The United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world, and a disproportionate number of those prisoners are Black. What are the origins of the U.S. criminal justice system and how did racism shape it? From the creation of the first penitentiaries in the 1800s, to the "tough-on-crime" prosecutors of the 1990s, how America created a culture of mass incarceration.

If you would like to read more on the topic, here's a list:

• The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
• Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-first Century by Monique Morris
• Charged: Overzealous Prosecutors, the Quest for Mercy, and the Fight to Transform Criminal Justice in America by Emily Bazelon
• Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
• Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John Pfaff

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