The United States has the largest prison and jail population in the world, not only in terms of population, but also in terms of numbers. Many of these offenders are behind bars for non-violent drug crimes and, statistically, more of these non-violent offenders are African Americans. African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, but make up more than 40 percent of the current prison population. In the United States, a black man is five times more likely to be convicted of a crime than a white man. Where have we really come since Jim Crow laws? During the Jim Crow era, African Americans in some states were treated as second-class citizens in every aspect of life, from how they interacted with white Americans to not having the right to vote. Many people would say that we as a nation are well past that time, but many African Americans convicted of nonviolent drug crimes lose their right to vote, lose their job chances, and lose all rights. welfare programs that might otherwise have been extended to them for their lives. economic situation. The simple argument here is that a white man convicted of the same crime would also lose these rights. However, why are African Americans confined so much more than non-African Americans? As a country, we must ask ourselves whether race has played a role in the high rate of incarceration of African Americans, and can we compare it to the era of Jim Crow laws? My initial topic focused solely on the Jim Crow era criminal justice system and excluded any modern references or articles, but as more websites began citing "new Jim Crow laws", I was naturally interested. Once I started researching the “new Jim Crow laws,” they caught my attention. At first I found it hard to believe that current laws could match...... middle of paper ......o this criminal justice system, children are much more likely to drop out l school, experiment with recreational substances and unfortunately end up in the justice system, just like their parents. This cycle could partly explain why African Americans are poorer nationally than Caucasians. This cycle truly began with slavery, and then with Jim Crow laws, African Americans were oppressed and treated as less than, so they never had the chance to start on the same level. like white people. We personally have family members who lived in a time when it was common for an African American man to be lynched, tortured, and killed simply for looking at a white girl the wrong way. As a culture, we often forget how recent this situation is and that many social institutions have not fully adapted. One such institution is our criminal justice system which is not as colorblind as it claims to be..