Why Mass Incarceration Matters
to American History and to
Teachers in American Schools
Yale University
March 19, 2014
Dr. Heather Ann Thompson
Department of African American Studies
Department of History
Temple University
By 2008 in CT:
• 19, 413 locked behind bars
in 18 facilities
• 1/33 residents under some
form of correctional control
So?
Mass Incarceration Matters
The fate of our cities
The “Criminalization of Urban
Space”
Why now?
LBJ and the Origins of the War on Crime
• Law Enforcement Assistance Act, 1965
• President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice,
1965
• District of Columbia Crime Bill, 1967
• Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, 1968
What is old, is new
A Revolution in Drug
Legislation
Lock up longer
Criminalizing Schools
The Fallout….
“Million Dollar
Blocks”
Orphaning Children
Joblessness and Poverty
Welfare?
The Long Reach of the
Carceral State
Rethinking the Fate of our
Economy
Post-1865
Post-1965
Prison Labor
CORRECTIONAL ENTERPRISES OF CONNECTICUT
Brand new age of prison
privatization for profit
•
Example: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), Wackenhut, etc.
Urban and Labor Crisis
So, why haven’t we changed
this?
Distorting Democracy
1974:
Richardson v. Ramirez
2006:
48 out of 50 states have a
disfranchisement law on the
books
The U.S. Census….
The U.S. Census….and
Connecticut
Bottom line:
The majority-white residents of 7 state House
districts in Connecticut get significantly more
representation in the legislature because each of
their districts includes more than 1,000
incarcerated people of color from other parts of
the state.
So what about everyone
else?
Why Mass Incarceration Matters
to American History and to
Teachers in American Schools
Yale University
March 19, 2014
Dr. Heather Ann Thompson
Department of African American Studies
Department of History
Temple University