Resources for Chapter 11 – Mass Incarceration and the Criminal Justice System
Opening Hook
Documents
Document 11.1 – The 13th Amendment
Document 11.2 – Terry v. Ohio and “Stop and Frisk”
Document 11.3 – President Richard Nixon’s War on Drugs
Document 11.4 – The Frying Pan
Document 11.5 – Harmelin v. Michigan and Unequal Sentencing Laws
Document 11.6 – The 1994 Crime Bill
Document 11.7 – The Congressional Black Caucus
Document 11.8 – The New Jim Crow
Document 11.9 – The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010
Document 11.10 – The Fair Chance Act
Document 11.11 – President Barack Obama’s Weekly Address
Document 11.12 – The First Step Act
Document 11.13 – The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition
Check for Understanding
Additional Resources
Books
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Michelle Alexander, 2020
View on Amazon
Alexander argues that the U.S. criminal justice system, through the War on Drugs and resulting mass incarceration, functions as a powerful new system of racial control that has replaced overt racial segregation. Reforming it should be viewed as a central civil rights issue.
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America
James Forman Jr., 2017
View on Amazon
Teachers could use this book to support classroom discussions on the historical complexity of mass incarceration, highlighting how Black leaders often supported harsh policies in response to local crime concerns. This approach challenges students to move beyond simple narratives of white perpetrators and Black victims.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Bryan Stevenson, 2014
View on Amazon
In his memoir, Stevenson teaches readers about the institutional failures and racial bias within the American criminal justice system. The book encourages students to engage in discussions about mercy, redemption, and human rights.
Documentary
13th
Ava DuVernay, Netflix, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8
This documentary film directed by Ava DuVernay examines the history of racial inequality in the United States and argues that the Thirteenth Amendment’s exception allowing slavery as punishment for a crime created a loophole. It connects this to the history of Jim Crow laws, the War on Drugs, and the expansion of mass incarceration.
Websites
Criminal Justice Reform – The Equal Justice Initiative
https://eji.org/criminal-justice-reform/
The Equal Justice Initiative provides educators with free resources, lesson plans, and research reports documenting the history of racial injustice from slavery to mass incarceration.
Sentencing Reform – The Sentencing Project
https://www.sentencingproject.org/
The Sentencing Project provides current research and statistics on mass incarceration, racial disparities, and criminal justice policies in the United States.
Glossary
- mandatory minimum
- Laws requiring judges to impose a minimum prison sentence for certain crimes, regardless of circumstances.
- mass incarceration
- The substantial increase in the number of people imprisoned in the United States, disproportionately affecting Black Americans, beginning in the 1970s.
- nonviolent
- Using peaceful means rather than force to achieve goals.
- protest
- A statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something.
- self-defense
- The use of reasonable force to protect oneself from an attack.
- sharecropping
- A system where tenant farmers worked land owned by others and paid rent with a share of their crops, often trapping them in debt.
- systemic racism
- Racial discrimination and inequality built into and perpetuated by social, economic, and political systems and institutions.
- testimony
- A formal written or spoken statement, especially one given in a court of law or as evidence.
- voter registration
- The process of enrolling to vote.