Why America Throws the Poor in Prison

America built mass incarceration: the wholesale imprisonment of entire populations. Why, exactly, are so many people in prison – more than the entire population of New Mexico? That’s our focus for this week’s video: how a crisis of capitalism created a surplus population of former workers concentrated in declining cities, and how politicians and capitalists – instead of helping those people, and building a better and more just economy – built a prison system larger than any other in the history of the world to warehouse them. Chase Madar, professor of law at NYU Gallatin, explains.

0:00 Mass Incarceration in America
1:39 The Crisis of the '60s and '70s
2:49 How America Built Mass Incarceration
5:07 What About When Crime Fell?
7:24 Credits

[Geosquare]

That 70% figure is absolutely disgusting

[fat]

The mere notion that we are taught America to be a virtuous and desirable country while these figures were quietly ignored is detestable to the highest degree.

[YungDar]

the part about prison just being warehouses for people the state doesnt like was so good

[murraymadness]

Already outrageous, he didn't even mention Private Prisons, where this has become profitable by big corporation. And a bribed judge kept convicting people to get kickbacks from them. Holy shit how bad can it get? In the USA

[SkaTuneNetwork]

Thank you for sharing this information!!!

[SecondThought]

Excellent episode! This is such an important topic. The visuals in this one are just stunning! You guys are doing important work.

[changemakerenglish]

“Sean Worsley, a veteran, sentenced to FIVE years in prison in Alabama for using medicinal marijuana he'd been LEGALLY PRESCRIBED to treat a traumatic brain injury.” The first sentence of this video gives a heart-wrenching example of our cruel and inhumane criminal justice system.

[MrTamendez]

I served a couple of days in county jail once and was shocked at the amount of people in there doing time because they couldn’t afford their outstanding tickets. I met a dude who was being deported for jaywalking! It broke my heart.

And not to mention how awful they treat you in jail. It literally is a jungle in those places. Forget all your good deeds and morals in there.

[sureynix]

"They got money for wars but none for the poor" - Tupac Shakur

[empirestate]

Anyone note that rich kids also smoke weed, snort coke, and drink underage, and yet the war on drugs hurts predominantly poor communities?

[lisaw]

I'm a criminologist specialising in corrections and youth delinquency. And I'm European. I can tell you that pretty much everything the US does in terms of criminal policy is the opposite of what would reduce crime. We're sitting here shaking our heads.

[Livoirienyvoitrien]

Professor Madar, sir, if I may. This speech of yours reanimated more of my morale as a lawyer than I would have thought possible. I am re-entering the legal profession and starting the last third of my professional career. Thank you for reading me a lecture I truly needed to listen to.

[alex_graham]

I was about to write an essay for school. Then I got a Gravel Institute notification...
Amazing work guys!

[MrAwesomeSquad]

"A black man without a high school diploma has a 70% chance of going to prison in his lifetime".

Holy shit, that's nuts.

[elijackson]

I love that you guys have such a similar editing style to PragurU, but it’s actually visually interesting and it has a foreign phenomena known as “coherent thought”. Much love <3

[Bettinasisrg]

This NEEDS to be shown in every school and government office!! Enough is enough and "we the people" need to change this after all we are paying all their salaries!

[childofreason]

Explain to me what someone coming out of jail is supposed to do for a job when no one will hire them? Our system is completely broken.

[Smitywerban]

Just imagine this to be a witty comment while in actuality this is me feeding the algorithm.

[wm]

Our carceral system may be the most immoral thing about the modern U.S.

[Q]

Thank-you for being a Lawyer on YouTube who calmly and concisely criticizes the system you're working under.