Alexander details the structure of the US criminal justice system, emphasizing drug crimes because those are most responsible for the massive increase in the number of Americans affixed with the prison label. She dispels two major myths about the War on Drugs, both of which proliferated largely due to cop shows like Law and Order. The first is that the War on Drugs predominantly targets big drug “kingpins” as opposed to low-level dealers. On the contrary, in 2005 four out of five drug arrests weren’t for dealing at all; they were for simple possession. The second myth is that the War on Drugs is focused on removing the most dangerous drugs off the streets, like heroin and cocaine. Marijuana possession, however, was responsible for almost 80% of the increase in drug arrests during the 1990s.

The “point of entry” (77) into the system of mass incarceration is the police, and therefore Alexander begins her discussion there. During the drug war, she writes, the Supreme Court has eviscerated many of the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unlawful searches and seizures. The judicial assault against the Fourth Amendment has been so intense that Thurgood Marshall once reminded his fellow justices that the US Constitution does not include a “drug exception” (78).