We have to stop thinking of criminals as ‘them’ and admit to ourselves, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ Michelle Alexander Read Quote
The greatest myth about mass incarceration is that it has been driven by crime and crime rates. It’s just not true. Michelle Alexander Read Quote
Most new prison construction has occurred in predominately white, rural communities, and thus a new and bizarre form of segregation has emerged in recent years. Ghetto youth are transferred from their decrepit, underfunded, racially segregated schools to brand-new high-tech prisons located in white rural counties. Michelle Alexander Read Quote
Because standard unemployment reports continue to exclude prisoners, we have been treated to a highly misleading picture of black unemployment. Michelle Alexander Read Quote
Prisoners do matter when analyzing the severity of racial inequality in the U.S. Yet because they are out of sight and out of mind, it is easy to imagine that we are making far more racial progress than we actually are. Michelle Alexander Read Quote
I have spent years representing victims of racial profiling and police brutality and investigating patterns of drug law enforcement in poor communities of color – and attempting to help people who have been released from prison attempting to ‘re-enter’ into a society that never seemed to have much use to them in the first place. Michelle Alexander Read Quote
My experience and research has led me to the regrettable conclusion that our system of mass incarceration functions more like a caste system than a system of crime prevention or control. Michelle Alexander Read Quote
Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once you’ve been branded a felon. Michelle Alexander Read Quote
The same kinds of stereotypes and hunches that George Zimmerman used when deciding that, you know, Trayvon Martin seemed like a threat in his neighborhood, law enforcement officers employ all the time. Michelle Alexander Read Quote
There is a system of racial and social control in communities of color across America. Michelle Alexander Read Quote
