If you ask for good schools, you aren't likely to get them. If you ask for jobs or economic investment, you won't… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“As a society, our decision to heap shame and contempt upon those who struggle and fail in a system designed to keep… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The mythology around colorblindness leads people to imagine that if poor kids of color are failing or getting locked up in large… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
For many, whether they go to prison or not is far less about the choices they make and far more about what… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Today there are more African-Americans under correctional control — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Defenders of the status quo will often try to mislead the public by saying, "Just look at our state prisons: nearly half… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
In a growing number of states, you're actually expected to pay back the costs of your imprisonment. Paying back all these fees,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We must build a movement for education, not incarceration. A movement for jobs, not jails. A movement that will end all forms… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
There are more African Americans under correctional control, in prison or jail, on probation or parole, than were enslaved in 1850 a… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
For children, the era of mass incarceration has meant a tremendous amount of family separation, broken homes, poverty, and a far, far… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
What does this system seem designed to do? As I see it, it seems designed to send people right back to prison,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Many offenders are tracked for prison at early ages, labeled as criminals in their teen years, and then shuttled from their decrepit,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“One in three young African American men is currently under the control of the criminal justice system—in prison, in jail, on probation,… — michelle alexander Copy Share Image
The education justice movement and the prison justice movement have been operating separately in many places as though they're in silos. But… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Millions of people are unable to vote due to felony convictions with the highest rates among black men. People in prison are… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Thousands of people go to jail, go to prison, every year without even meeting with an attorney. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Most new prison construction has occurred in predominately white, rural communities, and thus a new and bizarre form of segregation has emerged… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
I have spent years representing victims of racial profiling and police brutality and investigating patterns of drug law enforcement in poor communities… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Prison guard unions have become the powerful political forces in some states, particularly California. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
After the end of slavery, African-American men were arrested in mass, and they were arrested for extremely minor crimes like loitering, standing… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Mandatory minimum sentences give no discretion to judges about the amount of time that the person should receive once a guilty verdict… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
What defenders of the system typically fail to acknowledge is that the reason violent offenders comprise a fairly large percentage of the… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
What are people released from prison expected to do? How are they expected to survive? Can't get a job, locked out of… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We would never throw up our hands and say to those white boys - well, too bad, if you had just stayed… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
If you ask for good schools, you aren't likely to get them. If you ask for jobs or economic investment, you won't get that… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The uncomfortable reality we must face is that California, like the nation as a whole, has treated generations of African Americans and Latinos as… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem. The fact that the meaning of race… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Since the nations founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die but then… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Felon disenfranchisement laws have been more effective in eliminating black voters in the age of mass incarceration than they were under Jim Crow…These figures… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“That was King’s dream—a society that is capable of seeing each of us, as we are, with love. That is a goal worth fighting… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Activists take the risks, while advocates are professional tinkerers with the system. What's necessary is for those who are advocates to support those who… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Civil rights protests were frequently depicted as criminal rather than political in nature, and federal courts were accused of excessive “lenience” toward lawlessness, thereby… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We cannot 'fix' the police without a revolution of values and radical change to the basic structure of our society. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
If we continue to tell ourselves the popular myths about racial progress or, worse yet, if we say to ourselves that the problem of… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The mass incarceration of poor people of color, particularly black men, has emerged as a new caste system, one specifically designed to address the… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“[T]he slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery. —W.E.B Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
