Ricky L. Jones
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” – Amendment XIII, Section 1, United States Constitution, 1865
I often visit one of my most brilliant former students who had a mental break some time ago and ended up incarcerated. Even behind bars, he yearns to read. Predictably, book choices in the jail library are sadly limited. “There’s an easy solution to this. I’ll just take him some books,” I thought. It wasn’t so easy after all.
When I took the books to Kentucky’s Grayson County Jail, I was told my student could not have them. “Inmates can’t have any books given to them, other than the Bible,” the correctional officer flatly said.
“How odd,” I thought. “You mean, you all won’t allow me give him anything to read?” I asked.
The officer matter-of-factly responded, “As I said, no books. It’s not my rule, sir.”
“My Lord,” I thought. “Not only are they locking up his body. They’re locking up his mind. This is slavish.”
Why do we incarcerate so many people in America?
I still haven’t gotten a clear answer as to whether the “no books” edict is unique to the Grayson County Jail or is the law of the land throughout Kentucky. Either way, the incarceration experience in America is one to which we should pay more attention. Like many others, the city in which I live, Louisville, is preparing to build a new jail. Do we really need more jails or a better approach to the reasons behind jailing maddening amounts of American citizens?
What is it about the U.S. that causes it to lock up so many people? To say the numbers are “maddening” is not hyperbole. The United States now incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. Currently, more than 2 million people are behind the bars of American jails and prisons. Only China comes close to that number, with over 1.6 million.
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Even though many continue to deny the existence of institutional racism, there’s an unavoidable racial element in this story. Black people make up only 13% of America but are 38% of the country’s jail and prison population. They are 48% of those serving life sentences, life without parole, or virtual life sentences and are 41% of death row inmates. Those imbalances are stark.
Voters are all too comfortable with ever-expanding incarceration
America also seems more committed to perpetual punishment of felons who have served their time than rehabilitating and reintegrating them into society? Post-incarceration indignities are too numerous to list. To be sure, many felons are branded for life after release. Dozens of states prevent citizens on parole from voting. Other states have laws that “either permanently ban felons from voting or require significant waiting periods before being eligible to vote again.”
Those suffering from felony convictions are also often denied access to decent employment and housing. Oddly, like those denied reading material while incarcerated, once free, those who want to broaden their life-chances through education are unable to secure federal educational funding such as Pell Grants.
This Kentucky law destroyed his family.Now a son wants to break the cycle for others.
This is a grim picture which is growing even bleaker as some American politicians campaign on being “tough on crime,” “always backing the blue” and threatening to lock up even more people. Of course, they do so because a good percentage of voters are all too comfortable with ever-expanding incarceration and post-imprisonment mistreatment of American citizens who have paid their debt to society.
Yes, vexing questions are begged here. Why do we lock up so many people? Why do we treat them so poorly after they’re released? Do we really need more jails or a more developed sense of justice and rehabilitation? Maybe more troublingly, what is it about America that is causing all this to happen in the first place?
Invitation: If you are in Louisville and would like to discuss this subject in more depth, please plan to attend the Christina Lee Brown Institute’s Theodore Sedgwick Distinguish Lecture Series at the Filson Historical Society on Wednesday, November 1 for a free talk by Mr. Charlie Grady, the CEO of “Hang Time.” He will speak on his innovative efforts to aid thousands of formerly incarcerated residents and their families impacted by the criminal justice system. To register to attend, visit: tinyurl.com/jailKY
Dr. Ricky L. Jones is the Baldwin-King Scholar-in-Residence at the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and Professor of Pan-African Studies, University of Louisville. His column appears bi-weekly in the Courier-Journal. Follow him on Threads, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.
