A Brooklyn, NY church held a forum on the issues related to the mass incarceration of black and Latino youth and workers. It was a follow-up to reading Michelle Alexander’s widely read book The New Jim Crow. Over 100 people heard a panel of community leaders and activists present their experiences with the realities of this systematic, racist attack on black and Latino communities.
In short, with the excuse of a “war on drugs,” the bosses set in place a system of what seems like “colorblind” laws such as the Rockefeller Drug Laws, mandatory sentencing, and policing methods like Stop-and-Frisk and community policing. But, because these policing tactics are carried out almost exclusively in black and Latin communities, the racist outcome is many thousands of people being terrorized, arrested and fed into the criminal justice system.
Once in the system, the racist application of the Rockefeller Laws, mandatory sentencing and the unchallenged discretion of the prosecutor, hand most of these defendants outrageous prison terms. In many cases, these are minor infractions for which a white person wouldn’t even get a reprimand.
A panelist that helps felons re-establish their lives after prison discussed the hardships encountered after release. The stigma of “felon,” the new codeword for race identity, results in a lifetime of racist discrimination. Employers, landlords, lending agencies and government programs use the “felon” status to deny jobs, housing, loans and government assistance.  How can anyone survive like this? It’s no wonder 66 percent of ex-felons return to jail within three years.
Another panelist, a Harlem woman, described numerous acts of police harassment and brutality. Many residents, especially males, are repeatedly harassed by Stop-and-Frisk tactics. One heinous police action forced children in a public play area to stand line-up style as a bright light was shined in their eyes so that a pick-pocket victim might recognize the criminal.  This would never happen or be tolerated in more affluent areas.   
Why is this happening?  Who benefits? Some panelists answered: Prisons are big business. In some places, prisons are the biggest or only employer in economically strapped towns. Industries use prison labor and pay them almost nothing, thus making bigger profits. The federal government gives law enforcement agencies military equipment and financial incentives to fight the “drug war” in the inner cities; the more they arrest, the more they get, including confiscated stuff. 
All this is true, but one panelist hit it home:  capitalism needs class distinctions and segregation to control the working class; to keep the working class from uniting and fighting back.  The bosses need scapegoats like black and Latino youth and undocumented immigrants to blame for the misery we suffer under capitalism.  The bosses need unemployed workers to keep the wages of all workers down.
Several reform solutions were offered, like putting more money into education, job training, housing, better mental health services and childhood intervention.  But we’ve heard this before.  These reforms are not the solution.  We need to work for multiracial unity in the working class, build PLP and build for revolution to throw off the chains of capitalism.