My StumbleUpon Page
Crime, Punishment and Race: The Beat Goes On
As we stated previously we are overjoyed about the news of the release of Genarlow Wilson. We see the nightmare ending for the entire Wilson family as well as Wilson himself. We wish them all better days in the future. We are grateful for them. We appreciate the diligence of some civil rights leaders and attorneys who worked for Wilson’s release after spending more than 2 years in prison for what should have always been classified under Georgia law as a misdemeanor.
However, as we write this article, in this moment, we know there are many thousands of families having the same or similar reality as they battle the justice system to secure the release of their youthful loved one who have been wrongfully imprisoned. Whether you are black, white, young, old, male, female, rich or poor everyone is affected by our society’s determination to be vindictive for even minor breaches of the law, any law or rule. Some portions of the population are impinged upon more than others.
During the past weekend a fund raiser event was held in Atlanta sponsored by the Baisden Foundation in conjunction with the National Bar Association. As you may know the Baisden Foundation is the result of the efforts made by radio personality and tv talk show host Michael Baisden who helped to organize the successful March on Jena Louisiana in support of the Jena 6.
It has been reported the crime rate peaked more than 10 years ago in the United States. It’s been declining since, but as the crime statistics reflected a decrease the statistics for incarceration has steadily increased in significant direct proportion to our fears about a very real social problem . Our prison system here has become an unweldy behemoth with no sign of diminishing in size or activity.
A report from 2005 by the International Centre for Prison Studies in London tell us the United States houses 25 percent of the whole world’s inmates. The rate for incarceration is 714 per 100,000 residents. That’s about 40 percent greater than the rate for nations such as Belarus, Bermuda and Russia.
The American incarceration rate is 6.2 time more than Canada, 7.8 times more than France and 12.3 times more than Japan. In fact, and this may be old news to some, the correction sector employs more Americans than the combined workforce of three of the largest corporate employers in the nation. More than GM, Ford and Wal-Mart!
We’re spending more every year on law enforcement and corrections throughout all positions of government–municipal, county, state, and federal. We’re currently spending 4 times what was spent 25 years ago.. 200 BILLION DOLLARS annually.
But you say “We’re a free country”. Since the ascension of George Walker Bush to the position of leader of the free world, no one has ever seen an allegedly free nation with so many of its citizens being denied their basic rights. It has been reported that in June of 2006, 5 years into Bush’s presidency, our 5000 jails held 2.25 million people. One third of the prison population in state prisons have been convicted violent crimes such as homicide, rape, robbery and such. The other two-thirds have mainly been convicted of non-violent crimes such as property and drug offenses. The majority of these inmates come from the most disadvantaged segments of our society. Generally they are uneducated having less than 11 years of formal schooling. They are usually black or other minorities.
To say the population numbers are out of proportion is to make a gross understatement. Blacks are 13 percent of the national population. The ratio of black to white in the prisons is 8 to 1. Race is indeed a major component and one of several contributing factors for our society’s punitive turn about.
Recently
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.