Heather Thompson’s article “How Prisons Change the Balance of Power in America” is an outstanding assessment of the influence of the War on Crime on power shift among various groups. It states that imprisonment leads to the fact that these individuals cannot vote, which means that not incarcerated citizens gain more power to decide the fate of the country (Thompson, par. 6). In addition, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was undermined by the Law Enforcement Administration Act (LEAA), which initiated the War on Crime. Thompson argues that the American Civil Rights Movement’s advancement was massively undercut by the laws, which facilitated higher imprisonment rates of African Americans (Thompson, par. 7). In other words, the democratic process was severely hindered.
Both War on Crime and War of Drugs sparked massive incarceration rates, where the prison population was raising intensely. Such an approach led to significant economic and social problems that disproportionately affected people of color (Thompson, par. 10). Even after changes in the 14th Amendment, which forced southern states to allow any male to vote, the whites proceeded with the disenfranchisement of blacks (Thompson, par. 13). These states used the advantage that was given by the increased voting population but excluded non-whites from the process. In other words, blacks provided their share of representation, but they did not have an opportunity to vote due to extensive imprisonments. The whites also understood how building prisons benefit the state in regards to the acquisition of census data, where imprisoned population increases the political weights without sharing the power (Thompson, par. 23). Therefore, it is important for American citizens to be aware of how seemingly well-intended causes can lead to massive power shifts from minority groups towards the majority.
Work Cited
Thompson, Heather A. “How Prisons Change the Balance of Power in America.” The Atlantic, 2013, Web.