HIS In the wake of President Obama's election, the United States appears to be progressing toward a post-racial society. However, the mass incarceration rates of black males in America suggest that this is no different. Understanding mass incarceration as a modern racial caste system will reveal the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy in America. The history of social control in the United States dates back to the first racial caste systems: slavery and Jim Crow laws. Although these caste systems were outlawed by the 13th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act respectively, they were given new life and adapted to the needs of the time. In other words, racial castes in America have not ended but have simply been reshaped in the form of mass incarceration. Once again, the fact that more than half of black youth in many large American cities are under the control of the criminal justice system demonstrates the existence of a new racial caste system. The structure of the criminal justice system lands a disproportionate number of young Black males in prison, relegating them to a permanent second-class status and ensuring that their chances of freedom are slim. Even when minorities are released from prison, they are discriminated against and in most cases end up back in prison. The role of race in the criminal justice system is set up to discriminate against, arrest and imprison large numbers of minority men. From stop, search and arrest, to plea bargaining and sentencing, it is clear that at every stage of the criminal justice system, race plays a huge factor. Race and the structure of the criminal justice system also inhibit the integration of former offenders into society and instead of freedom, release...... middle of paper ......place of incarceration of mass: the local concentration of mass incarceration. Daedalus 139.3 (2010): 20+. Literary Resource Center. Network. May 15, 2014.Thompson, Heather Anne. Why mass incarceration matters: Rethinking crisis, decline, and transformation in postwar American history. The Journal of American History (2010) 97 (3): 703-734 doi:10.1093/jahist/97.3.703Pettit, Becky, and Bruce Western. “Incarceration and social inequality.” Daedalus 139.3 (2010): 8+. Literary Resource Center. Network. May 15, 2014.WESTERN and CHRISTOPHER MULLER. “ RECONSIDERING URBAN DISADVANTAGES: THE ROLE OF SYSTEMS, INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS; SPECIAL EDITORS: MARIO L. SMALL AND SCOTT W. ALLARD: SYSTEM: Mass Incarceration, Macrosociology, and the Poor. "The American Academy of Political and Social Science The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science",(2013)