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 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
If everyone charged with crimes suddenly exercised his constitutional rights, there would not be enough judges, lawyers, or prison cells to deal… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Bill Clinton presided over the largest increase in federal and state prison inmates of any president in American history. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Prison guard unions have become the powerful political forces in some states, particularly California. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
People charged with drug offenses, though, are typically poor people of color. They are routinely charged with felonies and sent to prison. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Incarceration rates, especially black incarceration rates, have soared regardless of whether crime is going up or down in any given community or… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The greatest myth about mass incarceration is that it has been driven by crime and crime rates. It's just not true. — 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… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Private landlords as well as public landlords are free to discriminate against people with criminal records for the rest of their lives.… — 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
Now that private prison companies have found that they can make a killing on mass incarceration, these private prison companies are now… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The United States does have the highest rate of incarceration in the world dwarfing the rates of even highly repressive regimes like… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Some prison officials are determined to keep the people they lock in cages as ignorant as possible about the racial, social, and… — 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 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
When young black men reach a certain age - whether or not there is incarceration in their families - they themselves are… — 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
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
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
“The percentage of drug arrests that result in prison sentences (rather than dismissal, community service, or probation) has quadrupled, resulting in a… — 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
... as recently as the mid-1970s, the most well-respected criminologists were predicting that the prison system would soon fade away. Prison did… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
I think that we need to begin talking about what does it mean to create these safe spaces in our communities, to… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The extraordinary increase in prison admissions due to parole and probation violations is due almost entirely to the War on Drugs. With… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The genius of the current caste system, and what most distinguishes it from its predecessors, is that it appears voluntary. People choose… — 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
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
Our prison population quintupled in a thirty year period of time. Not doubled or tripled - quintupled. We went from a prison… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
I don't think I understood the full extent of the trauma experienced by people who churn through America's prisons until I began… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Private prison companies are now listed on the New York Stock exchange and are doing quite well in a time of economic… — 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
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
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
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
In many large urban areas, the majority of working age African American men now have criminal records and are thus subject to… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The prison-industrial complex employs millions of people directly and indirectly. Judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, prison guards, construction companies that build prisons, police,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Kids are growing up in communities in which they see their loved ones cycling in and out of prison and in which… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
In fact, in some countries there are actually voting drives conducted in prison! But here in the U.S., we seem to take… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
For those interested in learning more about corporations and private individuals profiting from the caging of human beings, I highly recommend the… — 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
![“[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 For” quote by Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fdb/michelle-alexander-750_time_t-he-slave-went-free-stood-a-brief-momen_96485.jpg)