Professor Lawrence

Police & Urban America

January 14, 2015
Underground Markets
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed .
Martin Luther King Jr.
The paper seeks to explore the social, psychological and economical effects of unprecedented
levels of imprisonment and hyper surveillance on the lives of criminalized young Black people.
Also, I will give a brief overview of the historical origins that lead to this current state of affairs.
Additionally, this paper will discuss the (underground market), which many vulnerable people
have taken part of, that caters to the needs and wants of those living under various legal
restrictions. This alternative economic system has created substantial profitable opportunities for
young people living in communities where money and jobs are scarce. (Goffman, 141). Despite
the Civil Rights Movement, the fight for racial and economic justice continues in the United
States.
Presently, punitive crime control measures have drastically increased for youths of color because
they are habitually looked upon as deviants from criminal justice institutions, as well as noncriminal justice structures that were originally intended to nurture: the school, the family, and the
community. By 2000, the US prison population swelled to five times what it had been in the
early 1970s- with a disproportionate number of whom were Black males. Today 30 percent of

Black men without college educations have been to prison by their mid-thirties. Ultimately, in
the era of mass incarceration, a youth control complex-created by a network of racialized
criminalization and retribution deployed from various institutions of control has formed to
manage, control, and incapacitate young Black males and other minority group members.
Sociologist Loic Wacquant and legal scholar Michelle Alexander have argued that current levels
of targeted imprisonment represent a new chapter in American racial oppression.(Goffman, 3).
One of the most controversial topics today is centered on the growing movement to end the
racialized system of mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex, and to alleviate its
negative consequences. This paper will describe some of whats happening in the lives of
targeted individuals as well as the various ways they attempt to overcome the harsh limitations
placed upon them-being entangled in the web of our criminal justice system. Policies and
practices of excluding individuals from employment and other social benefits on the basis of
their skin color and criminal records has had an detrimental impact on young Black men and
other minority group members based on statistics showing that they are convicted at a rate
disproportionately greater than their representation in the population. A large number of
individuals with past conviction histories, more specifically people of color, often face
significant barriers to successful reintegration, primarily when attempting to enter or reenter the
job force. Gainful employment is highly unlikely because of the social stigma that comes from
having a criminal record.
Also, there a many laws and policies in place that severely limit both the quality and quantity of
employment opportunities. All this combined with racism, classism, sexism, and ableism, just to
name a few is highly prevalent in the lives of the majority of young black men, women and other
minority group members, has caused much suffering for these individuals. The devastating

consequence of just being black and or having a criminal record intensifies the racial
discrimination that exists in our economy and has further restricted vast numbers of people of
color from living a happy, peaceful and productive life. In Chapter 5 of Alice Goffmans, On the
Run, she describes the black neighborhood of 6th street as a hyper-policed community, where the
penal system had become a central institution in the lives of young Black people and their
families-coordinating social life and creating framework through which young people carve out
their identities, demonstrate their attachment to one another, and judge one anothers character.
Events such as sentencing hearings, initial jail visits, and homecomings serve as important social
dealings, indicating how popular a person is or how much status they have, as well as where
people stand in their life. Honor, decency and respect is shown by protecting one another from
authorities by omitting information, giving false tips, hiding a person, or risking arrest on one
anothers behalf. Everything mentioned previously are seen as acts of love that bind these
individuals together. (Goffman, 136). Clearly, there is an obvious dysfunction in the acts of
bravery and love displayed in the lives of the community members living on 6 th street. Instead
of celebrating a graduation, first day on a new job, or purchasing a new home, these people
structure their lives around legal proceedings, jail visits, bail payments and phone calls to public
defenders. Their days are marked by the good or bad news they receive concerning the fate
determined by the courts, parole board and prisons.(Goffman, 113). Their lives are caught in a
vicious repeating cycle within the criminal justice system, take usually takes precedence over
anything else that matters-for many years. They continuously have to start their lives over from
scratch, with limited opportunities, never having any real stability and balance. After obtaining a
criminal record that follows them for the rest of their lives, things will never be the same for the
majority of people in these particular situations. Sadly, even romantic relationships are greatly

affected. When a man is on the outside, he has some chance of keeping the women in his life
from finding out about each other and his infidelities. When he gets arrested, such a balancing
act becomes much more difficult. Often times, the women look through the sign-in book at the
visitors desk to determine whether other women have been there which at times causes dramatic
scenes. (Goffman, 117).
Besides all the physical barriers young black men face, they also have to deal with physiological
effects. Due to the fear of capture and confinement seeping into the basic activities of daily
living-work, family, romance, friendship, and even much-needed medical care-presents evidence
of a community on the run. (Goffman, XII). These young black youths often experience
hypervigilance, anxiety and stress recurrently. They live in a climate of panic and suspicion,
which pervades everyday life, and many residents live with daily concern that authorities will
arrest them and take them away. A new social fabric is emerging under the threat of
confinement: one woven in suspicion, distrust, and the paranoiac practices of secrecy, evasion
and unpredictability.(Goffman, 8).
The crackdown on the drug economy in poor black neighborhoods came at the same time that
welfare reform cut the assistance that poor families received and the length of time they could
receive it. (2)

In conclusion, mass incarceration of minority group members has had serious social, economic,
and psychological consequences to families and communities. It frequently causes serious
damage to family functioning, emotional support systems, structure, financial relationships and

income levels. Moreover, it disrupts parent-child relationships, alters networks of support, as

well as places new burdens on governmental services such as schools, foster care, adoption
agencies, and youth serving organization. The criminalization of minority group members, more
specifically young Black males is highly disturbing and unsettling. While such discrimination is
illegal in todays society, it still continues under the guise of race-neutral policies that
discriminate against individuals who have a criminal history. The growing numbers of legal
barriers that limit opportunities for people with criminal records continue to keep large fragments
of qualified individuals with criminal records, most of whom are young black males, locked out
of suitable employment and deprived of the opportunity to become a tax-paying citizen with the
ability to care for themselves and their families.