Prison Population on the Rise
 

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site....ines/prison425

I found this article very interesting.. the report stated "In 2004, 61 percent of prison and jail inmates were of racial or ethnic minorities, the government said. An estimated 12.6 percent of all black men in their late 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.7 percent of white men in that age group"

What are some real solutions to this problem?

Re: Prison Population on the Rise
 

open up a can of whoop azz on some of these boys when they are in the age range of 5-15 and we *might* be able to reduce some of the number of them that even *get* into court.

sc

When I saw the video of that 5 year old..getting handcuffs slapped on her... I totally understand WHY 5 is NOT too young to start:(

According to my uncle, who is a 7th Day Adventist--I don't know if that's a correlation or not, he says one needs to start at "walking age" with the "can of whoop ass" to teach right from wrong...

I just think that what gets put on Television is the low down "ghetto-fabulous" chic that "excites" and "tantilizes" the ratings--kinna like "Jerry Springer" does... Local news shows are no longer concerned about what is actually "newsworthy" but what looks good for ratings that "might be true" for the second... Because in there, you always have the "court of law", then you have the "court of public opinion"--which is only roughly 10-20 seconds at best of an attention span...

I just sat down at a YP meeting in my city about our website that we will launch and was floored by the fact that the web designer said that you only have 7-8 seconds to grab the attention of the viewer before they move past your site... But, since I am not in that field, I would have not known that bit of info... However, what does that say about the legitimacy of true information and mass media?

Propaganda to keep down the Brothaman...

Re: Prison Population on the Rise
 

Sorry, to answer your question:

What does the 14th Amendment to US constitution say???

Aside from that there are "reasons" to make sure Black Men are incarcerated...

And yeah, these men are bad men, true criminals that have criminal tendancies from birth, maybe--'cuz the crack babies have grown up... And God only knows what that did to these chile's brain development with the Essence article of schizophrenia on the rise in young adult Black males...

I guess there are hardly any solutions to this kind of problem except mass exterminations according to some supremacy groups...

I don't agree with that, but it may be their fodder to justify it...

Mass Exterminations:eek: I Pray to God not, we the collective Community need to get involved in these young peoples lives and provide alternative programs for them boot camp, ropes, rites of passage etc. It's easy to sit back and want simplistic solutions, however it takes more effort to become involved, yes one should reach children when they are young- I was appalled by the handcuffing of that five year old child. As an educator I have at least four identified and one that just got identified special needs children in my room, believe me they try my patience but I offer Alternatives and one on one intervention at times to help them! our children deserve no less! Also, research has shown that the majority of African Americans in the penal system had some difficulty with education some were not identified as having a learning disability and thus the educational system failed to help them! ( Please note my signature at the bottom of this post!)

Sad article. Obviously there are no "simple solutions" to a problem this complex, but we have to re-commit to making sure kids have strong, positive foundations earlier in their lives. Be it strong family units, church involvement, youth sports/enrichment programs, or simply an individual who "gives a damn" about a kid, we've got to put in work.

Our chapter's Project Alpha and another partnership we have with the Boy Scouts, generally are looking at working with boys at younger ages, because they seem to get this "hardcore" mentality much sooner than earlier generations.


....Each one reach one.

TonyB06,

I think that there have been a very slow "recovery period" of strong Black families over the last 5-8 years (or so)...

More "educated Black men" are marrying "educated Black women" that foster a "middle to upper middle class" that support our children into the future...

In my opinion, I see that the "extended family" concept in these Black families are taking root when we have wayward family members that fail our children--apparently, the good, highly educated members are stepping in--albeit a small number of those families actually doing so...

However, I also see the stats worsening before it gets better--but those will be perceived, than actual stats... Maybe down-right miscalculated due to some systemic inherent discrimination that is on-going.

But it only takes a mustard seed to have enough faith things will change...

I say ship the entire jail population to North Korea and let them go ape shit.

-Rudey
--Who's with me??

this is a longgggggg process
 

i think that the exisiting rehabilitation 'programs' in the prisons need to be better supported and funded. better counseling, stronger g.e.d. classes and organizations committed to providing jobs after prison should be in place so that those inmates who committ to improving their lives arent left out in the cold simply to return to 'what they know'.

of course these are lofty goals but hope springs eternal.

BTW-TONY, I CLEANED MY INBOX :)

I have just had it - - - AA need to take resobsibility for their own community. While we are not normally the big man in charge, we sell drugs to our own folk - many don't want to support kids that we father - mother's won't stop having babies they can't take care of - many of us don't have a value system and the list goes on and on.

I just don't know what to say or do. My brother has six daughters and five babies mothers. However, I can assure you these girls have the best the best - I pay for day care, dance, basketball and a host of other things just tokeep them involved and motivated. I don't know how to change wrongs to rights for everyone but for me, knowing my Brother is not the person he should be, I do all I can for these six girl to ensure the cycle does not continue. And when my Brother has a male child, which I'm sure he will at some point, I will do the same thing. Perhaps we should all try to foster one child at a time to break the cycle for men and AA as a whole.

Education and development of youth are the key variables. Why are people not taking responsibilty for themselves? No one has taken the time to teach them of it! In order to reduce our prison systems we must invest our monies in young development. Education is the only thing that stops ignorant behavior. Here is a theory. If we taught our children about sex by asking them to ask this question before they have sex....."Can I deal with this person the rest of my life?" Let them know that any person you sleep with is a potential mother or father of your child meaning that you are tied to that person for the rest of your life. Are they truly worthy to be that person.......if all of us took a minute to ask that question many of us would say NO! But we do not think like that we think of the short term gradification of action. Let us teach our children about long term satisfaction and how it outlast short term always.

Dear Prof. I applaud your efforts with helping your brother for HIS responsibility, which he is avoiding for whatever reason...

I think you are making some inroads to staving off the situation at least in your immediate family... That is the best each of us educated AA can do given the circumstances...

It sounds like your brother is playing dangerously with his life... The next time he impregnants a woman stupid enough to want to have his child, he might become HIV+ by that time... Then all his little girls as well as his new child will have no father--which may or may not be that much different as it is now...

How long are you going to back him up to do wrong and why is that your responsibility? When is he going to take charge of his own life and make postive choices for himself other than a pregnancy test or an AIDS test? Just asking? I really want to know, because I have a lunatic fringe brother also who is beginning to neglect his ONE son because he says he no longer loves his son's mother he's married to, currently... Moreover, his fodder he uses to justify why he treats his son's mother chitty is because she is caucasian and his son is biracial...

Dear Sphinxpoet,

I think it is more to it than just dealing with a person for the rest of one's life...

I think we as AA have too many obstacles in our way that push us down further--even if they are self-inflicted or friendly fire...

The main obstacle of having or fathering way too many children without responsibility is not just the money from the state or locality--because those sources are drying up, but it is the chance of sexually transmitted infections, specifically HIV, that worsens the whole game--makes it an end-game...

Yes, education is VERY, VERY, VERY important--don't get me wrong on that... But learning is a moot point for kids who only want to know what size rims they need for their next Escalade they are willing to jack...

Crime will worsen with the way things are going now... And we will have returning troops who are not getting promised VA benefits...

Like I said, things are going to get worse before they get better... 3.5 more years to go from the Great Tribulation...

My Brother is a bad seed but I love him. He did not take advantage of opportunities provided by my parents. My family is very middle class and the seed had the clothes, associations, love and supports just like other middle class families. He just took a wrong and different path. He is a member of the rap generation and I really attribute many of his behaviors with that thug culture.

While my brother has several kids, he supports them, spends time with them and is actually a caring parent. He lacks in the area of providing example by education and culture. I don't have time to think of the best way of describing things better but I want the girls to be in the clubs like jack and jill, the deb balls, top ladies and take dance and so forth. He does not understand the importance of shaping a child and presenting positive relations to children. He hated this type of thing which he calls middle class supreamacy while I am very supportive. Anyway, I give the girls culture and exposure to things that I value. I don't have kids and so my brother's kids, in particular two of them, are like mine.

Again, while my brother is not what he should be, he is a caring loving and supportive parent.

I bet if you sterilized career felons, that might help.

-Rudey

Hang in with your brother, Professor. Hopefully, eventually he'll see your model and follow.

Have you asked him if that makes him think he's a man? Maybe he is trying to "fit in" to the definition of what is a man???

Really what is a MAN of African descent in America? Given our history, given our trials and tribulations, etc.

My brother is a caring, loving and supportive father to his ONE son, too...

But his world has been turned upside down at his vice principal job recently due to some ('scuse my language) dumbassed fucktard who he supervised and choose to only verbally reprimand... You can PM me for more details, but to make a long story short, he got all the African American parents at his school pissed off with him because he allowed this dumbassed fucktard infect the environment...

All the while, he lives in SoCal--housing ain't cheap and his 1600 sq. foot shotgun shack runs $500K, forget the taxes, he has a new baby, his baby's mama wants more outta him and homie is in school for an advance degree...

I think your brother may have issues with the bourgeoisie [sp?] because he found it segregative and did not see a "benefit from it directly"... He also saw it as "selling out"--or acting white... So to fit in what he identifies with, he has to be a playa, pimp, mackidocious, with baby's mamas dramas and thug life fo' real...

What will happen when he gets arrested for being in the wrong place and the wrong time?

Better yet, it sounds like it is BETTER to have males of African descent in America actively pursuing a thug life--'cuz look at the money that gets made off of them? That you have a permenently developing, self-perpetuating underclass--justifiable because when one is impoverished, their brains do not develop properly--so what kinds of jobs could they do??? And the less available resources you give them, the more "extinct" they can become... I just read an article in the newspaper from "Newshouse" that Black men are droppin' off like flies--either when they are younger or when they reach early 50's---even 40's...

Things that make you go hmmmm?

Professor, you wrote:
"While my brother has several kids, he supports them, spends time with them and is actually a caring parent. He lacks in the area of providing example by education and culture. I don't have time to think of the best way of describing things better but I want the girls to be in the clubs like jack and jill, the deb balls, top ladies and take dance and so forth. He does not understand the importance of shaping a child and presenting positive relations to children. He hated this type of thing which he calls middle class supreamacy while I am very supportive. Anyway, I give the girls culture and exposure to things that I value."

I applaud you for your efforts! However, it seems that you and your brother have a difference of opinion as to what children need growing up. You indicated that he supports them and spends time with them. I think that that's pretty much all kinds really need at base so I guess that I would not worry so much if they are not in Jack and Jill and Deb balls b/c truly, only about 5% of the AA population has even heard of such... and many of us come from middle class environments. I do understand why he may think that it is middle class supremacy and can't say that I disagree so much. For instance, do you know that his kids *probably* could not be in Jack and Jill, even if he agreed? They don't generally take kids whose fathers have children all over town. To me, that *is* middle class supremacy. My friend was in Jack and Jill and, it may be different in his town, but with their chapter, both parents had to have college degrees and be professionals in the community. You couldn't just come from a good working class family...that was not good enough. Therefore, there may some merit to his feeling that organizations such as those are just middle class supremacy. The same with being a deb. I understand your concern but I just don't think that having them rub shoulders with the upper crust is what is optimal for them. Your brother may be concerned that his girls would not fit in well in the hooty tooty society events and may even be mocked by the other children. How about good old community programs? Do you think that he would be more amenable to programs/orgs that everyone (regardless of financial stature) may participate in like the girl scouts? How about encouraging them to learn to play a musical instrument in school? Or a good program at the Y or the community center? You mentioned him turning down dance classes. Do you think that he would be more amenable to something on the cultural side like African dance classes? I can't think of many other things but girl scouts, learning to play an instrument and African dance classes are all things that can help the girls develop education and culture outside of their "backyards" but may not be perceived as middle class supremacy by your brother.

Hang in there! The girls will remember and are being greatly shaped by your efforts!

This topic grabbed my attention because my first cousin is in jail.
He was incarerated at age 18 and will not be out until 25.
I pray everyday in his behalf because he grew up in a rough situation.

A lot of these inmates were in rough situation in which they had to rely on "Social Darwinism" (which is the belief of Survial of the Fittest).

We must teach our future about the real world before it's too late.