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The Prison Industrial Complex and the Role it plays in the Political Economy
of Post-Racial America
By Jo-wayne Josephs
Criminal Justice Studies Independent Study
The College of Idaho
Professor Raptosh
May 8th
, 2015

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Abstract
In this paper I seek to examine how various private organizations influence government
policy and social norms, resulting in the subjugation of minority citizens through the use of
legalistic manipulations that result in an unjust system that is particularly antagonistic towards
this specific group. I argue that the legacy of slavery is still alive in America, and this has
resulted in prejudiced systems and institutions that not only continue to hinder the socio-
economic progress of minorities, but has resulted in a private economic system that profits
excessively from this hindrance, in the form of the Prison Industrial Complex. I suggest in this
paper that the Prison Industrial Complex functions in a similar way to the institution of
segregationist laws (Jim Crow) where one race and class benefits from the subjugation of other
racial groups in a financial, legal, political and socioeconomic sense. This paper will analyze
how, though the lobbying efforts of private companies like the Corrections Corporations of
America, politicians are incentivized to create and enforce stricter laws, especially in the cases of
consensual drug crimes. This paper will also discuss how politicians incentivize police
departments across the country to target the poor, especially minorities through the War on
Drugs. This paper will provide a thorough rebuttal to the concept of a post racial state with the
election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president and will seek to show how this
assertion has done more harm than good to incarcerated African Americans. Finally this paper
will show, through the use of various Supreme Court cases in recent years, how the erosion of
the Fourth Amendment by the Court has resulted in a more militant police, who more often than
not directs their militancy at America’s black population.

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Introduction
The recent riots across the country, stemming from the killings of black men by white police
officers across the country has forced many Americans,of all races,classes and national origins to
perhaps reconsider whether the U.S,despite having the first black president is at all post-racial. This
paper seeks to show that a post-racial America is not impossible as progress can and will be made. In
order for this to occur however,Americans, regardless of race,will have to consider the policies enacted
by their own politicians, supported by the Supreme Court and brutally enforced by the police in order to
assess the very roots that the insidious nature that racism has taken. Like the freedom riders, who of all
colors rode throughout the country in order to fight for the equal rights of blacks, it will take Americans
of all races to unite and fight for post-racial America. Without honest introspection however,it is
improbable that this battle will be won.
The fact that many Americans, many of them white, believe that America is post-racial is a
significant barrier that needs to be overcome in order to tackle the problem of the Prison Industrial
Complex. Indeed, it is because many Americans believe that America is post-racial that makes the PIC
even more insidious. In his article, “Racism in America,” by John McWorter in the Forbes magazine, the
author states that “our proper concern is not whether racism still exists, but whether it remains a serious
problem. The election of Obama proved, as nothing else could have, that it no longer does,” (McWorter
2008). This line of argument that declares racism to be over, with the election of a black president is
misleading, as it does not account for the very strong institutions that are tainted with racism. The
argument itself does not make any sense. If racism were truly over, then shouldn’t the country have seen
more than one black president at this point? The writer of this article goes on to say that “Journalists,
academics,community leaders, concerned citizens, NPR listeners- all must break the habit of supposing it
our moral duty to keep racism front and center in discussions about how to help disadvantaged black
people,” (McWorter 2008).

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Mr. McWorter is not alone in his opinions. According to the Pew Research Center,“Blacks and
whites have starkly different views of the decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases,and
blacks are far more likely than whites to say that race was a major factor in both rulings,” In essence,the
research found that there was partisan division as well with the outcomes of the ruling in the Michael
Brown and Eric Garner as Republicans were more likely to believe that the outcome was fair (76%
support the Ferguson grand jury results) while most democrats, to the tune of 60%, believe that Wilson
should have been charged (Center 2014). The research clearly shows that on average,half the country
believes America is post-racial, while the other half doesn’t. Using this research,an article by Vice
Magazine clearly asks the question, “Can America really be a post racial society when nearly half the
country-including almost everyone who’s not white-consider itself to be living in a racist one?” (Speri
2014). It is with this under consideration that we proceed into the history and analysis of the Prison
Industrial Complex.
The first section of this paper will provide a thorough analysis of the history of the Prison
Industrial Complex, and it similarities with the institutions of American slavery, Jim Crow laws
and the Black Codes that arose in the South after the legal end of slavery. This section serves to
establish the importance of this research as I believe that it is the legacy of slavery and its
institutions that have resulted in the Prison Industrial Complex. Without a thorough exploration
of America’s past in the areas of race relations, it would be impossible to place this current
argument into proper context. The Prison Industrial Complex did not suddenly arise as a separate
and independent entity, but rather under a political, socioeconomic and legal framework tinted
by racism.
The second section of this paper will delve into the intricacies of the PIC as I will seek to
illustrate just how the complex benefits a select group, including politicians, corporations and
special interest groups including police unions (A. Y. Davis 2003). This is useful as it will show

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who the PIC does not benefits, and in fact actually targets, focusing specifically on African
American males. A historical analysis will also be made here, since in this respect, the Prison
Industrial Complex functions in a similar way to slavery. This section is important since it
explains, using supply and demand economics, why the PIC is important to corporations, states
and law enforcement, and to poor communities who gain employment from the building prisons,
and by the storing of bodies.
The third section deals specifically with the ‘enforcers’ of the Prison Industrial Complex.
Police Militarization (example SWAT teams) and the Supreme Court are two significant
institutions whose power and opinions have aided (perhaps unwittingly at times) in the
criminalization of minority communities across the country using explicitly the political rhetoric
of the War on Drugs (A. Y. Davis 2003). I will describe how the ‘War on Drugs’ has resulted in
the militarization of the police forces who are prone to use their newly acquired weapons against
predominantly African American communities (Balko 2014). I will highlight how the War on
Drugs is toxic political rhetoric from the Nixon and Reagan era that continues to be used today
against minority citizens resulting in the disenfranchisement of those citizens (Alexander 2011).
This section will also expound upon the fact that the US Supreme Court has actually
regressed in its treatment of minority citizens by allowing the police wide latitude in ‘stop and
frisk’ searches as well racial profiling, as the Court has taken the position that that a police
officer must have used an overt racial reason to stop someone before the case can be brought up
in court hence denying many citizens, who were indeed stopped because their race, the right to
due process, and indeed the right to be heard in Court (Alexander 2011).
The concluding section will speak to Obama’s presidency and how it has affected
the Prison Industrial Complex and communities of color. I will show that his presidency has in

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fact illustrated how much the US has not progressed in terms of post racial thought, both in terms
of how he has been treated by the political right, and the indirect consequences of such treatment
felt primarily by minority citizens. I will show that indeed Obama’s presidency has exposed the
racism inherent in America’s political and private institutions, and it is this sort of thought that
has perpetuated the Prison Industrial Complex.
The Prison Industrial Complex and Its Various Complications
The Prison Industrial Complex is a phenomenon that reveals that predominantly the rise
of the prison sector, especially private prisons in the U.S is race based. Laws that have been
explicitly and systematically crafted in such a way that targets minority communities, primarily
poor communities of color and specifically African American males (Alexander 2011, Davis
2003). The Prison Industrial Complex (or PIC for short) is inherently similar to the systems of
convict leasing that occurred in the US after the abolition of slavery as well as segregationist
(Jim Crow) laws that characterized America before the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s. In
order to fully appreciate the significance of the PIC movement as an enduring legacy of US
slavery, one must first become acquainted with the history and laws that could have made such
an institution possible.
To comprehend the Prison Industrial Complex, one must understand America’s
construction of criminality (A. Y. Davis 2003). It is this construction that has caused significant
harm to African American communities, as even after the abolition of slavery, it was this
construction of crime in the form of the Black Codes that continued slavery even after the
institution itself had legally been abolished. While the institution of slavery in its shape and form
disappeared the essential backbone of the system did not, as the Whites still controlled all the
wealth, and dominated the legal system as well. In their paper “The Racialization of Crime and

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Punishment,” authors Rose Brewer and Nancy Heitzeg state the Prison Industrial Complex is
“the latest in a historically uninterrupted series of legal and political machinations designed to
enforce White supremacy with its economic and social benefits both in and with the law,”
(Brewer and Heitzeg 2008, 625)
The Black Codes were laws that targeted ‘vagrants’ and stated that all Negroes and mixed
race persons over the age of eighteen had to provide proof of employment (Alexander 2011).
Indeed according to Angela Davis, a preeminent scholar on the Prison Industrial Complex,
“absence from work, breach of job contracts, the possession of firearms, and insulting gestures or
acts,” also resulted in being placed in jail and becoming a convict (A. Y. Davis 2003).The
reasoning behind this was espoused by an Alabama planter who stated that, “We have the power
to pass stringent police laws to govern the Negroes-this is a blessing-for they must be controlled
in some way or white people cannot live among them,” (Alexander 2011) .It cannot be
emphasized enough that the black codes were intended specifically for freed slaves, as whites did
not have to follow these laws.
With the advent of the Black Codes, the convict system was essentially legalized. Many
scholars have found that the convict leasing system and the chain gangs that occurred as a result
of the Black Codes were even more harsh than the institution of slavery since the inner workings
of this system did not force the former slave owners to care for their former slaves turned
‘convicts’, as they were no longer owned property, but rented tools (A. Y. Davis 2003).
It is with this history in mind that we analyze the recent history of the institution of the
Prison Industrial Complex. Twenty-five percent of the adult population of the US have state or
federal criminal records (Brewer and Heitzeg 2008). According to the Bureau of Justice, in 2004,
for every 100,000 Americans, there were 699 in prison. When broken down by race, African

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Americans account for 50% of all prisoners in U.S prisons. This demonstrates an
overrepresentation of this group, since African Americans account for only 13% of the US
population. Brewer and Heitzeg go on to describe what they describe as “invisible punishments”
which include felony disenfranchisement. Felony disenfranchisement comes with the devastating
effect of not being able to vote, indeed “2% of the nation on average cannot vote as a result of a
felony conviction,” (Brewer and Heitzeg 2008) Davis highlights the devastating effect of this
when she states that if the “black men and women denied the right to vote because of an actual or
presumed felony record, Bush would not be in the white house today,” (A. Y. Davis 2003, 38).
Indeed Michael J. Lynch concurs with this statement , pointing out that “The voice of 1.4 million
black people probably would have made the difference in the last presidential election, even if a
small number of them had voted in important states such as Florida,” (Lynch 2007, 168). Lynch
points out that some of the individuals who were refused the right to vote, were actually not
felons.
Indeed, the disenfranchisement of felons is not limited to the removal of voting rights.
Brewer and Heitzeg enter into extensive detail about the extreme limitations that American
citizens face upon their release from prison. “Drug felons are permanently barred from receiving
public assistance such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (Welfare), Medicaid, food
stamps, or Supplemental Security Income,” (Brewer and Heitzeg 2008, 629) The authors state
that apart from welfare fraud, drug crimes are the only defenses that result in a ban on federal
assistance. Drug felons also do not receive federal assistance for education or public housing. As
a matter of fact, “A felony conviction by anyone in the household is grounds for eviction from
public housing,” (Brewer and Heitzeg 2008). This has resulted in what Alexander characterizes
as a permanent ‘undercaste’.

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The tentacles of the Prison Industrial Complex are wide and ever reaching, and perhaps
the most destructive nature of this institution appears even outside of the actual prison itself. It
would be fool-hardy to isolate the argument here to who benefits from the building of prisons
and the storing of prisoners. Indeed, it is a dynamic and ever present group of systems and
institutions that result in the continuation of the system. The Prison Industrial Complex is also
helped by the fact that is virtually invisible, as it built up by the very policies put into law and is
built upon the premise that current criminals in custody are locked up for the safety of the
community. The following section will focus on the recent history of the PIC, specifically
dealing with the policies and legal ideologies that promoted the implementation of this system.
The ‘War on Drugs’ movement, started by the Nixon administration and carried through
by the Reagan presidency is arguably one of the most important pillars of the Prison Industrial
Complex. In his book, “Big Prisons, Big Dreams,” Michael J. Lynch points out that “expansion
of imprisonment that funneled more drug offenders into American prisons also served as a
mechanism for incarcerating a larger proportion of the minority population,” (Lynch 2007, 155)
Lynch argues that a common and incorrect preconception about race in America is that African
Americans simply commit more crime. The devastating increase in the incarceration rate can be
attributed to more extensive drug laws, leading the average person to believe that blacks use,
possess or distribute drugs at a more extensive rate than whites. Lynch points to a study
conducted by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services conducted in 1998, which
provides information on the self-reported drug use, broken down by ethnicity. The study found
that “whites are responsible for more drug use in the United States than minorities,” (Lynch
2007, 161) Lynch offers a simple explanation for this often surprising fact…there are far more

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whites than blacks. Indeed, “whites are more likely to be involved in serious drug use compared
to African Americans and Hispanics,” (Lynch 2007, 164).
According to Lynch, minorities are not only more likely to get arrested because of drug
offenses, but are more likely to charged and prosecuted as well as more likely to be convicted
and sentenced (Lynch 2007). He goes on to state that this data indicates that “blacks end up in
prison because of various racial biases, many of which have become institutionalized and hidden
in the criminal justice system,” (Lynch 2007)1 Michael Hallet, in his paper “Race, Crime and
For-Profit imprisonment ,” claims that “The expanded use of incarceration during this period
was not the result of increasing crime rates, but rather the results of changes in criminal justice
policy,” Davis, in her paper, “Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex,”
suggests that the segregation of individuals labeled felons, “simultaneously fortifies and conceals
the structural racism of the US economy,” (A. Davis 2000, 4).
Economics of the Prison Industrial Complex
The second section of this paper deals specifically with the economic structure of the Prison
Industrial Complex, and the actors involved in this system. The thesis of this paper asserts that
the complex functions in similar way to the Black Codes and segregationist laws of Jim Crow.
These laws (as well as slavery) served as not only as a means to maximizing profit, but as a
method of control as well of African Americans. Hence, a thorough comparison of the
corporations and business entities that flourished from the convict leasing system and the Prison
Industrial Complex is needed in order for the profit motive to be proven.
Corporations and big businesses have used prison labor from the very emergence of a
convict leasing system. Davis states that by 1888 all Alabama’s male prisoners were leased to the
1 A further explanation of these various racial biaseswill betackled in later sections of this paper

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Tennessee Coal and Iron Company (TCI) and Sloss Iron and Steele Company (A. Y. Davis
2003). It is primarily the motivations of vast Corporations that are responsible for the Prison
Industrial Complex. The convict leasing system was indeed the law, and it was directly aimed at
newly freed slaves. The benefactor of this convict labor was big business. The PIC is largely
successful because of the network of special interest groups (all of whom benefit from a high
incarceration), corporations who indirectly benefit from the very cheap labor provided by
inmates, and the American government whose privatization policies benefit companies like the
Corrections Corporation of America directly. According to the Republic Report, there are Five
Special Interest Groups who lobby to keep marijuana illegal (Report 2014) These groups are
Police Unions, Private Prisons Corporations, Alcohol and Beer Companies, Pharmaceutical
Corporations and Prison Guard Unions (Report 2014)2 In an article, entitled “Money, Not
Morals, Drives Marijuana Prohibition Movement,” OpenSecrets.org outlines all five of these
special interest groups that lobby against the legalization of marijuana.
American police departments have gained much financial reward from waging the war on
drugs, mainly facilitated through the RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations), which is in essence a civil forfeiture law. “Because of the new forfeiture law,
police agencies now had a strong incentive to “find” a connection between valuable property and
drug activity, even if there was none,” (Balko 2014, 153) Investigative journalist and author of
the book Rise of the Warrior Cop states that a provision in called equitable sharing under the
RICO stated that once a federal law enforcement agency assisted with drug crimes, the
2 The information that the public can access regardingthe paid lobbyingefforts is limited,and information is not
made public on exactly which sidethe special interestgroup supports.Based on how these different groups derive
their profits,however, common sense(and a vastarray sources) suggestthat they do not support the legalization
of marijuana and usually directtheir efforts to anti-legalization campaigns and policies of the drug.

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forfeitures from that crime would be divided between the state police and the federal agency,”
(Balko 2014, 154) Hence police Departments across America are incentivized to wage the drug
war, thus resulting in the police unions continued lobby against the legalization of marijuana.
This War on Drugs takes place in mostly poor urban communities of color, rather than white
suburbs or college campus, where previous research done has shown it is far more likely to find
drugs. The fact that this ‘War’ is being fought against a particular subsect of people, shows the
racist tendencies of the enforcers of American law.
Private prison corporations, are of course the largest lobbying group as they benefit
directly from having prisons being built and kept fully stocked. According to a report by the
Justice Policy Institute, the GEO group ( formerly known as the Wackenhut group) and
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) lobby the U.S Congress extensively, as “Since 2003,
CCA has spent upwards of $900,000 annually on federal lobbying,” (Institute 2011, 21) The
Institute states that the Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO group revenues
combined exceeded over 2.9 billion dollars in 2010 (Institute 2011, 2) Clearly, these two
companies would not support laws that would result in less Americans being locked up, and
instead support bills and politicians that would result in more prisons being built. These bills
usually offer harsher penalties and longer periods of incarceration. Indeed, scholar Angela Davis
notes that “private companies have a stake in retaining prisoners as long as possible, and in
keeping their facilities filled,” (A. Y. Davis 2003) According to the Justice Policy Institute it is
the “tough on crime” measures such as mandatory sentencing and the three strikes law that limit
parole eligibility and keep people longer and of course the War on Drugs (Institute 2011).
Indeed, Angela Davis states that since the government pays private companies a fee for each
inmate, those companies have a vested interest in very prison sentences, so as to keep their beds

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filled. (A. Y. Davis 2003) The GEO group and CCA control 76. 4% of the private prison market
globally.
The CCA also tries to directly influence legislation by the use of various legislative
bodies, most notably the American Legislative Exchange Council. According to the article,
“Private Prisons: A Human Market Place,” the author describes how private prison companies
try to influence policy by drafting legislation that would affect drug and immigration law. A
particular example of this influence was in the drafting of Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, the
“Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” This bill, drafted by ALEC and
supported by the private prison corporations, would have allowed any person accused of illegal
immigration to be imprisoned if they were caught without their paperwork (Hinkes-Jones 2013).
Many Corporations have an indirect link to the Private Prison system and benefit from
‘insourcing,’ cheap labor that can now be found inside the United States through the form of the
private prison system. These Corporations include McDonalds and Wendy’s, who uses inmate to
process frozen foods. Walmart uses workers for manufacturing purposes, and Starbucks, who
gets cuts cost by having inmates package coffee. Sprint, Verizon and AT&T not only use
inmates in their all centers, these companies have private contracts with prisons that charge the
families of inmates’ exorbitant prices to communicate. In South Carolina, female inmates make
Victoria’s Secret lingerie. Kmart and JC Penney both sell jeans made by inmates in Tennessee
prisons (Star 2014). However it is not only large corporations who are meant to benefit from this
system as several states have entered into contracts with the CCA and the GEO group to build
prisons. However these states lose money when there is a shortage of prisoners. According to the
article “Private Prison Promises Leave Texas Towns in Trouble,” by John Burnett, the farming
town of Littlefield borrowed ten million dollars in order to build the Bill Clayton Detention

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Center. The local politicians believed the new prison would provide employment for the young
people in the town, and hence more would stay instead of leaving the town. Because of a
shortage of prisoners however, Littlefield has had to raise property taxes, increased water and
sewer fees among other things. The residents believe that the GEO group has left their town in a
negative and precarious position (Burnett 2011). The article goes on to explain that once upon a
time, every town wanted to be a “prison town” but that boom is over, as crime falls, and states
slash their budgets. However, “Corrections Corporations of America, the nation’s largest private
prison operator, says the demand for its facilities remains strong, particularly for federal
immigration detainees,” (Burnett 2011). The CCA’s renewed focus on immigrants is not
particularly surprising given the example highlighted above, with Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070.
According to Michael Hallet, a Prudential-Securities analysis of the for-profit prisons
identified four important threats to the institution’s long term stability, which are: falling crime,
shorter prison terms, alternatives to incarceration and reductions in the use of the mandatory
sentences for non-violent drug offenses (Hallet, Race, Crime and For-Profit Imprisonment n.d.).
Indeed, Bill Magers, mayor of the County seat of Sherman states that when a private prison has a
profit motive more prisoners are needed, and they need to stay in prison longer (Burnett 2011).
Hence, it make sense that if the CCA cannot fulfils its contracts via the traditional means, it
would turn to the detention of immigrants.
The Enforcers- Police Militarization and the Supreme Court
In this section the role of the police and the United States Supreme Court will be
analyzed for their role in the enforcement of the Prison Industrial Complex. A short history of
the police force in America will be given, which will provide a historical context of their role as
enforcers today. The police department’s motivations on social and economic level will be

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discussed, and the implications for minorities, especially African American males analyzed. The
Supreme Court’s changing interpretation of the constitution in terms of the rights of its citizens
will also be analyzed, as the court’s decisions over the year has seriously impacted African
Americans and their effort to seek justice. I will argue that that the enforcers create an
atmosphere that greases the gears of the Prison Industrial Complex, and hence keep it running.
The origin for the modern day police force were slave patrols (Balko 2014, 28)
According to Balko, “patrols were armed and uniformed, and typically had broad powers to
arrest, search and detain slaves,” (Balko 2014, 28). The extensive power of the slave patrols
included being able to enter slave quarters at will, even without permission from the slaves
owners. Balko state that most of these slave patrols would eventually morph into U.S police
departments. According to a “Brief History of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing,
“Slave patrols and night watches, which later became modern police departments, were both
designed to control the behavior of minorities,” (Kappeler 2014) Balko also points out that in the
eventual years, American police would be best known as corrupt, and brutal. (Balko 2014)
With that historical background, we turn to the ways modern day police currently enforce
the law, their relationships with communities of color, and their own agenda may result in the
furtherance of the Prison Industrial Complex. The militarization of the American Police will also
be discussed. The recent case study of Ferguson will be used as a guide throughout this section,
namely because it is one of the few reports conducted by the DOJ on the activities of law
enforcement in communities of color, and secondly because it is a very recent report and will be
essential in order to compare and contrast police behavior currently, versus that which has taken
place over the century. While Ferguson will be analyzed as a case study, it must be noted that the
killings of black men are nothing new and it is a regular trend that has taken place over the

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history of the United States. According to the article “Killed by the Cops” writer Jeff Lowenstein
claims that a joint national investigation of police shootings in ten of America’s largest cities
revealed that African Americans were vastly overrepresented in every city investigated. This
report actually dates back to 2007. According to Delores Jones Brown, “There is a notion that
they will be perceived (in reference to African Americans) as armed and dangerous,”
(Lowenstein 2007). The article goes on to bemoan the fact that despite the excessive use of
violence against communities of color there is hardly any accountability, as specific numbers are
not always available (Lowenstein 2007). It is bizarre to think that, in arguably one of the most
democratic countries in the world, the government does not keep track of how many of its
citizens are killed by the police. The article state that around 9,500 people were killed by the
police during from 1980-2005. Because of a lack of accountability on the part of the police and
the government, this number may actually be higher. Communities of color are faced with much
harassment by the police as well. Eric Garner, the unarmed African American killed by police
using an illegal chokehold had filed a lawsuit against NYPD several years previously for
breaching his civil rights. Mr. Garner, in his lawsuit claims that he was stripped searched in the
middle of the street, and that the officer in question caused harm to his genitals. The lawsuit was
filed in 2007. Eight years later he was killed by another member of the New York Police
Department. (King 2015)In keeping with this line of argument, we turn our attention to Ferguson
Missouri, which is a case study of police harassment and brutality.

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Case Study of Ferguson
The eye opening Ferguson report illustrates how the shooting of Michael Brown may
have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.3 The Ferguson report found, in
general unlawful conduct in the Ferguson Police Department that violates the First, Fourth and
Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, as well as federal law (Justice 2015)4. The report
states that the practices of Ferguson’s police Department and its Municipal Court unfairly target
African Americans, 67% of whom make up the population. The investigation into Ferguson
reveals that the Ferguson Police Department is used generally as a revenue collection agency,
which again targets the African American community. The focus on revenue collection has
compromised the role of the municipal court, with the result that it “uses its judicial authority to
compel the payments of fines and fees that advance the city’s financial interests,” (Justice 2015).
The high (and seemingly corrupt) emphasis on the revenue collections is borne
disproportionately by Ferguson’s African American citizens. “Data collected by the Ferguson
Police Department from 2012 to 2014 shows that African Americans account for 85% of vehicle
stops, 90% of citations, and 93% of arrests made by officers, despite comprising of 67% of
Ferguson’s population,” (Justice 2015, 4) The report goes on to state that the FPD appears to
bring certain offenses almost exclusively against African Americans. The citations include
Manner of Walking in Roadway, Failure to Comply, Resisting Arrest, Disorderly Conduct and
Peace Disturbance. These citations are enormously expensively, and as said directed primarily at
African Americans. “From 2011 to 2013, African Americans accounted for 95% of Manner of
3 This section will notdeal with the shootingof Michael Brown, but will showhow the injustices takingplacein
Ferguson may have led to a breakdown of community trusts of officers with the results thatthe policealso actwith
impunity.
4 Whilethe report suggests several times that Ferguson’s policedepartment and its municipal courtmay have
acted illegally,and whilethe main actors have stepped down followingthis report, it is unclear if the Justice
Department will pursuethem legally.

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Walking in Roadway charges, and 94% of all Failure to Comply charges,” (Justice 2015, 4)
“Officers sometimes write six, eight, or at least one instance, fourteen citations for a single
encounter,” (Justice 2015, 11) The various cases of police misconduct in the report however state
that citations such as Failure to Comply actually result when citizens question the police motives
in stopping them or requesting identification. In Ferguson, apparently, one can get arrested if you
question an officer, which is a right that is protected by the US Constitution. The report states
that citizens, recording police activities digitally (Justice 2015, 24).The report states that
Ferguson officers seem to believe that criticism and insolence are ground for arrest.
Not only does the police department target African Americans for their expensive
citations, conflict with citizens also seem raced based. The report states that 90% of documented
use of force were against African Americans. Also in every reported case of the police using
dogs in their altercations with citizens, this specific use of force was against African Americans.
(Justice 2015, 5) The report also suggests that for the incidents of canine use, the threat was very
low, suggesting a racial motivation. Examples are cited which suggests the use of canines are
racially motivated. The report recounts one incident where a group of 40-50 white citizens were
embroiled in a brawl in a bar. Officers reported using only minimal force, and no dogs were
used. Contrast this incident to an earlier case cited in the report were a 14 year old African
American boy, ditching school with his friends, was attacked by a police dog in a an abandoned
warehouse. The boy was by himself at that point and there were several officers at the
warehouse. The investigation of FPD shows that where suspects are white, the use of force by
Ferguson’s police department is usually more measured. (Justice 2015, 78)
The shooting of Michael Brown brought to the forefront another worrisome topic, and
that is police militarization, which was seen in the aftermath of the shooting. In his book, the

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Rise of the Warrior Cop, Radley Balko Balko explicitly makes the argument that the War on
Drugs, War on Terror, racist police institutions and the like have slowly militarized the police,
and that this militarization is at odds with the notion of a free democracy. The Ferguson protests
read like a case study in Rise of the Warrior Cop a book that was released before the events of
Ferguson took place. There are several important connections here that must be made. Police
militarization is a direct result of the incentives used by the government in its War on Drugs. The
two are inexplicably linked. Both target African Americans. Balko states there are two forms of
police militarization, direct and indirect. Direct militarization is used when a standing army is
used for domestic issues. Indirect militarization is as a result of police officers gradually taking
on the characteristics of the army. (Balko 2014) In an article titled “This is the Terrifying Result
of the Militarization of the Police,” columnist Paul Szoldra, a soldier who served in Afghanistan
states that the police in the streets of Ferguson look almost exactly like the soldiers in
Afghanistan. “They have short-barreled 5.56-mm rifles based on the military M4 carbine, with
scopes that can accurately hit a target out to 500 meters. On their side they carry pistols. On their
front, over their body armor, they carry at least four to six extra magazines, loaded with 30
rounds each.” (Szoldra 2014). This type of police militarization has been seen in the Ferguson
protests, and more recently in Baltimore. It gives the distinct impression that it is us versus them,
especially when the ‘us’ comprises of heavily militarized white police officers, and the ‘them’
refers to the citizens protesting the deaths of American civilians at the hands of the police.
The Ferguson report also included unsavory and racist jokes, sent and forwarded by
Ferguson officials, both from the police department and the municipal court, using their official
Ferguson email addresses. The jokes highlighted were racist in nature, with one likening Obama
to a chimpanzee, and another stating that he would not be president for long, “because what

20. Josephs| 20
black man holds down a job for four years,” (Justice 2015).The fact that these ‘jokes’ were sent
by city officials shows the overt racism of very important people within these institutions. The
report states that the city officials state that it is a lack of personal responsibility and
accountability that causes African Americans to be disproportionately harmed. However, the
investigation highlights that Ferguson officials write off tickets for each other (and their friends
and family members) and this happens so often, that that no personal responsibility is seen there
as well. The report cites several examples were the Municipal Judge at the time, Judge
Brockmeyer, makes allowances for city official who find themselves at odds with the oppressive
laws that they implement and enforce (Justice 2015, 74)
The rulings of the Supreme Court in the Prison Industrial Complex have been an
important one throughout the years. This is a complex area, as the Supreme Court deals with the
US Constitution, one of the most important documents in the country, whose origins are also
racist in nature and did not regard blacks as citizens with the rights that come with being a
citizen. Brewer and Heitzeg state that “The Three-Fifths clause, the restriction on future bans of
the slave trade, and limits on the possibility of emancipation through escape were all clear
indications of the significance of slavery to the founders,” (Brewer and Heitzeg 2008, 630)
Justice Taney in the Dred Scott case claims that Blacks were not included under the word
“citizens” in the constitution and so could not claim the rights of citizenship. It is in this
knowledge that I examine how various rulings of the Supreme Court have affected the rights of
minority citizens who have been unfairly targeted by militarized police. Justice Brennan’s
dissent in the McClesky v Kemp ruling touches on a major aspect of this paper, and that is the
pervasive colorblind attitudes that influence policy resulting in social injustices. Justice Brennan
in his dissent of this case states that “Reality rebukes us that race has too often been used by

21. Josephs| 21
those who would stigmatize and oppress minorities. Yet we cannot…let colorblindness become
myopia which masks the reality that many “created equal” have been treated within our lifetimes
as inferior both by law and their fellow citizens,” (Brewer and Heitzeg 2008, 634)
The DOJ’s investigation of Ferguson relies very much on the Constitution to prove that
discrimination is indeed taking place, but does not analyze, to any degree the ways in which the
Supreme Court has made it virtually impossible to claim a race based injustice. The report states
that “The race-based disparities created by Ferguson’s law enforcement practices cannot be
explained by chance or by any difference in the rates at which people of different races adhere to
the law,” It goes on to say that this is violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection
Clause, which prohibits discrimination based on race. The Ferguson report ignores the fact that
in McClesky v Kemp, the Supreme Court clearly defined discrimination as individual, not
institutionalized. Michelle Alexander states that “the Supreme Court ruled in credible statistical
evidence, could not be challenged under the Fourteenth Amendment in the absence of clear
evidence of conscious, discriminatory intent,” (Alexander 2011, 109). Therefore, since the
Supreme Court has made racism about individuals instead of institutions, if an officer in
Fergusons does not explicitly use a racist term when interacting with a citizen, the victim does
not have a case, even though the statistics maintained by Ferguson’s Police Department lays
clear the fact, that the institution is racially motivated to harass and charge African Americans.
In essence, the doors of the courthouse are shut to African Americans. It is to their
detriment that the Investigation of Ferguson by the Department of Justice does not address this.
The background of the McClesky case stems from a death penalty trial that resulted in these
devastating results. McClesky claimed that Georgia’s death penalty system was racist, and
offered the Baldus study as proof. This study showed that black defendants charged with killing

22. Josephs| 22
white defendants were more than 11 times more likely to receive the death penalty than white
defendants charged with killing black victims (Alexander 2011). While the Court accepted the
statistics, it insisted that overt racism in every individual situation had to be shown. Hence the
DOJ’s argument that African Americans in Ferguson are being discriminated is factually correct,
however in terms of technicality, the residents of Ferguson are no longer protected by the
Fourteenth Amendment. Hence, we find the Court implicitly holding up the Prison Industrial
Complex, as African Americans find themselves the target of a real war, which is racist in
nature, and hides under the cover of the lofty notion of the War on Drugs. As the institutions
themselves are implicitly racist in nature, we try to answer the question of whether America is
now post racial because Barack Obama was elected president.
The fourth section of this paper will provide an analysis of very recent research that
suggests that Obama’s presidency has not been a post racial one and that the first black president
has in fact been silenced, in speaking of all issues race related. This paper will examine how this
silence has affected African Americans, especially those who have been exploited by the Prison
Industrial Complex and police militarization. The importance of this section is not to be
underestimated as it provides as an explanation as to why the insidious nature of the Prison
Industrial Complex is hard to rationalize. It is has been rendered invisible by post racial politics
and a sort of superficial colorblind attitude towards African Americans that the country’s first
black president has found it hard to speak against. The critical questions to be answered here is
whether or not Obama has acted as a president who is African American, or an African
American president. This analysis is crucial in light of very current and continuing events, such

23. Josephs| 23
as the all too frequent of killing of black men by the police and the Black Lives Matter
Campaign, the protests in Ferguson, and the very current protests occurring in Baltimore5
Obama as the First Black President
It must be recognized that Obama’s heritage is not characteristic of an African American
as he happens to be a first generation African American, whose mother is white. Obama has had
the advantage of knowing exactly who his ancestors are, as his African family remain intact in
Kenya. This is very different from the experiences of other African Americans who find it
difficult to trace their history, due to legacy of slavery. Indeed Obama’s experience as a Black
man in America, is nothing short of unique, as not only did he attend Harvard, but he was the
first black editor of the Harvard Law review. Obama’s unique history has allowed for a sort of
bizarre for criticism from groups that Sears and Tesler have labeled the ‘birthers’ (individuals
who claim that Obama is not American, and furthermore he is a Muslim, etc.”) (Tesler and Sears
2010, 14).
Attitudes towards Blacks, along with anti-black sentiments have risen during the Obama
presidency, according to the paper “Attitudes towards Blacks in the Obama Era,” (Pasek, et al.
2014). The authors suggest here that anti-black prejudice appears to have actually increased
slightly during Obama’s first four years (Pasek, et al. 2014, 295). Political Scientists David O.
Sears and Michael Tesler in their paper “Is the Obama Presidency Post-Racial ? Evidence from
His First Year Office,” present findings that suggest that Obama’s presidency polarized the
country in terms of race, and brought clear divisions along the line of race. “Despite not
broaching any race specific policies during his first year in office, he did not fully succeed in
alleviating white fears of racial favoritism during his first year in office. If anything, he seemed
5 The riots occurringin Baltimorearecurrently on going, and the events leadi ngto the riots,very unfortunate.

24. Josephs| 24
to exacerbate them,” (Tesler and Sears 2010, 5).The authors go on to state that most Republicans
thought Obama favored African Americans (Tesler and Sears 2010, 5).
Ironically, other scholars have spoken to the fact that as African American, and one is
particularly aware of the racial dynamics of the country, Obama has been too ambiguous in terms
of talking about race. Phillip Howard, in his paper “Turning out the Center,” argues that
Obama’s record of moving public discourse on race has not been ‘stellar’, although Obama’s
own progression into the American presidency has been marked by insightful views of race
relations in the United States. Howard is suggesting here that Obama has downplayed the
significance of race in view of a more post racial approach that ultimately neglects the unique
oppressions that African Americans face, in order to not alienate white voters (Howard 2010).
The Obama-McCain presidential race was widely touted as being post-racial, and this
was an issue that the Obama and the Democrats themselves emphasized. However in their paper
“Barack Obama and the Politics of Race,” authors Martell Teasel and David Ikard suggest that
there is a significant disconnect between “the desire and reality of a race free society,” (Teasley
and Ikard 2010, 411).There is a significant nature in thinking of the Obama presidency as post-
racial, especially for African Americans (Teasley and Ikard 2010).It is not the concept of post
racialism that is inherently dangerous, it is the belief that it actually exists that has proven
problematic. The concept of a post-racial state has been touted by right wingers who are against
policies like that of affirmative action, as the basic premise of their argument lies in the faulty
logic that America is a post racial state, hence she is no longer ‘racist’ and to favor one group
over the other with social policies like Affirmative Action is unfair. The attack on Affirmative
action is ironic since “white women, not blacks are the biggest benefactors of affirmative action
policies in the United States,” (Teasley and Ikard 2010, 416).

25. Josephs| 25
Indeed, it is this post racial narrative that enabled Obama to reach a diverse electorate
with speeches that focused on nation building and unity, instead of speaking to racially
motivated arguments. “Obama strategically refocused the debate from the White historical
disenfranchisement of Blacks to Wall Street greed and Washington political corruption as the
indirect blame for past and existing racial strife,” (Teasley and Ikard 2010, 419).Perhaps a more
strident views on race would have even cost him the election. By approaching his arguments in
this way, he was able to speak to White Americans in a manner that did not make them
uncomfortable, while at the same appealing to the African American demographic. However, it
is this type of indirect argument that “engenders a false sense of hope masking the realities of
gross racial/ethnic disparities and inequality …not only for Black communities but also for the
majority of Americans in general,” (Teasley and Ikard 2010, 420).
Many scholars agree that President has found himself between a rock and a very hard
place when it comes to discussing race relations in America. Indeed, the very few times that
Obama has spoken on race relations, he has been condemned for it. This speaks directly to
Howard’s question of “the extent to which Obama (if he is so inclined) might resist the limits of
mainstream, colorblind, racial discourse and the structures that surreptitiously dare him to
suggest that racial injustice might indeed still be a reality in America,” ( (Howard 2010, 382).
Sears and Tesler give salient examples of Obama speaking honestly about race relations in the
US when they use the example of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, a prominent African
American Harvard scholar by a white police officer. Gates was trying to gain entrance to his own
house when arrested. Obama called the actions of the arresting officer ‘stupid’. His response was
“condemned in the media and strongly disapproved of by white Americans-the large majority of
whom though that Gates had acted appropriately,” (Tesler and Sears 2010, 6). Indeed, Obama

26. Josephs| 26
later said that his response has not been well calibrated. This “fueled the president’s caution on
race matters,” (Joseph 2014).
Obama’s much praised ‘tact’ in dealings with matter of race has done a disservice to
African American communities who have been much oppressed by the Prison Industrial
Complex. In his efforts to transcend race and be a president who is African American instead of
an African American has quite possibly rendered the entire Prison Industrial Complex invisible
by operating through a post racial lens that does not need see the Prison Industrial Complex as an
institution that has supported itself through the oppression of African Americans. Peniel E.
Josephs, an African American professor of history and founding director of the Center for the
Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University states in his article “Barack Obama and
Ferguson: The cost of being the Reluctant Black President,” that “The Ferguson Crisis is an
American crisis-one rooted in racial slavery, Jim Crow and institutional racism. Key to all of this
is denial. Obama’s refusal to acknowledge the way in which the disease of racism infects our
entire body politic, along with its institutions, structures, and culture, is a tragedy,” (Joseph
2014).
It is a situation where “Obama is genuinely concerned about the suffering of the Black
community, but all crossover black elected officials who need the white vote to be in office, he
downplays his ‘color’ and the realities of racism. He even does so when speaking before Black
audiences,” (Miah 2010). Dr. Joseph concurs, stating that Obama is so popular in the Black
community that he has been able to pay scant regard to issues that negatively and
disproportionately affected the Black community, including jobs and mass incarceration (Joseph
2014) Indeed, the White House’s official stance on the police use of weapons of war against the
protestors of Ferguson is suggested in an article by the New York Times which states that

27. Josephs| 27
“Administration officials said they concluded after a review that the vast majority of transfers of
military-style equipment strengthened local policing, even after the police in Ferguson were
criticized for heavy-handed use of such gear to quell protests last summer,” (Times 2014). This
was the perfect opportunity to open up an honest discussion on police militarization in America,
one that was not utilized.
This section will examine the Obama’s administration actual policies that have the
potential to affect African American communities. Many academics and scholars have found that
Obama’s actions, in line with his rhetoric is equally ambiguous, as the Obama administration has
taken a more flexible approach with dealing with the legalization of marijuana than previous
administrations. However, while quite a number of states have legalized the use of both
medicinal and recreational marijuana, under federal law it is still an illegal substance. This
section will refer to the case study of Colorado and how the legalization of both recreational and
medicinal marijuana has affected the crime rates in that state. This is important since (as pointed
out numerous times above) the Drug War waged by the American government disparately and
negatively affects African American Communities.
According to a report by the Drug Policy Alliance, marijuana possession arrests have
dropped to 84% since 2010. The report goes on to state that according to data released by the
City of Denver, violent crime went down by 2.2% and burglaries decreased by 9.5%. The overall
crime rate in Denver in 2014 dropped by 8.9% .6 The Colorado of Department of Transportation
also released data that showed that traffic fatalities decreased in 2014. (Alliance 2014) The
FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Data shows that the overall crime in the state is down 10. 1%
6 This report is not suggesting that the legalization of marijuana hasanythingto do with the drop in violent crimes.
However itdoes provide sturdy opposition againstthe lobbyists and analystswho proclaimthatthe legalization of
marijuana would lead to increased crimeand traffic fatalities

28. Josephs| 28
since 2013, while violent crime is down has dropped by 5.2%, compared to the previous year.
According to Mint Press News, retired Lt. Tony Ryan worked for Denver’s Police Department
for 36 years and is member of the pro-marijuana legalization group Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition. He states that the crime drop shows that the War on Drugs is a great distraction to
law enforcement and is a disruption to police officers (Rucke 2014). Hopefully, Colorado’s foray
into the world of legal marijuana will inspire other states to follow suit.
It is clear that many institutions are involved in the perpetuation of the Prison Industrial
Complex. The laws that cover the institutions are inherently racist but use color blind politics
that provides a cover to this discrimination. The first African American president, situated in a
position that was designed for white men, discovers the difficulty of speaking honestly and
openly about race to a population blindly deluded by a yet to be discovered post-racial narrative.
By analyzing the most powerful of US institutions it should become clear to the reader
that the US criminal justice system is fundamentally flawed, and that it will take many more
demographically significant presidents in order to ensure policies that are not color blind, but
indeed actually see the power, and provide the social justice and remedies needed to
marginalized and poor communities of color. If a country is truly post-racial, then she does not
need to declare herself so. It will be seen and felt equally by all citizens regardless of race.

29. Josephs| 29
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