Want to watch something that is absolutely infuriating?
Watch Lockup on late night MSNBC, particularly when they are doing episodes of Juveniles and Jails.
I know the show can display a bias, they have editorial control and the inmates are mostly telling just their side of the story, but, especially the episode I saw last night, they focused on 2 teenagers, both of which have records, and both being busted for pot possession, which shouldn't be a crime at all. Oh, and both are black, of course.
To be honest, whether they are guilty of the crime or not isn't the point, the fact is that it shouldn't be a crime at all. The fucking war on drugs is a failure, and Lockup, as a show, illustrates the inequality inherent in the system when it comes to the enforcement of such laws.
Yes, you see both white and black people who have committed crimes, hell one episode interviewed a white guy who was initially thrown in prison for drug possession, but to survive, after being in over 3 years, he had to get "made" with the prison gang he needed to join for protection, so he murdered another inmate. Now he's in for 25+ years. But there's still a huge imbalance and tilt towards blacks being incarcerated at much higher rates.
Don't even get me started on the jails, where they house people not convicted of crimes yet, they might as well be mental hospitals, with the amount of mentally ill people that end up there, its atrocious. This is how we treat some of the most vulnerable in our society? Are you fucking kidding me?
Granted, there are quite a few people in prison who shouldn't ever get out, some true psychopaths, narcissists, sociopaths, violent assholes, etc. But there are far too many who don't pose a danger to anyone, and yet they are stuck due to combinations of racism, mandatory minimums and the fucking war on drugs. Its a travesty, and isn't justice.
I'll end with a couple of informative(and entertaining) Youtube videos.