The film begins with an audio clip of President
Barack Obama stating that the US has 5 percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prisoners. There follow interviews with a number of activists, academics, political figures from both major U.S. political parties, and public figures, including
Angela Davis,
Bryan Stevenson,
Michelle Alexander,
Jelani Cobb,
Van Jones,
Newt Gingrich,
Cory Booker,
Marie Gottschalk, and
Henry Louis Gates Jr. The economic history of slavery and the post-
Civil War racist legislation and practices that replaced it are explored. Southern states criminalized minor offenses, arresting
freedmen and forcing them to work when they could not pay fines, and this approach was institutionalized as
convict leasing, which created an incentive to criminalize more behavior. DuVernay contends that
most black people were disenfranchised across the South at the turn of the 20th century, being excluded from the political system (including juries) at the same time that
lynching of black people by white mobs reached a peak. In addition,
Jim Crow legislation was passed by
Democrats to legalize
segregation and suppress minorities, forcing them into second-class status. Following the passage of
civil rights legislation in the 1960s that restored
civil rights, the film notes
the Republican Party's appeal to southern white conservatives, including the claim to be the party to fight the war on crime and war on drugs, which began to include mandatory, lengthy sentencing. A new wave of minority suppression began, reaching African Americans and others in the northern, mid-western, and western cities where many had migrated in earlier decades. After their presidential candidates lost to Republicans, Democratic politicians such as
Bill Clinton joined the war on drugs. As a result, from the early 1970s to the present, the rate of incarceration and the number of people in prisons has climbed dramatically in the United States, while at the same time
the rate of crime in the United States has continued to decline since the late 20th century. As late as the 2016 presidential election, the eventual winner
Donald Trump worked to generate fear of crime, claiming high rates in New York City, for instance, which was not true, according to the film, which states that crime was lower overall than it had been in decade.
Private prison contractors entered the market to satisfy demand as arrests and sentences increased, forming an independent group with its own economic incentives to criminalize minor activities and lengthen sentences in order to keep prisons full. Politicians and businessmen in rural areas encouraged construction of prisons to supply local jobs, and they also have had incentives to keep prisons full. The federal
Bureau of Prisons announced in 2016 its intention to stop contracting with private providers for prison services. According to the film, the over-incarceration of adults has severely damaged generations of black and minority families and their children. The film explores the role of the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), backed by corporations, that has provided Republican state- and federal-legislators with draft legislation to support the prison-industrial complex. It contends that only after some of the relationships were revealed did corporations like
Walmart and others receive criticism and drop out of the organization. The demonization of minority poor to serve political ends is examined, along with how this has contributed to fears of minorities by whites and to problems of
police brutality against minority communities. In the 21st century, the regularity of fatal police shootings of unarmed minorities in apparently minor confrontations has been demonstrated by videos taken by bystanders and by the increasing use of cameras in police cars or worn by officers. DuVernay ends the film with graphic videos of fatal shootings of black people by police, which
Manohla Dargis describes as, following the previous discussion, having the effect of "a piercing, keening cry". ==Production==