Criminal Justice System. Michelle Alexander’s article The New Jim Crow

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Criminal Justice System
The rising rate of incarcerations among African Americans evokes different emotions and opinions, which reflects the nation’s struggle with the remnants of fight against slavery and racial discrimination. Michelle Alexander’s article The New Jim Crow, for instance, provides one of the scholastic views on the issue of mass incarcerations in the United States as she claims that the country’s criminal justice system promotes racial discrimination against African Americans. According to Michelle, the criminal justice system forms an excellent platform for promoting the caste system by condemning African Americans to second rate citizens through the bias laws that are reflective of Jim Crow’s provisions (Alexander, 2012). Heather Mac Donald’s Is the Criminal Justice System Racist? dismisses such claims arguing that the criminal justice system only proves its efficacy in discharging its mandate by incarcerating only those that are proven guilty of criminal charges across the racial divide (Mac Donald, 2008). Mac Donald purports that it is the higher rate of criminal activities among African Americans that leads to the equally high incarceration rates among African Americans. According to Mac Donald, the criminal justice system is not racist in performing its duties but rather leads to promotion of good social behavior especially in the poor neighborhoods and thus enhancing growth and development of such societies. Michelle and Mac Donald present opposing points of view over whether or not the criminal justice system is racist or rather promotes racial discrimination against members of the African American community. Provided herein are some of the arguments provided by the two scholars as they argue their cases for their opposing standpoints and thus forming an excellent basis for the delivery of a final verdict on whether or not the criminal justice system is racist.
Michelle Alexander faults the United States’ criminal justice system’s ability to fairly uphold and protect the freedom, rights, and liberties of citizens as enshrined in the nations’ constitutional provisions. She purports, instead, that the system exercises bias in discharging its diverse mandates and thus becoming an agent of promoting racism against the African American community. The system contradicts the provisions of the constitution concerning equal rights and justices for all as its agencies are denying the same to a majority of African Americans. The United States’ criminal justice system makes for an integrated network of agencies from both the federal and state institutions tasked with performing equally unique roles to ensure the protection and delivery of equal rights and justice for all. Among the agencies constituting the criminal justice system include the police force, prosecution, as well as the judiciary. Michele cites racial profiling in the administration of the stop and frisk operation by the police, bias in police brutality and the drug-law enforcement, as well as the discrimination against the ex-offenders as evidence of the system’s function as a racialized social control measure (Alexander, 2012). Like the Jim C...