Douglas-Bowers, Devon. “Slavery By Another Name: The Convict Lease System.” Slavery By Another Name: The Convict Lease System I The Hampton Institute, The Hampton Institute, 30 Oct. 2013, www.hamptoninstitution.org/convictleasesystem.html#.WlR_15M-e36.

This investigative piece done by The Hampton Institute based in Albany, NY, explores the history of the the convict lease system. This is a system that is not well-known in history and still has had little coverage to this day. This work shows how the convict leasing system was a new form of slavery during Reconstruction and though there were claims of this system not preying on minorities even though vagrancy laws were put in place to target recently freed blacks. The article shows that poor Southern states used this system to legally perpetuate slavery while still making a profit.

 

DuVernay, Ava. 13th. Netflix, 7 Oct. 2016. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80091741?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2C911b694f-e25a-484a-ac91-19f2d5e197b9-55236195.

A documentary directed by a leader in prison reform, Ava DuVernay gathers icons of the social justice moment from past and present. The list of people providing insight and statistics through an interview format pertaining to the 13th Amendment and its relation to mass incarceration in the United States includes: Angela Davis, Newt Gingrich, Senator Cory Booker, Henry Louis Gates, Bryan Stevenson, and many more. This documentary focuses on decades of statistics of our imprisonment rates and the demographics of those who are being imprisoned, and offers an inside look into the companies that exploit and perpetuate this broken system like ALEC and Corrections Corporation of America for a profit.

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Love, David A.,and Das, Vijay “Slavery in the US Prison System.” Prisons | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 9 Sept. 2017, www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/09/slavery-prison-system-170901082522072.html.

This article, written by David A. Love and Vijay Das, explores the complicated and intricate relationship between our nation’s history of slavery and our current prison system. Written in commemoration of the infamous Attica prison riots, the article starts off with discussion of how prisoners are taken advantage of by multi-billion dollar companies such as UNICOR, Corrections Corporation of America, Walmart, and Nordstrom (just to name a few.) The article also explains how such laborers, who are disproportionately black and latino men, are being exploited by a loophole in the 13th Amendment that states that prison labor is still legal.

 

Mintz, Steven. “Convict Lease System.” Digital History, University of Houston, 5 Feb. 2017, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3179.

This piece shines light on a segment of history that is often not recognized in history books. Mintz shows the true horrors of Reconstruction by detailing the convict lease system. Starting in Alabama, the system “leased” the prison sentences of recently freed blacks who were quickly imprisoned in the midst of the Black Codes. This source is incredibly useful in showing the history of U.S. prison booms and how the scary realities of mass incarceration stem from slavery. In does this by giving information on how the laborers were worked to to extreme exhaustion, and too frequently death, instead of spending their days imprisoned.
 

Pettit, Becky, and Western, Bruce.“Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration.” American Sociological Review, vol. 69, no. 2, 2004, pp. 151–169., doi:10.1177/000312240406900201.

pp. 509-522. In this minute section of an intense and extensive review of how mass imprisonment has an effect on your life outcome, and your family, too. Western explores specifically in this passage on economic inequality and how a prisoner is astronomically more likely to be impoverished, make less money, and be unemployed in comparison to any other demographic in the U.S. Western states that this cycle is further perpetuated especially if you are a young, black male with little schooling. The author compares the United States to other countries to show how the U.S. negatively stands out with these statistics.

 

“Prison Labour Is a Billion-Dollar Industry, with Uncertain Returns for Inmates.” The Economist, 11 Feb. 2018, www.economist.com/news/united-states/21718897-idaho-prisoners-roast-potatoes-kentucky-they-sell-cattle-prison-labour.

This article details the harsh realities of prison labor in the United States and how Silicon Valley maven, Chris Redlitz is trying to enforce rehabilitation in a broken system. While many jobs such a farming or raising cattle are the jobs that many prisoners are forced to do on a daily basis, Redlitz believes that prisoners should be given useful skills that can be utilized for their post-prison lives. Redlitz teaches prisoners, through his charity That Last Mile, how to code. These prisons can earn up to $17/hr, which is astronomically more they could ever make from a simple manufacturing job in prison.

 

Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption. Spiegel & Grau, 2015.pp. 14-16.

In a reflection of his time as a young struggling attorney, Bryan Stevenson, infamous leader in prison reform, recounts the cases in his early career, that often involved the death penalty. Stevenson analyzes how the criminal justice system had failed these frequently innocent individuals while humanizing them for the reading audience. The novel begins with statistics of mass incarceration rates and how they will affect the people of color in this country in a seemingly never ending cycle for prisoners and everyone they are related to. Stevenson also includes tidbits of his personal life that indicate too that law enforcement and prisons can affect any person of color.

 

TheAtlantic. “Is the Criminal Justice System Broken?” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Aug. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc8OHFjDR9A.

This short yet effective video featuring prominent people in criminal justice reform such as Cory Booker, Clifton Kinnie, and Ta-Nehisi Coates explains how truly broken the United States criminal justice system is. This video was useful in my work because it shows how the United States would experience lower rates of poverty with less people incarcerated and how in comparison to other European countries, the U.S. is incarcerating people at drastically higher rates.

 

The Economist. “America's Prisons Are Failing. Here's How to Make Them Work.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 27 May 2017, www.economist.com/news/leaders/21722642-lot-known-about-how-reform-prisoners-far-too-little-done-americas-prisons-are.

This article offers a potential solution to the problem that is our prison system but starts off by exploring the story of how the criminal justice system failed former methamphetamine drug addict and dealer Shirley Schmitt. Harsh laws such as mandatory minimums for even non-violent offenders ruined many lives like Schmitt’s. The author then explains how prisons are expensive when ex-convicts do not provide society with many benefits such as joining the labor force, supporting their families, and/or paying taxes. A suggestion to fixing this system, according to this Economist writer, is that we need to reserve prison for this country’s worst offenders.