The Impact of US Criminal Justice System on Black Men

Running head: CRIMINAL LAW
Criminal Law
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CRIMINAL LAW
The freedom of the black men was short-lived in the new post-civil war era on account of
the advent of criminalization and imprisonment in bulk in replacement of chattel slavery. This
paper will strive to analyze the diverse effect that U.S. criminal justice system have had on black
men, past and present, by referring to ‘The New Jim Crow’ by Michelle Alexander, ‘Slavery By
Another Name’ by Douglas A. Blackmon and the work of Philippe Bourgois (Graff, 2016). The
state government of the United States includes a set of departments, institutions, agencies and
political authorities which holds a significant value in the socio-political scenario of the nation.
Historically, the minority section of the population has been compartmentalized and categorized
by the US government’s politicians. The government and the quasi-government have always
influenced the behavior towards the black men who have endured discrimination in terms of
social, political and institutional bias, which is crueler and harsh than any other minority section
of the nation. With an intention to marginalize the strength of black men and to make benefit on
their imprisonment, the US government have always encouraged mass incarceration of black
men which is a degrading act of injustice. Hence, to curb such practices, the Thirteenth
Amendment to the US Constitution was given effect to restrict and remove the system of chattel
slavery in the country. The section 1 of the Thirteenth Amendment says that slavery and
involuntary servitude, other than legal sanctions, shall not exist in the nation or at any other place
within the jurisdiction of the Unites States.

2CRIMINAL LAW
As pointed out by Coates in the article ‘Slavery Made America’ that the southern planters
had made huge wealth by dealing in chattel slavery. He stated that the trade involving around 4
million American slaves, worth $3.5 billion makes chattel slavery the largest single financial
asset in the United States (Ettinger, 2018). The southern states had the vigorous tendency to
implement forced labor codes; in response to which Douglas A. Blackmon stated in his journal
that there was a wide range of interlocking laws that intended to jeopardize and criminalize black
men (Blackmon, 2009). It is evident that the implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment was
sublet, evasive and infested with ambiguity so that the process of exploiting African Americans
and making capital out of is not hindered and the capitalist class could keep on reaping the
benefits of slavery and forced labor.
Mississippi being the first to enact legal codes for targeting and criminalizing African
American in case they refused to enter into work agreements with the white farmers. Evidently,
free black workers were forced to work under white people and on refusal, they were falsely
sentenced for petty theft, selling cotton post sunset or for using profane language. Sheriffs were
incentivized to arrest as many black men as they could irrespective of their guilt. On account of
the post-civil war situation, the southern states had passed vagrancy laws that were enforced
against black men who were not protected by their employer. These black men arrested for valid
reasons were bought and sold as slaves to work on factories, farms, quarries, mines and lumber

3CRIMINAL LAW
camps. The newly freed black men from the prison were repeatedly arrested on account of
loitering free without being engaged in an employment.
There were various social taboos for the black men like standing in the public or enjoying
the taste of freedom or even socializing. These taboos led to repeated enslavement of the black
men and they were required to perform physical labour in construction, building infrastructure
for highway or Railway without proper food and rest. It is known from the old recorded journals
and articles that the prisoners were fed as meagerly as possible so that the sheriff could earn a
wider range of profit. As there were no shortage of slaves and black men the US government
exploited the slave labour for capital gain. Different slaves were sanctioned again by way of false
allegations and were marked as habitual offenders or seasoned criminals.
In order to attend the American dream as noted in ‘Crack in Spanish Harlem’ by Philippe
Bourgois, the black men had a irresistible tendency to sell drugs as a means of making money
(Bourgois, 1989).. The black community found it easier to earn fast cash by dealing in crack
cocaine in the City. Drug peddling became a means of livelihood among the black communities
as referred in ‘Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice’ by Craig Reinarman and
Harry G Levine (Reinarman & Levine, 1997). They mentioned that the inexpensive and dramatic
‘high’ from the crack was considered better for the finances and interest for an immediate escape
than the expensive and more ‘subtle high’ of the powdered cocaine. Cocaine was a celebrated