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The New Jim Crow alexander michelle criminal justice/law $27.95 u.s. advance praise for the new jim crow “A powerful analysis of why and how mass “ Michelle Alexander’s brave and bold new book paints a haunting picture in which dreary felon incarceration is happening in America, The New Jim garb, post-prison joblessness, and loss of voting rights now do the stigmatizing work once Crow should be required reading for anyone working done by colored-only water fountains and legally segregated schools. With dazzling candor, for real change in the criminal justice system.” Alexander argues that we all pay the cost of the new Jim Crow.” —r o n a l d e. h a m p t o n , —lani guinier, professor at Harvard Law School and author of The Miner’s Canary: executive director, National Black Police Association Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy The New Jim Crow The New Jim Crow as the united states celebrates A longtime civil rights advocate and litigator, “ For every century there is a crisis in our democracy, the response to which defines how the nation’s “triumph over race” with the election of michelle alexander won a 2005 Soros future generations view those who were alive at the time. In the eighteenth century it Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in ma- Justice Fellowship and now holds a joint appointment was the transatlantic slave trade, in the nineteenth century it was slavery, in the twentieth jor American cities are locked behind bars or labeled at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Eth- century it was Jim Crow. Today it is mass incarceration. Alexander’s book offers a timely and felons for life. Jim Crow laws were wiped off the books nicity and the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State Uni- original framework for understanding mass incarceration, its roots to Jim Crow, our modern decades ago, but today an astounding percentage of versity. Alexander served for several years as director caste system, and what must be done to eliminate it. This book is a call to action.” the African American community is warehoused in of the Racial Justice Project at the ACLU of Northern — benjamin todd jealous, president and CEO, NAACP prisons or trapped in a permanent, second-class sta- California, and subsequently directed the Civil Rights tus—much like their grandparents before them, who Clinics at Stanford Law School, where she was an as- “ With imprisonment now the principal instrument of our social policy directed toward poorly lived under an explicit system of control. sociate professor. Alexander is a former law clerk for educated black men, Michelle Alexander argues convincingly that the huge racial disparity of In this stunning and incisive critique, civil rights Justice Harry Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court and punishment in America is not the mere result of neutral state action. She sees the rise of mass lawyer-turned-legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues has appeared as a commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and incarceration as opening up a new front in the historic struggle for racial justice. And, she’s that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have NPR. The New Jim Crow is her first book. right. If you care about justice in America, you need to read this book!” simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting — glenn c. loury, professor of economics at Brown University and author of Race, black men through the War on Drugs and decimating Incarceration, and American Values communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control. In “ After reading The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander’s stunning work of scholarship, one gains the current era, it is no longer permissible to use race, the terrible realization that, for people of color, the American criminal justice system resembles explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, the Soviet Union’s gulag—the latter punished ideas, the former punishes a condition.” and social contempt. Yet it is perfectly legal to discrimi- —david levering lewis, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian at NYU and the author of Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness nate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963 once legal to discriminate against African Americans. The old forms of discrimination—discrimination in “ We need to pay attention to Michelle Alexander’s contention that mass imprisonment in the employment, housing, education, and public benefits, United States constitutes a racial caste system. Her analysis reflects the passion of an advocate denial of the right to vote, and exclusion from jury ser- and the intellect of a scholar.” vice—are suddenly legal once you’re labeled a felon. —marc mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project and the author Alexander challenges the civil rights community, of Race to Incarcerate and all of us, to place mass incarceration at the fore- THE NEW PRESS front of a new movement for racial justice in America. www.thenewpress.com Jacket photograph courtesy istock Author photograph by the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Jacket design by Pollen, New York THE NEW PRESS michelle alexander The New Jim Crow The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness MICHELLE ALEXANDER THE NEW PRESS NEW YORK LONDON © 2010 by Michelle Alexander All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher. Request for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to: Permissions Department, The New Press, 38 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013. Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2010 Distributed by Perseus Distribution library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Alexander, Michelle. The new Jim Crow : mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness / Michelle Alexander. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59558-103-7 (hc. : alk. paper) 1. Criminal justice, Administration of— United States. 2. African American prisoners—United States. 3. Race discrimination— United States. 4. United States—Race relations. I. Title. HV9950.A437 2010 364.973—dc22 2009022519 The New Press was established in 1990 as a not-for-profi t alternative to the large, commerical publishing houses currently dominating the book publishing industry. The New Press operates in the public interest rather than for private gain, and is committed to publishing, in innovative ways, works of educational, cultural, and community value that are often deemed insuffi ciently profi table. www.thenewpress.com Composition by NK Graphics This book was set in Fairfi eld LH Light Printed in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 For Nicole, Jonathan, and Corinne Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface xiii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Rebirth of Caste 20 Chapter 2: The Lockdown 58 Chapter 3: The Color of Justice 95 Chapter 4: The Cruel Hand 137 Chapter 5: The New Jim Crow 173 Chapter 6: The Fire This Time 209 Notes 249 Index 281 Acknowledgments It is often said, “It takes a village to raise a child.” In my case, it has taken a village to write this book. I gave birth to three children in four years, and in the middle of this burst of joyous activity in our home, I decided to write this book. It was written while feeding babies and during nap times. It was writ- ten at odd hours and often when I (and everyone else in the household) had little sleep. Quitting the endeavor was tempting, as writing the book proved far more challenging than I expected. But just when I felt it was too much or too hard, someone I loved would surprise me with generosity and uncon- ditional support; and just when I started to believe the book was not worth the effort, I would receive—out of the blue—a letter from someone behind bars who would remind me of all the reasons that I could not possibly quit, and how fortunate I was to be sitting in the comfort of my home or my offi ce, rather than in a prison cell. My colleagues and publisher supported this ef- fort, too, in ways that far exceeded the call of duty. I want to begin, then, by acknowledging those people who made sure I did not give up—the people who made sure this important story got told. First on this list is Nancy Rogers, who was dean of the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University until 2008. Nancy exemplifi es outstanding leadership. I will always remember her steadfast encouragement, support, and fl exibility, as I labored to juggle my commitments to work and family. Thank you, Nancy, for your faith in me. In this regard, I also want to thank john powell, director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Eth- x acknowledgments nicity. He immediately understood what I hoped to accomplish with this book and provided critical institutional support. My husband, Carter Stewart, has been my rock. Without ever once utter- ing a word of complaint, he has read and reread drafts and rearranged his schedule countless times to care for our children, so that I could make prog- ress with my writing. As a federal prosecutor, he does not share my views about the criminal justice system, but his different worldview has not, even for a moment, compromised his ability to support me, lovingly, at every turn in my efforts to share my truth. I made the best decision of my life when I married him.
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