Partly in line with the very long discussions over the situation in Ferguson, which has spawned a nationwide examination of how the criminal-justice system treats minorities in general...
I've maintained many times in posts here that the way CJ is operated in this country is creating a criminal underclass of mostly-minority folks who will have a first "brush" with the law early on, and then, to all intents, their lives are ruined.
They are unable to get decent jobs, unable to go to college, (even if their typically-substandard education would allow that), and generally relegated to a subsistence job if they decide to stay straight, or to go into crime full-time.
We deal with these people all the time... Repeat offenders who get arrested for petty thefts from campus and go to jail for a few months and then come back and do it again. We have guys we've arrested 5-6 times for stealing bicycles, computers, cell-phones... Over a period of years.
Today, on NPR's To The Best Of Our Knowledge, they interviewed the author of this book:
http://ift.tt/1mER7Ff
Which shed even more light on this rather abysmal situation. She lived in these communities for some years gathering information for this book. Saw young men get arrested and prosecuted for minor offenses... Who were essentially never able to get out from under the burdens of those incidents.
We have a whole segment of the young, black, male population who is almost perpetually "wanted", often for very minor offenses or failure to pay "fines and costs" for these offenses, and who are thus unable to get jobs, unable to use facilities like emergency rooms... Who effectively become yet another segment of the "underclass".
As the author said, it seems that since the 70s or thereabouts, society in general has become rather vindictive about "punishment" for criminals, and especially minority criminals.
She points out that at the very same time she saw young men being sent to prison for relatively minor offenses, she was going to school where she regularly saw privileged young white students doing the very same things... Drugs, DWI offenses, fights, sexual offenses...And who were getting a trip to the "judicial administrator" as a result.
Prosecutions rare, jail time unheard-of.
This is not a good situation, my friends, and I say that from my standpoint as a member of the criminal-justice establishment.
Despite the Right's complaints of "coddling criminals" and demanding retribution and "responsibility"..... We pay for these people one way or another.
If not for social programs and job opportunities and better education.. Then by more prisons, more incarcerated citizens, more ruined lives, and more crime.
People will get along. If they cannot get along honestly, they will get along as they can.
I've maintained many times in posts here that the way CJ is operated in this country is creating a criminal underclass of mostly-minority folks who will have a first "brush" with the law early on, and then, to all intents, their lives are ruined.
They are unable to get decent jobs, unable to go to college, (even if their typically-substandard education would allow that), and generally relegated to a subsistence job if they decide to stay straight, or to go into crime full-time.
We deal with these people all the time... Repeat offenders who get arrested for petty thefts from campus and go to jail for a few months and then come back and do it again. We have guys we've arrested 5-6 times for stealing bicycles, computers, cell-phones... Over a period of years.
Today, on NPR's To The Best Of Our Knowledge, they interviewed the author of this book:
http://ift.tt/1mER7Ff
Which shed even more light on this rather abysmal situation. She lived in these communities for some years gathering information for this book. Saw young men get arrested and prosecuted for minor offenses... Who were essentially never able to get out from under the burdens of those incidents.
We have a whole segment of the young, black, male population who is almost perpetually "wanted", often for very minor offenses or failure to pay "fines and costs" for these offenses, and who are thus unable to get jobs, unable to use facilities like emergency rooms... Who effectively become yet another segment of the "underclass".
As the author said, it seems that since the 70s or thereabouts, society in general has become rather vindictive about "punishment" for criminals, and especially minority criminals.
She points out that at the very same time she saw young men being sent to prison for relatively minor offenses, she was going to school where she regularly saw privileged young white students doing the very same things... Drugs, DWI offenses, fights, sexual offenses...And who were getting a trip to the "judicial administrator" as a result.
Prosecutions rare, jail time unheard-of.
This is not a good situation, my friends, and I say that from my standpoint as a member of the criminal-justice establishment.
Despite the Right's complaints of "coddling criminals" and demanding retribution and "responsibility"..... We pay for these people one way or another.
If not for social programs and job opportunities and better education.. Then by more prisons, more incarcerated citizens, more ruined lives, and more crime.
People will get along. If they cannot get along honestly, they will get along as they can.
via JREF Forum http://ift.tt/1vBz3kN
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