History of the United States II / Unit 16 USH2 2267 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Mass Incarceration
The idea
The sentencing laws produced what the anchor calls a new age of mass incarceration. California's three strikes law of the nineteen nineties mandated life without parole for any third felony, even a nonviolent one, and by the century's end the number of prisoners in the nation had grown fourfold in twenty-five years.
In practice
African Americans seven times more likely to be in prison, the anchor records.
Where people slip
The anchor states the chain plainly: penalties designed around crack, then incarceration, then disparity. The Yawp adds that politicians of both parties and law enforcement agencies policed minority communities more aggressively. The policy's own terms were law and order and toughness on crime, in the anchor's and the Yawp's accounts; the course states those aims alongside the numbers, and keeps the numbers.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
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