AP English Language & Composition

Questions Chapter 2 (“The Lockdown”) ofThe New Jim Crow

1. What are some of the claims that Alexander makes in this chapter?

2. Choose one of the claims you mentioned in answer to question number 1 and state why you were or were not persuaded of its validity.

3. What does Alexander suggest about the validity of perceptions of America’s criminal justice system that are derived from watching TV dramas like “Law and Order?” (59)

4. Why is it that “full-blown trials of guilt or innocence rarely occur?” (59)

5. What is the single biggest reason for the dramatic increases in the incarceration of people of color? (60)

6. Find the phrase that Alexander uses to transition from her enumeration of data points to her interpretation of the same in the first full paragraph on p. 60.

7. What does the first sentence in the 2nd full paragraph on p. 60 suggest about that paragraph’s purpose?

8. Why do you suppose Alexander includes the calculation she does in the final sentence on p. 60?

9. What is the function of the 1st full paragraph on p. 61?

10. According to Alexander, how has the judicial branch of the government aided the executive branch’s efforts to wage its ‘War on Drugs’? (61-2)

11. What is the function of the 1st sentence on the top of p. 63?

12. What do you think Alexander means when she talks about a “slide down a very slippery slope” at the top of page 64?

13. Look up how the expression “Just Say No” became associated with the War on Drugs and comment on Alexander’s purpose for using it here (p. 64).

14. What, in your opinion, is the best refutation Alexander offers of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostick? (65-6)

15. What is the purpose of the second sentence in the 1st full paragraph on p. 68?

16. What claim does Alexander’s reference to the ruling made by the Ohio Supreme Court (p. 68) help support?

17. T or F. You can be arrested and jailed for a minor traffic violation even if the penalty for that violation is only a fine. (68-9)

18. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: summarize the content of the 2nd full paragraph on p. 69 in one sentence and, as much as possible, using your own words.

19. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: in your own words, explain what Alexander suggests are the reasons why people who are harassed by the police don’t complain about it afterwards. (69-70)

20. Comment on the strength of the contention (claim) Alexander makes in the last two sentences of the first full paragraph on p. 70 – as well as in the 1st sentence of the following paragraph.

21. In your own words – and in no more than one sentence – state what Alexander suggests is problematic about drug-courier profiles. (71)

22. How did the federal government persuade state and local governments to step up efforts to arrest and punish people convicted of drug-related crimes? (72-3)

23. How does Alexander support her contention that the War on Drugs has been an apt title for the program to combat drug use? (starting on p. 74)

24. What is important to know about Scott Bryant, mentioned in the 2nd full paragraph on p. 76, in order for what happened to him to meaningfully support Alexander’s overall rhetorical objective?

25. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: In your own words, state what the district attorney suggested was the reason the police officer’s gun was fired at Scott Bryant. (2nd full paragraph on p. 76)

26. According to Alexander, what is the fundamental misunderstanding that the average citizen has about increases in drug arrests? (77)

27. Why might local law enforcement agencies been more focused on making arrests for drug-law violations than for infractions of other laws? (77-9)

28. What is it about asset-forfeiture laws that put citizens penalized by them in such an unwinnable situation? (79 - 83)

29. What is it about asset-forfeiture laws that give the lie to government pronouncements that the War on Drugs is designed to catch drug “kingpins”? (79)

30. How does what Alexander suggests is the primary reason that Congress passed the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act support her overall rhetorical objective? (81)

31. What do you expect will follow the first full SENTENCE on p. 82?

32. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: Restate the information conveyed in the last complete paragraph on p. 82.

33. In your own words, what concession to the motives of police officers does Alexander offer in the last full paragraph on p. 83?

34. In your own words, why don’t elected officials spend more on providing poor people accused of crimes with public defenders? (85)

35. What is Alexander’s focus in the section of this chapter titled “Legal Misrepresentation?”

36. What support does Alexander offer for her claim that prosecutors are the ones with the most power to determine an accused person’s punishment? (87

37. What, if any, effect does Alexander’s use of the words “snitch” (in the line preceding the first full paragraph on p. 88) and “ratting out” (in the next paragraph) have on your opinion of her?

38. What is Alexander’s complaint(s) about the legal system’s reliance on informants? (88)

39. PARAPHRASE PRACTICE: Restate the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s reason to support mandatory minimum sentences. (last full paragraph on p. 88)

40. What rhetorical purpose is served by the first two complete sentences on p. 89?

41. What rhetorical purpose is served by the first full paragraph on p. 89?

42. What is Alexander’s point in her comments about judicial discretion on pp. 89-90?

43. In your own words, explain the faults Alexander finds with mandatory minimum sentences in the first full paragraph on. p. 90.

44. What type of evidence does Alexander use on p. 91 to support the claim she makes at the beginning of the first full paragraph on p. 91?

45. What type of appeal does Alexander make in her citation of various judges’ opinions about mandatory sentencing requirements on p. 92-3. Briefly comment on the effectiveness of this strategy.

46. In your own words, summarize Alexander’s argument, on p. 94, that the prison label is more important to what she regards as the “system of control” than the amount of time served. In other words, why doesn’t she think that doing away with mandatory sentencing requirements will solve the problem of people being victimized by the criminal justice system?

47. According to Alexander, why is it that approximately 30% of released prisoners find themselves back in prison within 6 months? (94)