Black Men's Jail Time Hits Entire Communities
August 23, 2010
Almost 10 percent of young African American men are behind bars. Many legal scholars argue that the prison system locks those men out of civic life long after time served — and that the social fabric of all American communities suffers as a result.
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Andrea Seabrook in Washington.
President Obama recently signed a bill that reduces minimum sentences for crack cocaine violations in an attempt to reduce the disparity between time served for crack and powder cocaine, two forms of the same drug that have deep racial implications.
In New York and California, state data analyses suggest blacks are much more likely to be arrested for marijuana violations than whites, and census data show a stark reality:
African-Americans make up about 12 percent of the U.S. population - and about 44 percent of America's prison inmates.
Last week on Martha's Vineyard, Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute took up the issue of disproportionate incarceration among African-American men, which some have called an epidemic in America. The event, hosted by Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, brings together some of the nation's foremost thinkers.
Gates said he hoped the discussion would raise the consciousness of well-educated people about a horrible injustice that is occurring to black men.
This hour, we'll talk about black male incarceration, and we want to hear from you. What is the impact of black male incarceration in your life? How does it affect your community? Call us at 800-989-8255. Our email address is talk@npr.org. And you can join the conversation at our website. Go to npr.org, and click on TALK OF THE NATION.
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