ASE panel analyzes mass incarceration of people of color

When law professor Jody Armour was eight years old, he saw his African American father be prosecuted for first-time possession and sale of marijuana. His father was initially given 22 to 55 years in prison, Armour said.

“That’s what prosecutorial discretion will get you in a lot of places,” Armour explained.

Armour described his personal experience with the criminalization and mass incarceration of people of color on Thursday afternoon at a panel discussion hosted by the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity and the Black Alumni Association. Led by USC scholars and active lawyers, this panel aimed at addressing some of the key issues associated with this issue.

Panelists included L.A. Deputy District Attorney Christopher Curtis, professor Jody Armour from the USC Gould School of Law and UCLA professor David Stein. The event was moderated by Black Alumni Association Assistant Director Tensie Taylor.

The discussion ultimately intended to encourage students and faculty to collectively explore the root problems that have led to the issue of incarceration, as well as the long-term consequences that stem from this phenomenon.

Armour described how after his arrest, his father relied on law books in the prison library to study constitutional law, criminal law and criminal procedure, in order to argue and represent his own case. Five years later, as the only black man in the courthouse, Armour’s father was able to run through his appeal and vindicate himself.

Armour now teaches the case of Armour vs. Salisbury in his criminal law class, focusing on the idea that law can be the problem, but it could also be the solution.

“I realized the power of not only the law, but of language,” Armour said. “[My father] had to put that together in the right order, the right pattern, and the next thing he knew he had the key to the jailhouse door in those very law books. Words are acts with consequences.”

When asked about the staggering statistics of mass incarceration in U.S. prisons, Curtis brought up some of the general factors that influence the large numbers.

“‘The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even the past,’” Curtis said, quoting American author and Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner.

Curtis contended that many of the current social issues we face stem from past history. Furthermore, Curtis explained that social issues are intricately connected with the susceptible nature of the justice system. He stated that this system is easily affected by various components, such as the behavior of police authorities, the presence of microaggression, the jury system, lawyers and the parties that fall in between.

The panel also discussed how popular culture affects perceptions of minorities and how children are shaped by such attitudes. Curtis discussed his theory that change could be instigated by common culture, starting with media, television and music.

“It is one of those things where we need to really normalize normal behaviour,” Curtis said.

Stein argued that public policy is both the solution and the cause of the problem. He also encouraged students to look at the issue from the point of view of both activists and scholarly.

“My historical research tries to understand the way in which our lives are suffused with public policy and the way in which decisions made by a handful of people over in Capitol Hill or Sacramento impact our lives, oftentimes in deleterious ways,” Stein said.

The panelists later opened the floor to questions for students.