Few acknowledge the reality of our modern day system of incarcerations. We’ve been indoctrinated to ignore this burgeoning system of enslavement and illicit profit. For years, we took comfort in the arrest of “criminals” and gave credence to the knee-jerk reaction to “lock ‘em all up.”
Over the last three decades the United States has experienced a decline in world ranking in technology, science and education and a trajectory to the No. 1 ranking in incarcerating its citizens. Equally disturbing, you and I are paying the price.
Those who convinced us that capitalism was the key to America’s dream also hoodwinked us into looking the other way while they amassed unimaginable wealth. They’ve done so by cutting jobs, cutting wages and imprisoning even the innocent.
Those at the helm of a prison system that’s grown to a $60 billion industry over the last 30 years are also among the corporate bosses who outsourced jobs and decreased wages. Those who have convinced Congress to close mental health institutions and treat the mentally ill behind prison walls are the same CEOs who reduced your salary and foreclosed your mortgage.
Crime has shifted from the streets to the prisons. One out of every four African-American children have at least one parent in prison by the age of 14. Schools are now pipelines to prison.
If you feel safe today, it’s because there’s an alarm on your car and two on your house; your windows are locked and you’re in before dark; your children go through metal detectors and rarely play outside.
If you feel safe today, it’s not because prisons have reformed a “criminal” or kept him locked away, it’s because you’ve surrendered every possible freedom in return.
Legislative seats have been filled by those whose ancestors paraded in white hoods and terrorized Black towns. But today they don’t burn crosses or run wild in the streets. Today their crosses are pens and their flames are unemployment, mass incarceration, foreclosures and bankruptcies.
While some believed they reached the Promised Land, the reality of corporate greed has become all too real. Those who think prisons aren’t your concern, think again.
Christi Griffin is the founder of The Ethics Project, a non-profit organization addressing the impact of crime, injustice and incarcerations, and the author of “Incarcerations in Black and White: The Subjugation of Black America.”
