t not watch helplessly as those in power create and enforce unnecessarily harsh drug laws to breakdown our race. In fact it is the same people in power who import drugs into our country and our neighborhoods and distribute them in our communities. So, I urge African Americans people to realize that the prison industrial complex is a modern day form of slavery that not only destroys individuals, it destroys families and communities as well. If we do not defeat it, it will defeat us. Bibliography**Parenti, Christian, Lockdown America (London; New York: Verso, 1999) 17-19**Lynch, Michael J. and Patterson, Britt, Race and Criminal Justice (New York: Harrow and Heinstien, 1991)*Ranese, Celia “Todays Prison system vs. Yesterdays Slave System” USA TALK 13 March 1999*Palmer, Louise “Numbers of Blacks in Prison nears 1 million” The Boston Globe Seattle Post Intelligencer*United States Department of Justice Bureau of Statistics: Prison Inmate Statistics, Washington 1998*Polowsky, Robert, “Liberal Legacy” Prison Activist Resource Center (weekly). 25 September 1998*Smith, Phil, “Private Prisons Benefit” The Berne Collection. 1 December 1998*Shakur, Assata, “Letter from Assata Shakur on the prison industrial complex” 25 October 1999*Schlosser, Eric, “The Prison Industrial Complex” The Atlantic Monthly. December 1998 Vol. 282 No.6*- Magazine or newspaper article** - Book resourceIncarceration of a PeopleAyesha YoungUS Africa WorldNovember 20, 2000Incarceration of a PeopleThe disproportionate numbers of African Americans in the prison system is a very serious issue, which is not usually discussed in its totality. However, it is quite important to address the matter because it ultimately will have an effect on African Americans as a whole. Of the many tribulations that plague Americans today, the increase in the amount of African American men and women in prisons is un...
