The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

by Michelle Alexander

life. In this chapter, we shall see how the system of mass incarceration actually works. Our focus is the War on Drugs. The reason is simple: nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of people of color in the United States than this ongoing war. Drug offenses alone account for two-thirds of the rise in the federal prison population and more than half the rise in the state prison population between 1985 and 2000.1 Approximately a half-million people are in prison or jail for a drug offense today, compared to an estimated 41,100 in 1980—an increase of 1,100 percent.2 Drug arrests have tripled since 1980. As a result, more than 31 million people have been arrested for drug offenses since the drug war began.3 To put the matter in perspective, consider this: there are more people in prisons and jails today just for drug offenses than were incarcerated for all reasons in 1980.4 The population under correctional control—on probation or parole—has tripled as well, an increase driven almost entirely by drug convictions and other nonviolent crimes.