America, the land of the free, or so we may think. The Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution deems everyone equal, abolishes slavery, and states that every American has the right to vote and live with liberty and justice. The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. This shocking statistic has driven the researchers, reformers, and experts of the documentary, 13th, to uncover the loopholes of the Thirteenth Amendment. We are not living with freedom in the United States, in fact we are being locked in cages to waste away.

Imagine being confined to your home with your family for an entire weekend without leaving. Some of us may cringe at the thought of being “locked away” with the same people for days, despite how much we love them. Some may say "they would go crazy”. Unfortunately, the United States correctional program causes severe mental health defects due to being locked away behind bars. It does the opposite of rehabilitate our fellow Americans. The increase of incarceration began soon after slavery was abolished. The Thirteenth Amendment states that everyone has equal rights; criminals as an exception. Slavery has evolved from the purchasing and selling of a human being, to convict leasing (the use of convicted felons for free work), to the war on drugs which lead to mass incarceration. Once a convicted felon, the right to vote is no longer allowed. Employment is extremely hard to come by since most jobs ask “have you ever been convicted of a crime,” or require a background check. Food stamps are denied for the hungry if they are an offender. The United States shuns people we have convicted to “rehabilitate”, and leaves them high and dry to suffer. Our criminals do not have equal rights and are denied any access to help they need to integrate back into society successfully. 

The most shocking display the documentary describes is the support of our political leaders for the post-slavery movements. We saw it most recently with the presidential campaign of President Trump, where he made racial slurs and comments about the Mexican population and immigrants of our country. He fails to forget our ancestors were all immigrants and came here illegally and unwanted. Bill Clinton created the 1994 crime bill which Hillary did support at the time, to incarcerate more people, later admitting it was wrongfully decided. Corporations such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) support strict crime laws and can influence politicians to propose these bills. Circumstances like these have caused the incarceration rates of 1972 at 300,000 to increase to over 2.3 million today. The overpopulation of our prisons and lack of rehabilitation has caused our economy to suffer, as well as the quality of life the American people live, felon or not. Figuring out how to remedy the mass incarceration epidemic is difficult. Community Corrections, or monitoring offenders with a GPS or bracelet is a popular idea, but would still allow private companies to profit off of the number of wearers. Educating our community on the wrongful mass incarceration and shocking them into seeing how bias our country still is can be a start to a prison reform. Police brutality has been seen in many modern court cases, with people of color being tortured and/or killed for no reason but bias. Project Implicit by Harvard University offers an examination of unconscious biases one may have on race, gender, and many other categories. If police begin to take these tests in the training academy, superiors can recognize and evaluate if these biases will stand in the way of equal treatment law enforcement. 

Figuring out how to remedy the mass incarceration epidemic is difficult. Community Corrections, monitoring offenders with a GPS or bracelet, is a popular idea but would continue to allow private companies to profit off of the number of users. Educating our community on the wrongful mass incarceration and shocking them into seeing how bias our country still is can be a start to a prison reform. Police brutality has been seen in court cases throughout history, with people of color being tortured and/or killed for no reason but bias. Project Implicit by Harvard University offers an examination of unconscious biases one may have on race, gender, and many other categories. If police begin to take these tests in the training academy, superiors can recognize and evaluate if these biases will stand in the way of equal treatment law enforcement. 13th offers an enlightening view on the biases our country still experiences today and can give millennials a different perspective on the law. We are the future of the United States and should stand up for equality and justice for all Americans. 

Thank you for reading! Please watch 13th on Netflix, and take an Implicit Bias Examination through Harvard University at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html