The
13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery “except as
a punishment for crime whereof the party should have been duly convicted,”
automatically including a loophole for abuse.[1]
13th, the documentary created
by Ava DuVernay in 2016, argues that today’s use of mass incarceration,
starting with the Nixon Administration in the 1970’s, continuing into the
Regan-Era, and even into 2017’s political climate is an extension of the same obsession with control that fueled the institutions of slavery and convict leasing. The preoccupation with control that we have been discussing in class applies today. The documentary argues that slavery might have been abolished but the
institution morphed into the modern prison system that we know in 2017.
This
documentary’s deep exploration of Jim Crow era laws and their progression into
the current political scene honestly shocked me because I had remained largely
uneducated about the American prison system until recently. The documentary dissects
the reasons for mass incarceration and spills the beans on the American
Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) involvement in the economic industry of private
prisons in the United States - specifically its connection with laws that keep people in prisons for extended terms. Their profits are secure because more people are remaining incarcerated for longer - despite their crimes.
I had heard about private prison’s corruption before
watching this documentary, but I had no conception of the vast web of
connections between politicians, laws enacted as part of the U.S.’s crusade on
crime, and private prison companies. The brand that ex-cons receive in American
society after they are released from prison echoes the social stigma of people of color in the 19th century. Rather than being able to serve
time for a “wrong,” they are forever marked by their crimes. Despite supposedly "doing their time," the United States' laws continue to punish ex-cons for crimes far in their pasts - it’s extremely difficult to get a job after
serving a term in prison, and every job application requires that you disclose your criminal history. It’s a grand ploy to disenfranchise and control the
population of people who have been incarcerated – a population overwhelmingly
composed of people of color.
While
I had considered that the motives behind increasing police presence in “inner
cities” are ingrained racist practices that target black people for crime
rather than arresting actual criminals, 13th
really opened my eyes to the deep roots of the United States’ prejudice. It’s
crazy to think that candidates are elected using dog-whistle politics like being
“tough on crime” to appeal to the conservative psyche. We are still essentially
living in the Reconstruction Era under a different name.
[1]
“Primary Documents in American History: 13th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution,” last modified November 30, 2015, https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html.
The American legal system is incredibly corrupt and, much like American history, the marginalized population are the ones who suffer the most. What really took me aback when I watched the documentary was how the prison system became practically synonymous with slavery after the Civil War. With the implementation of Jim Crow laws, black men filed into the prison system unlike ever before. I do not remember the exact numbers correctly, but I remember the documentary mentioning the statistics of the incarcerated in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world, and America's incarceration system was disproportionately high in relation to other countries. With the system of capitalism, the prison system is what keeps this economy going. Prisoners are stripped of their citizenship and rights and turned into what the system sees as laborers rather than people. When major corporations, such as Walmart, are benefitting from this system, do we see a legitimate change in the prison system anytime soon?
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