A huge commonality between the books, The Jail, by John Irwin and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is the idea that the jail systematically locks “people of color into a permanent second-class citizenship” This idea is highlighted by John Irwin in the ways he describe how experiences inside prepare people for living a rabble life. As discussed previously, it is often disreputables – who are already on the outskirts of acceptable society – who commit petty crimes and are arrested. What we don’t automatically realize is that by putting them in jail we further this separation. In turn this puts them in a position worse than they previously were in, subjecting them to the same never ending cycle. Both books, The Jail and The New…show more content… Instead of fearing them, they find that they have more in common with them. This causes them to engage in more criminal activities, thus putting them at risk for arrest again. With the pressure they feel from society, jail this time no longer seems foreign and unrelated to them.
The most important point in these examples is that jail time is what pushes inmates to assume the full identity of the rabble. They are no longer connected to aspects of ordinary society and are instead viewed solely as criminals. Michelle Alexander emphasizes this idea in her book The New Jim Crow by stating, “Now that you have been labeled, you are no longer wanted.” Their new identity “makes it virtually impossible for ex-offenders to integrate into the mainstream society and economy upon release.” (Alexander, 143).
Alexander portrays the severity of this permanent status with the profound metaphor told by Iris Marion Young about the bird in the birdcage. The saying goes, if you look at a bird up close, you wonder why the bird doesn’t fly, but upon moving back and looking at the bigger picture, it is no wonder why, as the bird is trapped behind bars of the cage (Alexander, 184). We wonder why offenders have a tendency to re-offend and the reason is because jail systematically impose disadvantages to offenders that shapes their life and ultimately affects them long after doing their
