black men in prison

Is Prison Becoming the Norm for Black Males?
In the last two decades the population of black male inmates grew three times as fast as the number of black men enrolled in higher education. Authored by the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, the study showed that in 2000 there were 791,000 men in jail or prison and 603,000 enrolled in colleges or universities. In 1980, the study noted, those numbers were 143,000 and 463,700 respectively. Although comparisons of the two categories are not symmetrical, students comprise a narrower age range than prison inmates. The difference in numbers over two decades reveals the corrosive effect of our incarceration epidemic on the health of the African American community.
One could argue that African Americans as a result of they’re historically subordinate and oppressed position, have encompassed a unique sub-cultural position within American society. In America, the status affixed to race...