The New Jim Crow
Chapter 2 (“The Lockdown”) Sample Responses
1. What are some of the claims that Alexander makes in this chapter?
2. Choose one of the claims you mentioned in answer to question number 1 and state why you were or were not persuaded of its validity.
3. What does Alexander suggest about the validity of perceptions of America’s criminal justice system that are derived from watching TV dramas like “Law and Order?” (59)
They obscure the reality that our system of justice is a “brutal system of racialized oppression and control.”
4. Why is it that “full-blown trials of guilt or innocence rarely occur?” (59)
Because people are quick to plead guilty – even if they’re innocent – rather than risk stiffer penalties if they lose in court.
5. What is the single biggest reason for the dramatic increases in the incarceration of people of color? (60)
Convictions for drug offenses
6. Find the phrase that Alexander uses to transisiton from her enumeration of data points to her interpretation of the same in the first full paragraph on p. 60.
“To put the matter in perspective”
7. What does the first sentence in the 2nd full paragraph on p. 60 suggest about that paragraph’s purpose?
That the paragraph will debunk a commonly held and erroneous idea
8. Why do you suppose Alexander includes the calculation she does in the final sentence on p. 60?
To make the 7 million statistic more “digestible” – that is, to put it at a scale that one can more easily appreciate
9. What is the function of the 1st full paragraph on p. 61?
It is basically a thesis statement of intent – or an indication of how the rest of the chapter and book are laid out
10. According to Alexander, how has the judicial branch of the government aided the executive branch’s efforts to wage its ‘War on Drugs’? (61-2)
The courts have made it easy to incarcerate huge numbers of nonviolent drug offenders. This has been especially true with the 4th Amendment and its supposed protections against unlawful searches, which Alexander contends has been stripped of a number of important provisions.
11. What is the function of the 1st sentence on the top of p. 63?
It is to define the parameters – or the scope – of Alexander’s treatment of Supreme Court rulings pertaining to the 4th Amendment. As she makes clear, her focus will be on those rulings that have given law enforcement a financial interest in conducting the War on Drugs.
12. What do you think Alexander means when she talks about a “slide down a very slippery slope” at the top of page 64?
That once the Terry decision was made, all sorts of unintended and negative consequences followed.
13. Look up how the expression “Just Say No” became associated with the War on Drugs and comment on Alexander’s purpose for using it here (p. 64).
“Just Say No” was the slogan - supposedly derived by President Reagan’s wife, Nancy - that was meant to the “gentler” companion to theharsher legal penalties established to discourage drug use. Just as it was mocked by critics for suggesting that drug abuse and addiction were simple matters that could be easily overcome with a mere expression of willpower, Alexander uses it in bitter mockery of the Court’s complicity in waging what she regards as a racist and unjust government program by refusing to uphold the sanctity of 4th Amendment protections.
14. What, in your opinion, is the best refutation Alexander offers of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostick? (65-6)
15. What is the purpose of the second sentence in the 1st full paragraph on p. 68? (to interpret the Supreme Court’s decision with specific reference to how it pertains to random traffic stops)
16. What claim does Alexander’s reference to the ruling made by the Ohio Supreme Court (p. 68) help support? (that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostick violates the spirit of the Fourth Amendment – that the Supreme Court’s logic is “twisted”)
17. T or F. You can be arrested and jailed for a minor traffic violation even if the penalty for that violation is only a fine. (68-9) (T)
18. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: summarize the content of the 2nd full paragraph on p. 69 in one sentence and, as much as possible, using your own words.
Another way that the Supreme Court has made it possible for police to evade 4th Amendment privacy restrictions is by ruling that walking a drug-sniffing dog around someone’s property is permissible, which has the effect of weakening a subject’s resistance to being searched by other means once threatened with the prospect of a search by such a dog.
19. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: in your own words, explain what Alexander suggests are the reasons why people who are harassed by the police don’t complain about it afterwards. (69-70)
She suggests that the only place where one can file such a complaint is at a police department office, which is the last place they’d want to visit after having already been mistreated by someone who not only works there but whose abuse is sanctioned by law.
20. Comment on the strength of the contention (claim) Alexander makes in the last two sentences of the first full paragraph on p. 70 – as well as in the 1st sentence of the following paragraph. (the latter is supported on the following page – middle of 1st full paragraph)
21. In your own words – and in no more than one sentence – state what Alexander suggests is problematic about drug-courier profiles. (71)
What’s problematic is that the profile includes every conceivable trait and combination of traits, such that it could be used to justify suspicion of anyone.
22. How did the federal government persuade state and local governments to step up efforts to arrest and punish people convicted of drug-related crimes? (72-3)
By bribing them with cash
23. How does Alexander support her contention that the War on Drugs has been an apt title for the program to combat drug use? (starting on p. 74)
By reporting on the proliferation of military armaments throughout state and local law enforcement jurisdictions courtesy of the federal government
24. What is important to know about Scott Bryant, mentioned in the 2nd full paragraph on p. 76, in order for what happened to him to meaningfully support Alexander’s overall rhetorical objective?
His race
25. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: In your own words, state what the district attorney suggested was the reason the police officer’s gun was fired at Scott Bryant. (2nd full paragraph on p. 76)
The district attorney argued that the shooting hand of the police officer who shot Bryant involuntarily contracted (to the point that it unintentionally pulled the trigger) when the other hand reached for handcuffs.
26. According to Alexander, what is the fundamental mistunderstanding that the average citizen has about increases in drug arrests? (77)
They think that the increases are due to increased criminal activity, but Alexander argues that they result from local law enforcement agencies being provided with more funding and equipment.
27. Why might local law enforcement agencies have been more focused on making arrests for drug-law violations than for infractions of other laws? (77-9)
They were provided with military equipment and federal money and benefited from passage of asset-forteiture laws.
28. What is it about asset-forfeiture laws that put citizens penalized by them in such an unwinnable situation? (79 - 83)
They have to prove their innocence instead of the state having to prove their guilt; the cost of going through the legal procedures required to get one’s assets back is often more than the property’s worth.
29. What is it about asset-forfeiture laws that gives the lie to government pronouncements that the War on Drugs is designed to catch drug “kingpins”? (79)
The “kingpins” are often allowed to buy their freedom, while those with less money usually end up in prison.
30. How does what Alexander suggests is the primary reason that Congress passed the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act support her overall rhetorical objective? (81)
Alexander suggests that the Act was passed because of all the attention that cases involving white plaintiffs received. This supports her overall thesis that our criminal justice system is merely a political tool to oppress African Americans.
31. What do you expect will follow the first full SENTENCE on p. 82?
criticisms of the reforms related to asset-forfeiture laws
32. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: Restate the information conveyed in the last complete paragraph on p. 82.
Females identified as being in a relationship with alleged male perpetrators are commonly made to suffer because of the requirement that they prove they were innocent of any involvement in the illicit activity of their partners, instead of the government having to prove their guilt.
33. In your own words, what concession to the motives of police officers does Alexander offer in the last full paragraph on p. 83?
She concedes that part of the reason law enforcement officers got involved in the war on drugs with such enthusiasm is because of the duty they feel to obey orders given to them by their superiors.
34. In your own words, why don’t elected officials spend more on providing poor people accused of crimes with public defenders? (85)
Because of their desire to show voters that they are tough on crime.
35. What is Alexander’s focus in the section of this chapter titled “Legal Misrepresentation?”
The various circumstances that exist to deny the accused a fair trial.
36. What support does Alexander offer for her claim that prosecutors are the ones with the most power to determine an accused person’s punishment? (87)
Her explanation of how the plea-bargain process works, especially as a consequence of mandatory minimum prison terms.
37. What, if any, effect does Alexander’s use of the words “snitch” (in the line preceding the first full paragraph on p. 88) and “ratting out” (in the next paragraph) have on your opinion of her?
It might result in one looking at her less favorably if one associates her through her use of these terms with the “street code” that regards loyalty to the members of one’s community – even criminals – as being higher than one’s obligation as a citizen to report criminal activity.
38. What is Alexander’s complaint(s) about the legal system’s reliance on informants? (88)
That it incentivizes informants to lie.
39. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: Restate the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s reason to support mandatory minimum sentences. (last full paragraph on p. 88)
The Commission sees it primarily as a money-saving device in that fewer cases will be brought to trial.
40. What rhetorical purpose is served by the first two complete sentences on p. 89?
They shape the interpretation of the data Alexander presents instead of leaving it up to the reader to decide if the numbers are significant or not.
41. What rhetorical purpose is served by the first full paragraph on p. 89?
This paragraph serves as a summary of the major points that have been made thus far in the chapter.
42. What is Alexander’s point in her comments about judicial discretion on pp. 89-90?
Mandatory sentencing laws have deprived judges of the opportunity to mete out punishment that they believe serves the best interests of all involved.
43. In your own words, explain the faults Alexander finds with mandatory minimum sentences in the first full paragraph on. p. 90.
They are disproportionately harsh, which violates the 8th Amendment and contrasts sharply with sentences handout out in countries comparable to ours.
44. What type of evidence does Alexander use on p. 91 to support the claim she makes at the beginning of the first full paragraph on p. 91?
scenarios
45. What type of appeal does Alexander make in her citation of various judges’ opinions about mandatory sentencing requirements on p. 92-3. Briefly comment on the effectiveness of this strategy.
By citing expert opinion, she makes an appeal to logos. The strategy is effective because of the respect generally accorded to judges and the absence of any ulterior motive for their speaking out against this aspect of the criminal justice system.
46. In your own words, summarize Alexander’s argument, on p. 94, that the prison label is more important to what she regards as the “system of control” than the amount of time served. In other words, why doesn’t she think that doing away with mandatory sentencing requirements will solve the problem of people being victimized by the criminal justice system?
Because of the stigma attached to an ex-convict and the opportunities to meaningfully participate in society, a person who has been imprisoned for a felony will forever live a second-rate existence.
47. According to Alexander, why is it that approximately 30% of released prisoners find themselves back in prison within 6 months? (94)
It is because they are deprived of the opportunity to meaningfully participate in society and are therefore unable to reap the benefits therefrom.