I honestly started to feel more and more frustrated with the blatant disrespect to the Fourth Amendment when it comes to the war on drugs. For a country who prides itself on it’s supposed freedom how could it just as easily violate it’s citizen’s liberties? How could it support people becoming unaware of their rights? How could it not condemn the breaking of standards that this country was built upon? Yet here we are with life sentences for drug possession that is not found anywhere in the world and here we are pretending racial discrimination does not occur. The court cases went on and on explaining horrible circumstances of prosecution and conviction and even worse barring of future lawsuits. People’s families are torn apart by the current laws, entire lives uprooted, and youth now habituate to a life of constant scrutiny, fear, and discrimination. To have an actual study determining mental health effects on children or young siblings of criminalized people should be a start to show the public how horrible this system of “justice” is. This mass incarceration also develops a culture of fear and distrust with the government and police, the very institutions designed to protect their citizens. This is horribly upsetting to read.
Recently I was talking to an advisor and mentioned that we were reading about mass incarceration and she told me about an artist called Chris Jordon who does digital art that focuses on conveying a message.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#prison-uniforms-set
The above link shows his art on prison uniforms. What looks as blocks of color is actually prison uniforms lined up to represent the number of incarcerations in 2005. He has a number of other pieces on education, body image, and more.
