Sociologists and historians

According to sociologists and historians, racial imprisonment has started to rise in the United States’ jails. Mass imprisonment is marked by expanded jail construction, a rise in the number of people detained, and the possibility of the government awarding cash incentives to jails with a high number of inmates. The issue of racial imprisonment is brought up by Michel Foucault and Michele. The two researchers believe that mass imprisonment has had an effect on society as a whole, but people of color seem to be more impacted and they make up the majority of people in American prisons. Michel Foucault’s ideology in his Discipline and Punish is based on applying the knowledge of the body to instill discipline on criminals through punishment. He stated that prison is a panoptical system that applies disciplinary measures with the aim of creating an accommodating environment (Foucault 3). Michele Alexander in New Jim Crow focuses on race-related issues by particularly focusing on African-American men in America noting that the prison system is highly racial and discriminates against the people of color (Alexander 10-12). The comparative analysis focuses on two perspectives of mass incarceration with Michelle Alexander’s New Jim Crow analogy addressing mass incarceration based on ideological racism while Foucault basing mass incarceration on state racism.

Mass incarceration has contributed to certain undesirable effects such as the alienation of populations, normalization of prisons, criminalized underclass, and disenfranchisement. Alexander and Foucault agree that American prisons have a high proportion of colored people thereby depicting some degree of racism. According to the two scholars, prison is an important institution that brings order into the society by isolating the evil minds. The fact that there are a large number of blacks in prison cannot be disputed. Racism is regarded to be the belief that certain races are inferior in several aspects like culture, intellectual capacity, and biology. Racist practices are highly evident in arrests, convictions, and sentencing. The criminal system plays the role of dealing with those who cannot fit into the society, and have to be subjected to punishment. Individuals associated with criminality must be eliminated since they are a threat to the population. Letting die is justified by the State based on the idea of defending the society from criminal threats. Mass incarceration is a process that normalizes and protects the rest of the population. It eliminates criminals with the aim of protecting the rest of the population (Lynda 562-564).

Michelle Alexander is one of the scholars who explain the moral problem of mass incarceration based on the concept of ideological racism while Foucault explains the issue on the basis of state racism. Both Foucault and Alexander assert that there are distinctive features of mass incarceration but give different explanation for the distinctive features. The first feature is that the United States has the largest size of the prison population in the world. Alexander believes that this is due to the high rates of imprisonment that tends to lean towards a particular race while Foucault postulate that this is due to high crime rate, and is targeted at individual criminals and not particular race. The second aspect is that it tends to focus on systematic incarceration of whole groups of populations instead of individual offenders. The massive rate of incarceration tends to target black and Hispanic males than any other racial group in America. Alexander asserts that it should be noted that mass incarceration is not a policy but the resultant effect of decisions and policies concerning issues like the war on drugs, mandatory sentencing, and tough measures on crime and so on.

Foucault and Alexander directly link crime and punishment as an explanation for mass incarceration. According to Alexander, American prisons have emerged to be a racist system. On the other hand, Foucault indicates that state racism is a form of auto-referential racism targeting some marginalized communities. Auto-referential racism is crucial in affirming the superior value of the self. Alexander explains mass incarceration based on the concept of hetero-referential racism. Alexander (20) considers mass incarceration to be a modern-day slavery as the system is highly deep-rooted on prejudice. The prison system preserves the structures of racism in America and creates complicated forms of racism in the society (Alexander 20). Foucault postulates that state racism focuses on developing a population through the exclusion and isolation of the abnormal (criminals). Mass incarceration is a practice by the state that is based on malice, disgust, and fear. It is based on the irrational concept that parts of a population are a biological threat to the society (Foucault 19).

Ideological racism has contributed to wholesale criminalization in America. Racist practices are highly evident in arrests, convictions, and sentencing (Alexander 22). Mass incarceration can be seen as a bio-political whose aim is to protect the race that is considered to be racially superior in the society. State of racism protects the normal moral individual from the criminal sub-race. The criminal system plays the role of making life and letting die. Individuals associated with criminality must be eliminated since they are a threat to the population (Foucault 20). The elimination takes various forms such as massive and inhuman imprisonment, unfair policing and sentencing practices, and harsh laws. Letting die is justified by the State based on the idea of defending the society from criminal threats (Alexander 25). State racism asserts that mass incarceration is a process that normalizes and protects the rest of the population. It operates based on the mantra of eliminating criminals, or the rest of the population will be eliminated. According to the concept of ideological racism, mass incarceration targets the marginalized and individuals who are feared and misunderstood in the society. The normal population considers the targeted criminals as unfit needing to undergo social death for them to enjoy normal lives.

Mass incarceration is a moral problem that will remain as long as the sole solution is elimination. Despite the fact that ideological racism plays the crucial role of describing some of the practices in the criminal justice system, it does not brings the picture of mass incarceration as a system whose aim is to eliminate perceived criminality (Alexander 19). The application of Foucault’s conception of race and racism is crucial in gaining a comprehensive understanding of mass incarceration (Foucault 24). State racism is considered to be morally problematic since it focuses on solving a problem through elimination instead of using other productive methods of punishment that are appealing the offenders’ sense of humanity. It views the moral failures of criminals as a permanent and inheritable inferiority. Criminals are seen as individuals lacking the rational ability for choosing moral aims. Imprisonment is done to eliminate criminals considered unable to change instead of engaging other alternative such as community service. It is immoral to view offenders as a means to an end. It is important for the state to find a productive way of dealing with criminals instead of focusing on the use of elimination as a sole objective.

Conclusion

Michelle Alexander’s Jim Crow analogy addresses mass incarceration based on ideological racism while Foucault assertion is based on state racism. Framing mass incarceration based on the concept of state racism is beneficial since it makes up for the weakness of the ideological racism. Applying the view of ideological racism in illuminating the problem of mass incarceration omits the attitudes of black towards crime and punishment while the concept of state racism includes it. Unlike ideological racism that mainly focuses on drug laws and ignores other crimes, state racism considers all types of crimes. State racism factors in socio-economic element while ideological racism ignores it. State racism acknowledges the fact that other racial groups are affected by mass incarceration. According to the concept of state racism, mass incarceration aims at eliminating all criminals irrespective of race, gender, class, locality, the level of education, and type of crime committed.

Works Cited

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow. 1st ed., New York, N.Y., New Press, 2012,.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline And Punish. 1st ed., New York, Vintage, 2012,.