Let’s remember that our work to undo the threads of slavery and act to address racism starts with the work of ending these institutional systems of control.
A Historical Perspective
FCNL’s Aristotle Jones takes a closer look at the evolution from slavery to mass incarceration. He analyzes the threads of institutional racism and systems of control.
The United States called by some the land of the free and the home of the brave, leads the world in incarceration, with over 2 million people behind bars; that is a 500 percent increase over the past 40 years. Moreover, the United States has just five percent of the world population, yet holds approximately 25 percent of its prisoners.
An Urgent Action
FCNL’s José Santos Woss calls on all of us to make criminal justice reform a reality.
This system has young black men learning to shave for the first time in prison because of a possession charge, fathers removed from their families, girlfriends sent to prison for years simply because their boyfriends’ were drug dealers and they were caught in the midst. These are real people, not numbers.