¶ … African-Americans are overrepresented in the prison population because society still does not accept the notion of equality between races, and prisons are a form of social inequality.

The Western article discusses prisons as a form of social layering that incarcerates African-Americans because they are socially and fiscally disadvantages and they make easier targets than their white counterparts. They are less educated, have less hope of decent jobs, and live in poverty, so they are more apt to attempt criminal activity and then become incarcerated. Historically, this has increased from the 1970s to today, create a huge increase in black inmates.

Street shows that rural areas are economically dependent on the growth of prisons because they benefit from the prisons financially through taxes, incentives, and even funding for roads and other improvements. This implication indicates that black communities are sill very vulnerable to law enforcement, because a state's rural economy benefits the more prisoners that house its prisons, and keeping them full can be an incentive to the area, and that can lead to increased law enforcement in poor black communities.

The Nerio article shows prisons are organizations because they are run by administrators with power, they serve a purpose in the local economy and in keeping people safe, and they are powerful in the criminal justice system by resolving who stays in prison and who does not. They can be corrupt as organizations, which clearly has severe humanitarian, political, and social repercussions on society, the community, and of course, black Americans, who suffer most from these repercussions.

In conclusion, I agree with these perspectives because the facts do not lie, and there are more blacks in prison, and that helps the economy of many areas, which acting as another way to subjugate black Americans, and prisons are indeed organizations that suffer from an organizational mentality, where blacks do not do as well as whites in organizations. All of this combines to keep more black Americans in prison.

References

Nerio, R. Prisons as organizations in five parts.

Street, P. (2007). Reverse reparations: Race, place, and the vicious circle of mass incarceration. ZDNet. 1-14.

Western, B. Punishment and inequality in America.