Throughout the semester, we have discussed many different issues currently prevalent in the United States, particularly those related to racial discrimination. A specific issue that I have developed an interest in and research into is that of institutionalized racism, particularly in the form of mass incarceration, and the types of effects that mass incarceration has on a community. In this article, I will briefly examine a series of issues surrounding the mass incarceration of Black and Latino men, the development of a racial undercaste due to rising incarceration rates, the involvement of women and of children and the roles they acquire in the era of mass incarceration, and the economic importance that the prison system has due to its development. Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, examines the development of institutionalized racism following the War on Drugs, and how it created what Alexander calls a "new Jim Crow era ”, or a racial caste in the United States. Alexander describes this subcaste as “a lower caste of individuals who are permanently excluded from mainstream society by law and custom” (Alexander, 32). Not only is this due to the massive incarceration rates among black men, but it extends to the effects these stigmatized criminals face beyond prison walls. By checking the well-known box on any application, it became legal for almost any institution or corporation to discriminate against an identified criminal. Alexander notes that “Once you are labeled a criminal, the old forms of discrimination – employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunities, denial of vouchers food and other public benefits, and exclusion. .... middle of paper ...... Jane Crow: Reproductive Rights in the Age of Mass Incarceration. " American Journal Of Public Health 103.1 (2013): 17-21. Academic Search Premier. Web. April 12, 2013. Rios, Victor M. Punished: Monitoring the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: New York University Press, 2011 .Simmons, Michaela “Voices from the Outside: Mass Incarceration and the Women Left Behind.” Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 6.4 (2011): 71-83. Academic Search Premier Web. Heather Ann. “Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History.” American History 97.3 (2010): 703-734. April 12, 2013. Vogel, Erin. “Roosevelt Students Lead Campaign Against Armed Police in Chicago Schools.” Red Eye [Chicago, IL] February 28, 2013. Print.