Sarah Stern: Michelle Alexander on the Criminal (In)Justice System
"A single tear rolled down the cheek of Neill Franklin as he sat onstage wordlessly, in front of hundreds of people at Riverside Church in Harlem last Saturday. Franklin shifted in his chair, visibly uncomfortable, as the room fell silent.
"I am not proud," Franklin said, of his 34-year career in law enforcement. "The War on Drugs put police in a war against our people."
He spoke on a panel to discuss mass incarceration, deemed "America's most inconvenient truth" by Dr. Michelle Alexander. Her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, is an examination of racial inequality in America's criminal justice system. The U.S. has an extraordinarily high incarceration rate, with 1 out of every 31 adults incarcerated, on parole or on probation. In some states, like Georgia, that rate is 1 in 13."
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