Why America Throws the Poor in Prison

America built mass incarceration: the wholesale imprisonment of entire populations. Why, exactly, are so many people in prison – more than the entire population of New Mexico? That’s our focus for this week’s video: how a crisis of capitalism created a surplus population of former workers concentrated in declining cities, and how politicians and capitalists – instead of helping those people, and building a better and more just economy – built a prison system larger than any other in the history of the world to warehouse them. Chase Madar, professor of law at NYU Gallatin, explains. Sources: Join us, and make our work possible: Institute Merch: Twitter: Instagram: Facebook: 0:00 Mass Incarceration in America 1:39 The Crisis of the ’60s and ’70s 2:49 How America Built Mass Incarceration 5:07 What About When Crime Fell? 7:24 Credits