In 3 Black Males Will Go To Prison In Their Lifetime†

†Bureau of Justice Statistics

economy

jobs

healthcare

It’s a Public Health Issue

A health crisis or public health crisis is

a difficult situation or complex health system

that affects humans in one or more geographic areas,

from a particular locality to encompass the entire planet.

2016 deaths due to drug overdose

59,000

every 3 weeksA 9/11

$78.5Bannual cost of

opioid epidemicPubl

ic H

ealth

Cris

is

CDC 2017

Doubling & more each decade!

War on drugs

3-strikes

Even authoritarian regimes with comparable

populations imprison far fewer people

Comparable democracies imprison

far fewer people

65%$

16%$12%$

7%$

White$ Hispanic$ Black$ Other$

%Popula(on*

%Popula;on$

Racial Composition of US

65%$

16%$12%$

7%$

34%$

22%$

35%$

9%$

White$ Hispanic$ Black$ Other$

%Popula>on$ %Prison$Popula>on$

Racial Disparity in US Prisons

14%$

35%$

53%$45%$

%$of$Drug$Users$ %$Drug$Arrests$ %$Drug$Convic7ons$ %$Imprisoned$

Ratio in Drug Cases African-Americans

Physical

Disease

HIV/AIDS 2x-7x

Hep C 8x-21x

STDs 1 in 3 women

Mental

Suicide & Violence

Suicide 2x-4x

Suicide in Jails

1/3 of all deaths

Violence 15% state prisoners

Drug Abuse

†Vera Institute of Justice 2014

How Incarceration Affects Communities

2.7M children have an incarcerated parent

†Wildeman 2014

Elevated rates of child homelessness† diminishing finances & strain on single mothers

7.8% higher infant mortality (in 2003•) as incarceration rate grew from 1973 level

•Vera Institute 2014

$80.0Bannual cost of

mass incarceration

Post-release disempowerment denial of opportunities housing, edu & voting

Why should we do something?

Economic

It isn’t working

we just can’t afford it and that money

can be better spent

Moral

For the same reasons we

fought the civil warand for civil rights because it’s the right thing to do!$12,731¶

Cost per student insecondary school

$31,286•

Cost per prison inmate

¶OECD•Vera Institute 2014

Political

We cannot disenfranchise vast

sections of our nation

5.85MªFelons disenfranchised

ªThe Guardian

“It is for us the living, rather, to be

dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus

far so nobly advanced.” Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

What should we do?Educate ourselves & others

• today’s a start • understand how we got here • learn what others are doing differently

Press for legislative change • press our state & federal representatives • join organizations working for change

Act • Volunteer our time & participate in change

ResourcesNation Inside http://nationinside.org

The New Jim Crow http://newjimcrow.com/take-action

The Sentencing Project http://sentencingproject.org/

Vera Institute for Justice http//vera.org/

“Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave),

and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be

black (a second-class citizen).

Today mass incarceration defines the meaning of blackness in America: black people, especially black

men, are criminals. That is what it means to be black.”

― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

KARL MARX