CRIMINALIZATION OF BLACKS / LATINOS IN CALIFORNIA
BY STUDENT
Throughout the nation, Blacks and Latina/os have been incarcerated in prisons at a high alarming rate. What is being done is, instead of decreasing the amount of people who are incarcerated, the space is being increased and buildings are being made bigger to have enough room for everyone. This is seen specifically in California in the 80s and 90s. In this blog post, I argue that the biggest problem within this establishment is sentence length, which is then controlled by racist and unreliable parole boards, making this a problem for Blacks and Latinx. What also coordinates with sentence length is the rehabilitation process for prisoners. How can prisons rehabilitate the prisoners in their industry if they don’t have a rehabilitation process to offer them?
While in prison, the goal is that if there has been a crime committed, incarceration is supposed to help align a prisoner back into a citizen who will not break the law. This is supposed to be accomplished by prison sentence as well as the rehabilitation programs given. According to Ruthie Gilmore’s Golden Gulag, chapter 3 about “The Prison Fix”, the California Department of Corrections eventually completely wiped rehabilitation out. The more rehabilitation was asked for, the more it disappeared. According to Gilmore, during Civil Rights, Blacks used their excessive growth in prison to use the system against itself, and show identification went hand in hand with prison population. Similar was done in the 90s in Los Angeles in an article done by David E. Hayes-Bautista and Gregory Rodriguez, that it was harder to take down gangs because of the criminalization of the Latino identity. People believed that the Latino gangs were being targeted because of their ethnicity and not because of their “criminal” actions.
Black and Latinx sentencing in the prison system was a big circle from the rehabilitation. California’s smaller sentences were dragged out to be life sentences if the prisoners failed to be rehabilitated which translated to the capricious parole board that they could not learn their proper places in society. The question proposed in the first paragraph could almost be considered rhetorical based on this information. It had to do with how corrected the prisoners were through a rehabilitation process that didn’t exist. This caused these prisoners to be more cautious about what they did and say while in their prison time, because one step out of line would be a lot worse for them than for any other prisoner.
Works Cited:
Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, and Opposition in Globalizing California. Ruth Wilson Gilmore.
file:///C:/Users/Sam%20Cardona/Downloads/gilmore_prison_fix.pdf
The Criminalization of the Latino Identity Makes Fighting Gangs that Much Harder. David E. Hayes-Bautista and Gregory Rodriguez. LA Times. September 15 1996.
http://articles.latimes.com/1996-09-15/opinion/op-44051_1_latino-identity
Great blog post! I like this question you came up with. I agree hundred percent with you, "how can prisons rehabilitate the prisoners in their industry if they don’t have a rehabilitation process to offer them?" I think there should be a change in the constitution stating that, prisoners should not be overworked and with little pay, basically saying to outrule the second part of the 13th amendment. I think that part of the amendment is affecting the environment of prisons.
ReplyDeleteMany people think that most prisoners are serial killers or committed a huge felony, but that isn't always the case. Most of them are just there because of possession of illegal drugs. We must look at the reason why man have possession of those drugs. A reason can be that they grew up with minimal opportunities, and the money they are earning at their current job isn't enough to sustain them, so they need to make make money somehow to survive in the economy.
Very interesting post, I wonder how seriously the rehabilitation process in prisons are taken into consideration across the nation. Whether the efforts of bringing these criminals back into regular life is actually valuable to the guards and those in charge of their sentences are in good hands is a very big deal. I wonder what qualifications are necessary to be on board of who decides the length of sentences and how they spend their time in jail.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your piece. You were definitely clear as to what problems are cause by this inability to properly deal with prisoners. It also doesn't help that there is a chance that many of those such prisoners, both blacks and Latinos, are wrongfully profiled and sent away. Proper rehabilitation is definitely the key, however it will be interesting to see whether our prison system will evolve in a way which properly accomplishes that.
ReplyDeleteYour blog post puts a subject to light that most people fail to acknowledge. I agree completely with your blog post, the Justice system is extremely corrupt and instead of helping prisoners adjust to a normal life as a citizen they do their best to isolate them and throw them back in jail. Both blacks and Latinos are struggling to fight the prison fix, but with White Amerikkka working against them it is very difficult to see change.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is very thought provoking! Prisoners should receive rehabilitation, but their therapy should not be factored into their eligibility for parole. This makes it almost impossible for inmates to seek the help they need, if desired, because they are being judged which could lead to a longer prison sentence. Just like ordinary people seeking rehabilitation/ therapy, there should be confidentiality agreements set within a certain extent (do want to let serial killers loose).
ReplyDelete