From the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, America's incarceration rate doubled. By the mid 1990s, it had doubled again. "By 2007 it had reached a historic high of 767 people per 100,000," says author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates in the October 2015 cover story of The Atlantic, in an article entitled "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration." He adds that the United States "now counts for less than 5 percent of the world's inhabitants -- and about 25 percent of its incarcerated inhabitants. In 2000, one in 10 black males between the ages of 20 and 40 was incarcerated -- 10 times the rate of their white peers. In 2010, a third of all black male high-school dropouts between the ages of 20 and 39 were imprisoned, compared with only 13 percent of their white peers."
One could, if she were so inclined, focus on the incredible, positive statistic that a full two thirds of black high school dropouts between 20 and 39 years old are law abiding and not in prison. But that is not the focus of Coates' Atlantic piece. No, his aim is to convince readers that America's imprisonment rates and policies are about as bad as they get anywhere in the world, and that they cause untold harm to the black family in particular and the black community in general.
I'm not the first -- or most eloquent -- writer to criticize Coates' Atlantic article. But I am probably the first to include a harsh critique of the magazine piece on a book review website. Why did I do this? Simply because the article is twenty-four pages long, with chapter-like sections, so it is similar to a small book.
It is hard to deny that Coates -- who has been described as a feminist and who writes widely on the black community -- has put his finger on a relentless problem that needs addressing regarding America's prison system. There's always room for improvement in any gigantic national government program. And who is to argue against the notion that prison rates of black men hurt the black community, at least to some extent?
The major problem is, however, Coates argues – albeit somewhat obliquely – that black imprisonment is part of a deliberate attempt on the part of law-makers to sweep the social and personal challenges faced by mostly male African-Americans under the rug, so to speak, thus transforming the criminal justice system into a sort of welfare system where so-called criminals are really just legacy victims of slavery forced against their will to become wards of the state. Prisons are merely the places where these wards are housed.
Absurd? You can decide for yourself when you read the article. I for one am unconvinced, for two reasons.
To begin with, the cases Coates presents, obviously to put a human face on the statistics he cites, involve individuals who either were or have been in prison for crimes like murder and armed robbery, acts for which virtually every American would demand incarceration. Given the magnitude and underlying causes of the problem he is attempting to expose, these examples are, to say the least, bizarre. The article opens, for instance, with a depressing full-page-and-a-half photo -- carefully set up -- depicting a sad elderly black woman standing in a gloomy living room holding a framed picture of her son who has been in prison for forty-one years. Why? He shot a cab driver in the back of the head when he was sixteen. Like most Atlantic readers, I feel sorry for her loss. But I also feel sorry for the unacknowledged loss of the family of the victim of this heinous crime, and I blame the kid who pulled the trigger for both losses – not the system.
The second reason I remain unconvinced is this. If African-Americans are the deliberate targets of a policy of mass incarceration, then why is only one third of black high school dropouts between 20 and 39 years old in prison? As disturbing as that number is, there is the flip side, as noted in my second paragraph. If there really is a deliberate policy of mass incarceration as Coates implies, it has been an abject failure.
Why is it that the overwhelming majority of those living in “disadvantaged” communities never commit a crime? Is it possible that they understand that, despite the disadvantages their communities face, they and they alone are responsible for their own behaviour? What leads a sixteen year old teenager to blow the head off an innocent and unsuspecting cabbie when most of his peers growing up in the same community and sharing the same disadvantages would recoil from committing such a depraved act? It seems to me that this is an important question… unanswered, and even unasked.
While no system is perfect, the truth is that in America, as is the case throughout the western world to the greatest extent possible, justice is blind, including color blind. Where blind justice doesn’t exist as a matter of policy, this is invariably -- and ironically -- due to the ministrations of those who want to introduce race into the system as a means of rectifying real or imagined historical wrongs. Either way, crimes should be and almost always are decided case by case, on an individual basis. It should be no other way. All of which belies the notion of a deliberate policy of mass incarceration as posited by Coates.
To his credit, throughout his article, Coates points to what he considers to be the failings of the justice system, and in so doing, he makes good and important points. He interviews individuals who inform about their lives and frightening prison experiences and generalizes correctly about indigent and severely addicted and mentally ill criminals. He also describes how upstanding blacks looking for jobs are sometimes unfairly treated by employers as though they are hardened criminals.
But here too, Coates presents only one side of the story. Prisoners in general are of course not throw away people, and most prisons can actually provide a viable community and a dignified life. Long term jail sentences can result in many positive outcomes. For instance, prison can reform criminals so that they mature and become honest and caring. These new attitudes can help other prisoners and, on the outside, can help ex-cons become productive members of society, even if only as volunteers. Prison can help convicts get an education and/or job skills, making them employable on the outside. Many alcoholics and drug addicts in prison get clean and sober, allowing them to view the world -- maybe for the first time -- realistically. Some inmates turn towards spirituality and organized religion, an uplifting experience for them and others in many, many ways.
At the risk of offending my guilt-ridden liberal friends and readers, black Americans are as proudly American as anyone else, including those white Americans who trace their lineage back to shores of Plymouth Rock. I believe black Americans are the embodiment of American exceptionalism, to use a curious term which describes the wonderful uniqueness of America. They fundamentally represent the ideal, and the reality, that race and ethnicity do not, and should not, be an impediment to success, however one defines that term.
One need only witness the pride of African-American athletes and African-American fans who, alongside their fellow Americans of every race, close their eyes and raise their hands to their hearts as they sing their national anthem. Are they nursing their resentment over the suffering of their slave ancestors, or are they honouring a country so deeply committed to its founding principles that it fought a bloody civil war to eradicate the last vestiges of slavery? I think the latter scenario is far more likely.
The only other point I'd like to address quickly is this. Paragraph one of the article begins a long description of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 report "The Negro Family." Coates alleges this report can be blamed for helping launch America's era of mass incarceration. After re-reading this whole section three times, I am not able to find the specific connection between Moynihan's report and mass incarceration. Maybe Coates is referring to the report's lack of recommendations, though he does not say this. Moynihan originally advocated a guaranteed minimum income, a government jobs program, recruiting more blacks into the military, giving them better access to birth control, and integrating the suburbs.
Though you can see I would argue with his focus and some of his conclusions, Coates' long piece is nevertheless probably worth reading. Well written, it includes many important statistics and a great deal of information. And if you are a conservative like myself, it is an interesting presentation of opposing analysis and opinions.
To read the article, copy and paste this link into your browser:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/
No comments:
Post a Comment