On one hand, I totally believe that convicted criminals should be obligated to work during their sentences to offset the tax dollars that are spent on them....


On the other...


Again today I was driving down a backcountry road on the way to work and saw the signs indicating that there was an inmate work crew ahead.

I have seen this so many times that I cannot count, and the scene was the same:

Two white guards with rifles overseeing approximately 10 black prisoners picking up trash off the roadway.

Once in a while it is two white guards with rifles overseeing 9 black prisoners and 1 white prisoner, but that is rare.

I understand that because of economic conditions and the 'culture of poverty' that a higher percentage of minorities are going to end up breaking the law and being incarcerated, but this is ridiculous.

Are there really something like 50 TIMES as many black prisoners as white prisoners, or is this just reflective of road vrews or reflective of the South?

I am not trying to comment on the types of crime that has been committed---petty or serious, but is this or is this not a sad commentary on the state of American society?

 

Maybe the blacks in your neighbourhood have been conditioned to want to wear chains and shackles.

​

 

The racism in our society especially in our criminal justice system is well documented and goes all the way up to the death penalty including wrongful convictions.

 

Certain areas of the country have higher levels of a given race/nationality. There are just as many people of each race that commit crimes depending on what area you live.

So it may be reflective of the south But I dont know that factually.

 

Simply put this is how it goes. There are more Caucasians in the US than other ethnic groups. However, one would think because Caucasians hold the biggest % in the US they would make up the biggest % in prisons, jails ect... However, this is not the case. More American Americans and other minorities are in prison, jail, ect than Caucasians thus when looking at the % based on ethnic groups African Americans make up a bigger % in jail than Caucasians and are over represented.

 

The only place I've ever seen prisoner work crews was when I lived in Georgia...I really don't remember them being mostly African-Americans...

 

[FONT=Courier New, Courier, mono] For the past two decades, the criminal justice system in the United States has been undergoing a tremendous expansion. It is now evident there are more than one million black men in jail and that one out of every four black males will go on prison in there lifetime. Knowing these statistics it put a burden on the black community because many families are left with single family home, the unemployment rate for black male go up, they can not vote and now they make jail seem like it is fun to go to.
Black men in Jail are having drastic effects upon the black community. The first and arguably most important effect is that it intensifies the problem of single parent households within the black community. When these men are sentenced to prison, they, many times, leave behind a wife/girlfriend and/or children. If they have already have had children, that child must spend multiple years of his/her early life without a primary father figure. In addition, that male's absence is even more prominently felt when the woman has to handle all of the financial responsibilities on her own. This poses even more problems since women are underpaid relative to men in the workforce, childcare costs must be considered, and many of these women do not have the necessary skills to obtain a job, which would pay a living wage, which could support her and the children. Black male incarceration has done much to ensure that black female-headed households are now equal with poverty.
Black male imprisonment also has much to do with rising black male unemployment rates. As these men re-enter the workforce they now likely have less skills than when they first entered prison. There are few, if any, programs, which train these men to effectively re-enter society. As jobs continue to move out further and further into the suburbs, these males, who are from the inner city, are left with few living wage employment options. The rates that convicts go back to jail are so high not because these men want to return to a life of crime but since few employment options are available, they tend to utilize their limited skills to get the money they need to survive. If more efforts do not make additional training available to these males that are realistically designed to help them obtain a living wage job, the rates that convicts go back to jail and black male unemployment will continue to increase.
Black male incarceration rates also have severely weakened the voting strength of black communities. As these men are released from prison not only are their already limited kills diminished but also they no longer have the right to vote in any elections. With over one million black males currently under the control of the criminal justice system, the applicable voting rolls of the black community are being demolished by this prison epidemic. Some might even argue that the plan of the power elite in constructing more prisons was to ensure blacks could not effectively participate in the political process. Unless we do more to arrest these increasing incarceration rates, black political power may be nothing more than a memory in the coming decades.
The final negative effect of increased black male incarceration is that being forced to spend time in prison has lost its negative stigma. One of the most beneficial reasons to impose incarceration as a punishment was to reinforce the idea that only wayward men have to go to prison before potentially turning their lives around. Unfortunately, being a former inmate now seems to be worn more like a badge of honor than a disgraceful occurrence. Black men are now proud to boast that they have been in prison and survived the experience. We cannot allow black children to grow up believing that prison is a rite of passage if we ever hope to arrest these ever-increasing incarceration rates.
For the black community in general, nearly one fourth of it’s young men are under the control of the criminal justice system at the time when their peers are beginning families, learning constructive life skills, and starting careers. The problem of crime is a complex one and will not be resolved overnight. Rather than viewing the solution as hopeless or too long -term, though, there are real and immediate actions, which can be taken to prevent the next generation of black males from further swelling the ranks of correctional populations.
[/FONT]

• The process of mass incarceration started in 1972.
• The CJS spends many billions of dollars every year caging millions of people.
• The cages are filled with people of color, most of them Black.
• The system does not prevent crime.
• The system does not rehabilitate people.
• We know of many other measures that would prevent crime.

From Robert Gangi, current Director of the Correction Association of New York: "Building more prisons to address crime is like building more graveyards to address a fatal disease.

Black people are more likely to be poor (caused by racism in the form of unequal opportunities in school and working life) and so the kids who grow up in these ghettos are more likely to be involved in crime

you cant blame them i can tell you that right now its not their fault its not only the racists in law enforcement and slave owners of back then that cause this domino effect
[FONT=Courier New, Courier, mono]
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Here are a few Stats I thought u might like Umpire....

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/One%20in%20100.pdf
Page 6 of this PDF file.....


Here is the entire list of how to look up the different statistics/ They are from the FBI/Department of Justice


Expanded homicide data tables

• Expanded Homicide Data Table 1—"Murder Victims by Race and Sex, 2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 2—"Murder Victims by Age, Sex, and Race, 2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 3—"Murder Offenders by Age, Sex, and Race, 2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 4—"Murder, by Victim/Offender Situations, 2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 5—"Murder, Age of Victim by Age of Offender, 2008 [Single victim/single offender]"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 6—"Murder, Race and Sex of Victim by Race and Sex of Offender, 2008 [Single victim/single offender]"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 7—"Murder, Types of Weapons Used, Percent Distribution by Region, 2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 8—"Murder Victims by Weapon, 2004–2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 9—"Murder Victims by Age, by Weapon, 2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 10—"Murder Circumstances by Relationship, 2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 11—"Murder Circumstances by Weapon, 2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 12—"Murder Circumstances, 2004–2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 13—"Murder Circumstances by Sex of Victim, 2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 14—"Justifiable Homicide by Weapon, Law Enforcement, 2004–2008"
• Expanded Homicide Data Table 15—" Justifiable Homicide by Weapon, Private Citizen, 2004–2008"
• Table 20 - "Murder, by State, Types of Weapons, 2008"

 

Umpire,
Would you feel better if there were black guards with guns watching mostly black prisoners?
Oh, I'm sorry, this must be the first time you realized that while black men are 15% of the population, but comprise a majority of inmates.

Thug life!

 

Which of the following is more appalling?

The racial mix of reported crimes perpetrators.
The racial mix of reported crime victims.
The originating reason for the majority of crimes.
The racial mix of the prison population.
The use of prison population for public works.

 

Obviously Racism is a major factor

in prison populations. Not only do a larger percentage of arrested blacks get convicted, but the sentences are frequently longer for blacks, and laws are targeted at blacks, i.e the original laws against marijuana were mde largely because it was believed that blacks were the majority of users; the tougher laws against crack cocaine than powdered cocaine were due to the fact that crack was more of a phenomenon among blacks. Some of these inequities have been corrected; many haven't.
Black crime against other blacks is poorly policed; black crime against whites results in quick police action and severe penalties. At one time a major riot broke out in a primarily black public housing project where a racially mixed couple who were our friends lived. The police station is next door. The police stood and watched, ready to move if it threatened to move into a white neighborhood, but not to do anything as long as it was just black on black. Incidentally, this is the same police station where somebody stole the station Christmas tree and drove off with it in a stolen squad car. If you want to check this, I believe you might find documentation under "McKees's Rocks Police", "Morado Dwellings", and "Stolen Christmas Tree" in the files of the Pittsburgh Press (now defunct) and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. You could possibly also contact FOR Sto-Rox, a local activist organization in the area.

 

a simple thought for the day....if you can't do the time don't do the crime :rose:

 

and this is a surprise to you?

 

Just a thought on this idea, was the O.J. verdict wrong because of racism, the fact that there was another person involved or because a highly respected detective refused to answer 1 simple question. The colour of a persons skin does not matter when a highly respected detective refuses to answer the question on the simple matter of did or did not the L.A.P.D. plant evidence to implicate their main, and only, suspect....

 

Where did I ever say that this was a surprise to me?

I fully understand that poverty has a tendency to promote criminal action AND that white (take white whichever way you choose) collar criminals are convicted less often and when convicted serve shorter terms for comparable crimes.

I just wondered what other people thought if they had seen the same types of things.

 

​

 

"Picking up trash?"

Shouldn't they be breaking rocks or something?

 

Now THERE are the REAL criminals-----alkys.....

 

Most of the guys I've see on the prisoner work crews here are white.