Las Positas College

3000 Campus Hill Drive

Livermore, CA 94551
selewis0003@zonemail.clpccd.edu

May 15, 2018

Fellow Students
Las Positas College
3000 Campus Hill Drive
Livermore, CA 94551

Dear Fellow Students,

I have recently learned about mass incarceration. Mass incarceration is a sudden increase in
prisoners being put in prison for small crimes or no crime at all. This is due to the war on drugs.
The war on drugs was started by the government in an attempt to stop drugs from being imported
and in possession of U.S. citizens. Starting in the late 1900’s, police were given rewards if they
focused on arresting blacks who had possession of any drugs, or any involvement with drugs.
The police did not care if you had done anything prior, if they thought you looked suspicious
they would stop and search you. Mass incarceration is huge problem that is causing taxpayers to
pay more to keep the prisons from overpopulating.

The number of people being put in prison has overwhelmingly increased since the war on drugs
started. In the film 13th, Ava DuVernay has a quote from Avakian S. saying, “Between 1970
and 2000 the number of people incarcerated in the United States skyrocketed from 200,000 to
2.3 million, a ten-fold increase. In 1930, 75% of all prison admissions were Caucasian, and 22%
were African-Americans. In 1992, 29% of the prison admissions were Caucasian; while 51%
were African-American and 20% were Hispanic. Today, two-thirds of the prisoners are African-
Americans and Hispanics.” These statistics not only show how many people are imprisoned but
the percent of each race that is imprisoned. As you can see, African Americans make up more
than half of the prisons population. This is due to the Thirteenth Amendment, which states
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction." This amendment was meant to get rid of slavery, but instead gives a new way to
continue it. It says that you slavery shall no longer exist unless used as punishment for
commiting a crime. Not only do prisons become slaves again, but they lose all their rights. They
lose their right to vote, own a firearm, join the military, welfare, college loans or aid, jobs,
housing, and food stamps. Mass incarceration is a huge that needs to stop.

There are many ways to end mass incarceration, but a good start to this is educating the youth on
what happens when you are imprisoned. They think all these small crimes are okay, but the
more small crimes you do the less they are going to let you off with a warning. One way we can
educate the youth of America is by starting groups to go to schools and showing them what
happens and how they can prevent it from happening to them. If you are interested or have any
questions about helping our youth or donating to help get it started, you can reach me at
selewis0003@zonemail.clpccd.edu. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Skyler Lewis