#Mass Incarceration/Human Trafficking

Before the 'Mass Incarceration' boom, the purpose of criminal justice was rehabitation. This love-affair with 'tough on crime' and 'mass incarceration' should be disturbing not only because it is costly and often counterproductive, but because of the race and class disparities are morally unacceptable. In the 1950's Blacks comprised 30% of the prison population. 40 years later, Blacks and Latinos make up 70% of the prison pop. Blacks are incarcerated at a rate eight times higher than that of whites, a disparity that dwarfs other racial disparities. Most of those incarcerated are poor and uneducated disproportionately drawn from the other side of the tracks. In the US race has always played a role in constructing presumption of criminality. It is clear, that Black lives are considered dispensable in the "free world", but a major source of profit in the prison industry. The indirect consequences of such disparities, in the public's mind reinforces prejudice that affects every black person, as black males became the prime targets of 'mass incarceration'. Incarcerating humans has become a multi-billion dollar criminal industry. Imprisoning a human being in this country cost a minimum of $20,000 a year, more than any state college tuition. National spending on incarceration was $7 billion in 1980, its $60 billion today. Many state now spends more on state prisons than state colleges. The million dollar question, "What is this political addiction to incarceration?" The art of stealing 'Human Rights'. Today's penitentiary system mirrors the institution of slavery. The US chattel slavery, a system of forced labor that relied on racist ideas and beliefs of black people being inadequate, even today some whites find it hard to imagine black people as having intelligence or as equals. A legal system defined by racial inequality, frustrates rights and liberties in the Justice system where they are affirmed for white people, while being denied to black people. Animals are more protected under the law, than human beings, because of political majorities they are likely to seek shortcuts to reach their agendas. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution is needed to protect humans from other humans for fundamental fairness and integrity in the criminal justice system. But in the criminalization of black communities, legislation revising the 'Slave Code' in order to control the behavior of blacks in the same way that existed during slavery. The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution outlawed involuntary servitude. However, there was a significant exception, "except as punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." (legalized slavery by the 13th Amendment). Still to this day, there are legal lynchings of black teenaged boys, who are written off as "They made an example out of him". How many examples did they make during slavery? How many more examples are they going to make out of our black boys today? Throughout the history of the US prison system, prisoners have always constituted a potential source of profit, just as slaves were. Having an invested-interest in incarcerating people and keeping them locked-up for the purpose of making money, sounds like 'Human Trafficking'. We see what is going on, "So, Why monitor a problem, if we are not going to do anything to fix it?

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