Week 11-Post 1: inequality in marketization

Thesis: increased marketization in society has led to an expansion in inequalities and corruption

Sources: https://www.greenamerica.org/divided-we-fall/economic-inequality-chained-mass-incarceration

Prisons keep poor people of color poor

source: https://www.greenamerica.org/divided-we-fall/economic-inequality-chained-mass-incarceration 

• the us has the highest incarceration rate in the world
• half of that population is incarcerated for drug-related crimes
• The War on Drugs, a global campaign led by the US federal government started in 1971, resulted in mandatory minimum sentencing laws that began to have poeple in jail for longer sentences than before
• these laws effected the jobs of judges bc now whether the person was guilty or not, the crime they were accused for has a sentence the judges had to make them serve
• while race plays a larger role, people who live below the poverty line are also more likely to be incarcerated
• boys born into households in the bottom 10% of earners are 20 times more likely to be in prison on a given day in their early 30s than children born into the top 10%
• those people with less money are getting born into worser neighborhoods because the expense of housing and they are getting exposed to situations rich kids wouldnt be like gang violence and feeling the need to steal or do soemthing at an attempt to better the lifestyle of your family
• the prison system makes a profit off the lives of incerated people and their loved ones while deepening the wealth gap for poc communities that are disproportianately more likely to be imprisoned
• once in prison, people are stripped of second chances and the ability to have a secure, financial future
• according to a 2021 report from the Brennan Center, time in prison reduces someone's lifetime earning potential by nearly healf a million dollars on average
• automatically setting them and their children up for getting the worse end of education. relates to housing because they cant afford to be in neighborhoods near the good schools or hospitals and stuff
• for people with a support system or money on the outside, the ability to post bail allows them to continue working, whereas those that cant afford bail stay poor behind bars and may stay for months-years awaiting their trial.
• even the friends/families of incarcerated people must pay to have a conversation on the phone with the person in jail. an incarcerated person who cant afford this making 12-40 cents an hour on maintenance jobs would have to work over 40 hrs to afford it.
• unpaid penal labor is legal under the 13th amendment in the us constitution:which makes it harder for these incarcerated people to earn money to afford things they value, like speaking with their family, because everything costs money