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Over 1 million Black Males In Prison in the US and growing.....

Have you ever thought about the long term implications of what it means for a race of people to have over 1 million of their males locked away during their most productive years?  At this time lets not address whether they belong locked up or not. Let's just concentrate on the numbers and what they could mean to the future of Black people in America.

Based on the rate of incarceration, 32% of Black males will enter the state or federal prison system during their life time. And we wonder why are there so many Black single mother households. Some will tell you that Black people, especially Black males, are more prone to crime. Some how it must be in our genes. But they will never tell you that the prison industry is a $41 billion a year market, that creates jobs and business for construction , food , furniture, uniform and personal care product companies who are primarily white and who hire very few Black employees.

They won't tell you that many white communities beg to have prison facilities built near by because of the amount of jobs and supply contacts they generate.  But in order to keep all of this going, you must have a steady flow of customers....prison inmates. Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest publicly traded prison operators in the country, generates over $3.5 billion a year. Nationally, an average of  $60,000 a year in tax dollars is spent on incarcerating each inmate.

There are mothers and fathers who don't have sons, children who don't have fathers, Black women who won't have husbands, and young Black women who are increasingly finding it harder to find a mate, because so many, who might have potential, are locked up. Look at the hard numbers that tell the real story... http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm ...and tell us what you think.

"We Can Not Build Enough Prisons To Solve This Problem" says Presidential candidate John Edwards.

Black Men Must Reclaim Our Children!

Commentary: Black men must reclaim our children

• Story Highlights
• Martin: Nearly 70 percent of black kids are born to unmarried parents
• Martin: Black fathers need to stay on the scene, build relationships with kids
• Martin: We also should be telling black women not to lie down with any fool

By Roland S. Martin
CNN contributor

(CNN) -- As the mug shots of the alleged killers of NFL star Sean Taylor were shown on television, I kept wondering when we were going to see their parents step forward. I saw a couple of mothers, but their dads were missing in action.

Dads matter, and it's ridiculous for us to act as if all it takes is a loving mom.

Now, I don't know what it means not to have a father in your life. I'm not familiar with a mom being strung out on a crack binge. And when my parents were called to the school when there was a discipline problem, Mom and Dad didn't go off on the teacher or principal. In fact, I can still feel the pain of my elementary school principal's paddle being applied to my butt when I acted a fool. The principal could only pop me three times. Dad? He had no limit.

Bottom line: I can sit here today and celebrate them and enjoy a wonderful life because my parents were hell-bent on raising their children to do right by them, especially my dad.

We can spend all day talking about the ills afflicting urban America -- and there are plenty that are institutional -- but the decaying value of life in inner cities clearly can be traced to the exodus of fathers from the lives of so many young men. Excuses often are tossed about as to why black men leave their children (and their children's moms) to fend for themselves. But a lot of them are just sorry and refuse to accept the responsibility that comes with raising a child.

A lot of my colleagues will suggest it's too simplistic to assign such a high value to a dad being in the life of a child. But just take a visit to your local jail, juvenile hall or state prison. You likely will be confronted with a sea of black men -- strong, able-bodied, creative and restless -- who have spent or will spend years and years with a prison number identifying who they are.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, of all the black men in the U.S. between the ages of 25 and 29 in 2002, 10.4 percent were incarcerated. Hispanic and white men? Just 2.4 percent and 1.2 percent respectively. If a poll were done on how many grew up without fathers, I can guarantee you the numbers would be staggering.

The rampant poverty that exists has led many young blacks to a life of crime, choosing to sell drugs and involve themselves in gangs as opposed to focusing on education as a way out of the cellar of life.

But you see, when nearly 70 percent of black kids are born to unmarried parents, likely to a too-young mom, that puts tremendous pressure on grandmothers (and some grandfathers), sisters and brothers to take up the slack. But if the person who impregnated that woman were on the scene, not only helping to pay for the raising of the child but also serving as a strong influence, I just don't believe we would see such a chronic condition.

And the black men who have done their job are scared to death about what the tendency for black men to leave relationships means for their daughters.

The day before leaving for vacation, I got word that a good friend, Chicago attorney Reynaldo Glover, had died of pancreatic cancer.

He was 64.

In our last extensive conversation before he was diagnosed in July, Reynaldo pleaded with me to use my national media stage to be a voice to sound the alarm about what's happening to black men in America, because he wanted to know that his daughter would have a respectable man to marry one day. (I'm sure if she chose to marry someone who's not black, Reynaldo wouldn't mind, but he realized that as a nation, we mostly marry within our race.)

I promised Reynaldo that I would do all I can, because this has been an issue for me for many years. In fact, my mom gets angry because I'm always talking about my dad on television, radio and in my books. That's because when you see black men who have "made it," the accolades are plenty for their moms, and their dads are hardly mentioned. I just think it's critical to show daddy some love, too.

This is not an issue that black America can continue to sweep under the rug. I've heard countless folks talk about it, such as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, who noted that his dad left his family when he was a toddler and didn't see much of him growing up. Even in the Republican CNN-YouTube debate, GOP candidate Mitt Romney said fathers are part of the answer to addressing crime in inner cities.

We shouldn't shame our young girls who get pregnant, but surely it shouldn't be seen as a blue-ribbon day. Teenage black girls and black boys should be focused on picking colleges, not the names of babies. When a young girl wants a baby christened, her pastor should be asking to meet with the father as well, even if the two don't get along. We also should be telling black women not to lie down with any fool. A moment of pleasure could lead you to a lifetime of raising that child. Alone.

A friend of mine suggested more black men need to mentor young black men. I agree. But that's a bandage. If we get black men to handle their business in the first place, no one else would have to stand in the gap.

Unless black America owns up to this problem -- and fast -- we are going to see another generation of young black men who are angry with their lot in life. And the result will be more discipline problems in school, which will lead to folks dropping out, and that is nothing but a one-way ticket to jail.

Black men, it's time to man up. Enough with the sperm donors. We need real men to stand up and accept their responsibility. The state of our boys is on us. And no one else.

Roland S. Martin is a nationally award-winning journalist and CNN contributor. Martin is studying to receive his master's degree in Christian communications at Louisiana Baptist University, and he is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith." You can read more of his columns at www.rolandsmartin.com.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

Black Men and Black Women In Prison Keeps Growing

1 in 9 black men 1 in 15 Hispanic men and 1 in 100 white men in the United States is in prison recent Pew Report finds.

In my opinion, prisons are today's plantations and most inmates are the slaves. The judicial system and the corporations that profit from prisons are the new slave masters. After reading the article below, tell us what you think.

Prison spending ballooned from $11 billion to $49 billion in 2 decades

NEW YORK /AP- For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America’s rank as the world’s No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.

Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it’s more than any other nation.

The report, released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.

The steadily growing inmate population “is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime,” the report said.

Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said budget woes are pressuring many states to consider new, cost-saving corrections policies that might have been shunned in the recent past for fear of appearing soft on crime.

Kansas, Texas act to slow growth
“We’re seeing more and more states being creative because of tight budgets,” she said in an interview. “They want to be tough on crime. They want to be a law-and-order state. But they also want to save money, and they want to be effective.”

The report cited Kansas and Texas as states that have acted decisively to slow the growth of their inmate population. They are making greater use of community supervision for low-risk offenders and employing sanctions other than reimprisonment for offenders who commit technical violations of parole and probation rules.

“The new approach, born of bipartisan leadership, is allowing the two states to ensure they have enough prison beds for violent offenders while helping less dangerous lawbreakers become productive, taxpaying citizens,” the report said.

While many state governments have shown bipartisan interest in curbing prison growth, there also are persistent calls to proceed cautiously.

“We need to be smarter,” said David Muhlhausen, a criminal justice expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation. “We’re not incarcerating all the people who commit serious crimes. But we’re also probably incarcerating people who don’t need to be.”

Largest increase in Kentucky
According to the report, the inmate population increased last year in 36 states and the federal prison system.

The largest percentage increase — 12 percent — was in Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear highlighted the cost of corrections in his budget speech last month. He noted that the state’s crime rate had increased only about 3 percent in the past 30 years, while the state’s inmate population has increased by 600 percent.

The report was compiled by the Pew Center’s Public Safety Performance Project, which is working with 13 states on developing programs to divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety.

“Getting tough on criminals has gotten tough on taxpayers,” said the project’s director, Adam Gelb.

According to the report, the average annual cost per prisoner was $23,876, with Rhode Island spending the most ($44,860) and Louisiana the least ($13,009). It said California — which faces a $16 billion budget shortfall — spent $8.8 billion on corrections last year, while Texas, which has slightly more inmates, was a distant second with spending of $3.3 billion.

On average, states spend 6.8 percent of their general fund dollars on corrections, the report said. Oregon had the highest spending rate, at 10.9 percent; Alabama the lowest at 2.6 percent.

Four states — Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut — now spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.

“These sad facts reflect a very distorted set of national priorities,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, referring to the full report. “Perhaps, if we adequately invested in our children and in education, kids who now grow up to be criminals could become productive workers and taxpayers.”

Tough sentencing laws cited
The report said prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not reflect an increase in the nation’s overall population. Instead, it said, more people are behind bars mainly because of tough sentencing measures, such as “three-strikes” laws, that result in longer prison stays.

“For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling,” the report said. “While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.”

The racial disparity for women also is stark. One of every 355 white women aged 35 to 39 is behind bars, compared with one of every 100 black women in that age group.

The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails. That’s out of almost 230 million American adults.

The report said the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. It said the U.S. also is the leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other former Soviet bloc nations which round out the Top 10.

The U.S. also is among the world leaders in capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, its 53 executions in 2006 were exceeded only by China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan.

What Can Be Done To Help Black Inmates Who Are Returning To The Community?

It Appears The US Would Rather Build More Prisons Instead Of Jobs

2nd Chance Act Of 2007

4.5 Million African-Americans Can Not Vote

While many white Americans believe we have a fair, open society, the rest of the world doesn't see us the same way. This is an interesting article written in Croaita with the following headline:

US laws have removed the right to vote from 5.3 million citizens, even though four million of them regularly pay taxes.

Millions of people in the United States do not have the right to vote because they committed a crime in their past, which confirms that in America, the cradle of democracy, there is a lack of the same. Another scary fact is that amongst those millions, 85% of them are African-American.

Whilst hundreds of thousands of new voters appear in polls, changing the lethargy of the voting population, there are 5.3 million Americans that are simply missing from all of the lists, which denies them of their democratic right.

Click your back arrow to come back to our site. Here is the rest of this interesting story:http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=142384

Texas Department Of Criminal Justice

When you look at the increasing number of Black men in prison, against our small percentage of the total US population, it doesn't take a mental genious to see what's been going on for years. I have personally visited a number of prisons through out the country, including one of the most infamous, Angola in Louisiana. While I did meet some Black men who had committed imprisonable crimes, the vast majority are victims of a system that is hell bent on profiting from their ignorance, inadequate education, racists judges, juries, prosecutors and modern day genocide. Many turned to petty crimes because of their inability to find work. Some were arrested and sentenced just for being Black.

DNA frees Texas man imprisoned for 27 years

DALLAS (Reuters) - A man walked out of a Dallas court on Tuesday after DNA testing overturned his conviction over 27 years ago for the murder and rape of his girlfriend, local media reported. James Woodard, 55, spent more time in prison than any other wrongfully convicted inmate in U.S. history who was subsequently freed by DNA testing, local media reported. He was also the eighteenth person freed in Dallas County based on a post-conviction DNA analysis, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in righting grave miscarriages of justice. That is more than any other U.S. county, highlighting problems in the local justice system that include what critics have said is a history of racism and racial profiling. Woodward is a black male -- the typical profile of those wrongfully sent to prison in Dallas and elsewhere in the United States. "We've reached a tipping point on wrongful convictions in Texas. Nobody can seriously doubt that there's a problem," the Innocence project quoted Texas State Sen. Rodney Ellis as saying on Tuesday. Ellis said on Tuesday a summit would be held in the state capitol of Austin on May 8 to determine the causes of wrongful convictions in Texas and identify reforms that can prevent them. (Reporting by Ed Stoddard, editing by Todd Eastham)

60 Minutes Outlines One Man's Story Of Injustice

High numbers of nonviolent, lower-risk criminals have been swept up in the prison boom. Getting tough on them has gotten tough on taxpayers, without an adequate public safety benefit. A prison cell costs about $65,000 to build and $24,000 a year to operate. States spend nearly $50 billion a year on corrections, more than four times the amount from 20 years ago, and they are projected to spend an additional $25 billion over the next five years to accommodate more inmates.

Study: Black-on-Black Homicides (Crimes) Rising Among Teens

BOSTON (AP) — Black teenagers are killing each other in rising numbers but the troubling trend has been masked by a falling crime rate in the United States, according to a study released Monday by Northeastern University.

FBI crime statistics show overall decreases in murder and other violent crimes. But a report by criminal justice professors James Alan Fox and Marc Swatt uncovers other disturbing trends within that data.

Among their findings: an increase of more than 39 percent in the number of black males between the ages of 14 and 17 killed between 2000 and 2007, and an increase of 34 percent in the number of blacks that age group who committed homicide.

The increases for white male teens age 14-17 during that same period were nearly 17 percent and 3 percent, respectively. "We can't ignore the fact that hidden within the overall good news on crime, is very bad news for a segment of the population — young black males — and that needs our attention," Fox said. The report also noted guns were overwhelmingly the weapon of choice for young black offenders and are now used in nearly 85 percent of homicides they commit.

The Rev. Jeffrey Brown, executive director of the anti-crime Ten Point Coalition in Boston, said the spike in fatal shootings by and on black youths "bears out what I see on the streets every day."

"The victim and perpetrators of gun crimes are getting younger and younger," he added. Fox called for an infusion of government money to beef up police and restore mentor, sports, after-school and summer programs that withered as federal funds were redirected from cities to homeland security after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "We need to invest much more in the lives of these kids," Fox said. "I know there's lots of people who say times are tough and we don't have the money, but we either pay for these programs now or pray for the victims later because crime doesn't wait until the economy improves." Brown said that families and the community groups, particularly churches, also need to do more to help solve the problem.

Recent crimes statistics show a drop in overall crime and murder rates between 2006 and 2007, the most recent year that data were available. The numbers represent a vast improvement over those from the 1990s when the emergence of crack cocaine fueled an explosion in violence, the Northeastern report said. In 1993, about 225 out of every 100,000 blacks age 14-17 committed homicide compared with 81 out of 100,000 in 2007. But that's an increase from the year 2000, when the number was 66 out of every 100,000 blacks. "When you stop paying attention to it, when you stop working at it, the problems can and do rebound," Fox said. 

The growing homicide and high schoool drop out rates among African American boys show we are in a crisis. Our children are crying out for help. Please give thoughtful suggestions on what you think should be done.

US Senator Jim Webb Calls For Major Prison Reform Now!

Since America operates under a capitalistic system, we must look at who profits from this annual $50 billion prison industrial complex. We must keep in mind that while Blacks and Hispanics represnt the largest percentage of inmates, we are no where to be found as suppliers of all the goods and services purchased to operate this country's county, state, federal and private prisons. There are also very few of us who are employed as guards and prison employees.

When it comes to issues plaguing Black and low-income communities, a White senator from the South is the last person we'd expect to go out on a limb and sound the alarm. Senator Jim Webb from Virginia just did exactly that when he boldly called out the over-imprisonment of Black folks and the serious problems with our prison system. Most importantly, he's demanding big changes.¹

Now it's up to us to seize the moment and create the pressure necessary to achieve true reform.

The first step is publicly thanking Senator Webb. Our praise will show other politicians that when they take risks and step out on critical issues like prison reform, we will have their backs. It will also show that everyday people stand with Webb and are serious about this issue. Please join us, and ask your friends and family to do the same:

http://colorofchange.org/webb/?id=1806-639821

In recent years, politicians have lacked the courage to create meaningful prison reform. They've been paralyzed by the fear of being branded as "soft on crime." They've been held hostage by prison guard unions and industry lobbies. And the communities most affected--Black and low-income communities--have had a hard time getting a seat at the table and making our voices heard.

Our country has a clear problem. With just 5% of the world's population, America holds nearly 25% of the world's reported prison population. Our prison population has quadrupled since 1984, and most of the increase comes from people being imprisoned for drug offenses--mostly minor and nonviolent.²

Despite the fact that there is no statistical difference in drug use between different racial groups, harsh drug laws have had a devastating, disproportionate effect on Black communities. While only 12% of the U.S. population is African-American, Black people make up 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.³

It's surprising and encouraging that someone like Senator Webb is speaking out in this way. Webb is a White politician from Virginia, a Southern "law-and-order" state that has abolished parole and executed more people than any state besides Texas.⁴ He has nothing to gain politically from this--it's an act of true conviction.

By eloquently making the case for reform and calling for a National Criminal Justice Commission, Webb has created a major opening to address these issues. And it comes at a time when there are increasing signs the country is ready for reform. New York's governor and state legislature just struck a deal to reform the state's "Rockefeller drug laws"--some of the harshest laws in the country, and a great example of the failed status quo.⁵ A panel of federal judges has just told California it must reduce its prison population by a third to alleviate the torturous conditions stemming from overcrowding.⁶ And at the same time that more people are recognizing the deep injustices in our system, the economic crisis is forcing elected officials at all levels of government to realize they can't afford to keep directing so many taxpayer dollars toward law enforcement, jails, and prisons.⁷

We need to make the most of this moment. Take a minute to thank Senator Jim Webb for his courageous stand and support his call for a meaningful commission. And when you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same.

http://colorofchange.org/webb/?id=1806-639821

Thanks and Peace,

-- James, Gabriel, Clarissa, William, Dani and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
   April 9th, 2009

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References:

1. "Senator Jim Webb's Floor Speech to Introduce 'The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009'," 3-26-2009
http://tinyurl.com/chxaup

2. "Why we must fix our prisons," Parade, 3-29-2009
http://www.parade.com/news/2009/03/why-we-must-fix-our-prisons.html

3. See reference 2

4. "Webb Sets His Sights On Prison Reform," Washington Post, 12-29-2008
http://tinyurl.com/8mgyf2

5. "More on Albany's Rockefeller Drug Law Reform," Village Voice, 3-27-2009
http://tinyurl.com/da2xlw

6. "Court Orders California to Cut Prison Population," New York Times, 2-9-2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/us/10prison.html

7. "A Different Drug Czar Signals Shift Away From Emphasis On Punishment," Hartford Courant, 3-22-2009
http://tinyurl.com/c36ubb