Incarcerated Americans
The United States incarcerates people at a percentage greater than any other country on Earth. For every 100,000 people, 639 are imprisoned. Plus, many U.S. prisons are now in private hands, thus incentivising that incarceration.
Timeline
| Post-Civil War (1870) | Most state felony disenfranchisement laws are created, along with poll taxes, and literacy tests in an attempt to keep Black men from voting. |
| 1901 | Alabama's “moral turpitude” added to State Constitution |
| 1971 | Richard Nixon declares War on Drugs |
| 1974 | Richardson v. Ramirez held that convicted felons could be barred from voting without violating the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. |
| 1983 | Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) formed as the first private corrections company. |
| 1984 | Sentencing Reform Act - dropped rehabilitation as one of the goals of punishment |
| 1997 | Massachusetts votes to revoke the right to vote while incarcerated. |
Additional reading
What Can We Learn From the History of Felony Disenfranchisement?
Number of People by State Who Cannot Vote Due to a Felony Conviction
THE CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy
Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories and the CIA in Central America
WaPo: CONSPIRACY THEORIES CAN OFTEN RING TRUE
Netflix Doc: CIA Flooded Black Communities With Crack
Settlement Marks Step Toward Ending Abuses At For-Profit Immigrant Prisons