Young, Black and Locked Up

If you were asked where the United States ranks among industrialized countries on low birthweight, infant mortality or child poverty, a guess much higher than the bottom on any of these social indicators would be wrong. But if you were asked where America stands on imprisoning its citizens, you would be correct to answer that we surpass everyone else. Our nation incarcerates more people -- over 2.3 million in 2006 -- than any other country. Because justice is not equally administered in the United States, Black males are disproportionately represented among America's imprisoned population, currently numbering 837,000 in state and federal prisons. Our ranking as the world's number one jailer represents a monumental national failure.

More and more of those who enter the Prison Pipeline start with arrest records as young children. Earlier this year, a police officer arrested seven-year-old Gerard Mungo, Jr., in East Baltimore, Maryland, claiming that the child was riding a dirt bike on the sidewalk. Gerard was handcuffed and taken to a police station where officers took his fingerprints and mug shot.

Incarceration is extremely costly. In California, state detention centers for young people cost $216,000 a year per child; county facilities cost about $117,000. States spend on average nearly three times as much per prisoner as they do per public school pupil. In some states, the growth in prison costs also exceeds the growth in higher education spending. When it costs more to detain a child than to provide him a Head Start, we need to seriously reassess our nation's values and priorities. While there seems to be no cap on prison spending; Head Start funding serves only half of those eligible.

We need to refocus what we do with the children we detain. Too much cruelty permeates our youth detention culture where the focus is often on control and punishment instead of rehabilitation. A 2003 U.S. Department of Justice investigation into conditions at Oakley and Columbia Juvenile Training Schools in Mississippi found that juveniles there were being hog-tied with chains, physically assaulted by guards, sprayed with chemicals during military exercises, forced to eat their own vomit and put in dark, solitary confinement cells after being stripped naked. Mississippi's juvenile justice system is now under a federal judicial decree because of these and other violations found by the Department of Justice.

For some young people, being sent to a youth detention facility can be a death sentence. In January 2006, 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson died of suffocation at a state-run boot camp in Florida after seven guards beat and restrained him. His death occurred the day after he arrived at the camp after violating parole for taking his grandmother's car for a joy ride.

One state that has gotten it right on juvenile justice is Missouri. Under the caring youth-focused leadership of Mark Steward, its former Youth Services Director, in 1983 Missouri closed all of its youth prisons and divided the state into five regions so that confined youths would be within driving distance of their homes. Each region has two facilities housing no more than 40 young people. This Department of Youth Services focuses on intensive individual counseling, academic and vocational education, and positive behavior modification. Key features of the Missouri model are its integration of mental health into all of its rehabilitation components and its comprehensive approach to treatment, which includes family therapy and counseling.

Each confined youth is brought together with nine other teens who eat, study and live together as a team. Each team of ten is under the supervision of two trained youth specialists. When a young person has a problem, s/he can call a meeting of the team to work out a solution. Academic success is emphasized and a high percentage of young people in Missouri's Department of Youth Services facilities earn their GEDs. Missouri has dramatically reduced youth recidivism to seven percent, at a cost of nearly one-third less per youth than the cost of systems in Louisiana and Florida, which have much higher recidivism rates.

Sadly, Missouri is an exception to the bumper-sticker thinking of too many state leaders who pursue "Tough on crime," "Zero tolerance," "Lock 'em up" approaches to punish rather than address the problems of troubled youths. Increasing investments in health care, quality early childhood education, better schools and positive youth development in out-of-school time would not only increase the number of children reaching successful adulthood but increase public safety. The last thing a young person needs is lessons in how to become a hardened criminal by exposure to adult criminal mentors in adult prisons or callous adults in juvenile "justice" systems. It's time for a change for our children and our nation's sake.

Follow Marian Wright Edelman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChildDefender

Comments

[Gatogorra]

If by "mental health" the Missouri program truly focuses on social interventions, it would be ground breaking. My concern is that mental health interventions usually mean chemical straight jackets and I'd rather the labels on these programs carefully differentiated between the two approaches.

Carole Keeton-Strayhorn's report on the drugging of foster children in Texas and the increase in drug-induced disorders among children on Medicaid is very sobering. 60% of children in foster care are minority kids and I'm hardly alone in viewing this mass drugging as a kind of genocidal social control, though white kids are by no means immune to these measures and white families have traditionally been more willing to drug their children into submission.

For an excellent historical overview on psychiatry's role in eugenics, over-drugging, over-incarceration and government's sponsoring of racist psychiatric interventions and social suppression, I recommend Peter Breggin's "The War On Children of Color".

[BadChristian]

Let's try it this way.

How many of the black in jail are suburban or rural blacks?

I bet if you were to break it down regionally, without even using race, the results would be more illuminating about how and where, exactly, in the REAL WORLD, resources should be steered.

Don't give a skin color, try an address. Where is it happenening?

[Hexalectris]

Anecdotal evidence of maltreatment of prisoners is not evidence of systemic intent. It may be evidence of individual malfeasance and misfeasance and should be pursued as such. Nonetheless, the central points of this short thesis are well taken. The system is a shambles. My contention is, partially, that the prison system, juvenile and adult, reflects the society that birthed the inmates.

[DeccaDo]

What an excellent article. Here in California, we have won the dubious award of incarcerating even more people per capita than any other state. Suddam Hussein would have been envious. Since fear and hatred are the easiest emotions to tap in humans, politicians jump on the bandwagon every time there is a tragedy and get their names on legislation that is "tough on crime". I don't think it should come to anyone's surprise that we spend far more on prisons than on education.

[johnfrankweaver]

Generally speaking, there are five purposes to punishment in any society: reform, deterrence, retribution, expiation, and custody. Our country tries to maintain a hybrid of several of these, but the predominant one - as witnessed by the stunning number of people we incarcerate - is custody. Some people like to think we have a reform minded system, but the obvious lack of money spent on programs to prevent recidivism illustrates that in truth, we're not interested in reform. Some people also like to think we have a deterrence minded system because we are "tough on crime;" but stiff penalties like capital punishment have not been shown to deter crime, leaving us giving harsher and harsher punishment with diminishing returns of deterrence. Some people also like to think we have a system of retribution, which is probably more true than are reform and deterrence, but is that the type of vindictive character we want in our criminal justice system? And if we were really interested in retribution, there would be far more media and publicity around convicted criminals and victims: televised specials, limited edition grocery store aisle magazines, etc. More media means more citizens feel the cathartic glow of someone else’s punishment.

Really, where we put our time and money is custody. Consciously or not, we have created a prison system the purpose of which is to put a wall between people in society and people in prison. We don't have to think about them, worry about them, or try to help them. To borrow a phrase from another field of study, it's the garden and the wilderness. We maintain our garden by locking them up in their wilderness.

[eaglecapri]

I agree prejudice, racism and injustices exist, but the parents' roles in the upbringing of their children HAS to part of the equation. Why do we keep leaving this MOST important integral out of the equation? Is it taboo? Do we NOT want to 'air' dirty laundry?

I think we can all agree it starts at home. We can't keep pointing fingers and put ALL the blame onto the others (i.e. government, police, jails, etc.). How does the parent factor into all of this? Is the reason why X child can't find a job because the child dropped out of school and has no skills and no education? Where were the parents during all of this? And what ARE the characteristics of a convict's homelife, anyway, regardless of race? How do we break the cycle and teach parents how to effectively raise and parent their children? What ever happened to being a positive role model in your child's life and raising them in stimulating and educational environments? Why aren't we asking these questions and trying to find solutions?

The solution to the problem is complex especially when other issues exist: single mothers trying to make ends meet, children living in violent homes and/or neighborhoods, ill equipped schools, bankrupt afterschool programs, no job opportunities, etc. However, a child can still make it if the parent wants something better for their child/children. I know because I was one of those children. So, again, the million dollar question is, how can we break this vicious cycle?

[janmB]

A struggling economy for citizens means an unhealthy environment ---more stress---more desperation ---and for some it will mean seeking an outlet from despair through crime.
The majority of crimes are committed by the less fortunate in our society. So when people have this attitude that everyone for themselves---pull yourself up by the bootstraps mentality---supporting a gov't that caters to the wealthy only---then they'll also see trickle down effects for their neglect come to them in unexpected ways.

[kithogan]

Marion needs to read the books by Dr Bill Cosby and by NPR's Juan Williams......if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Stop making excuses for young Black men. Raise the bar, expect decency from them! Stop the drugs and babies, stay in school......this is a no brainer. You don't help young people by excusing bad behavior.

[clr2]

Why didn't you mention the role of parents in this equation?

[KarenZipdrive]

As a 54-year-old white female, I am thrilled at how much African American culture has enriched my own life. From fashion to cuisine to music to dance to art to cinema, the black culture makes America a more interesting place to live.
I believe the White Christian Man has done too much to keep African Americans in their place.
One way to change this is to get out the vote and elect representatives who will be proactive in furthering the well-being of all Americans, including the disenfranchised African Americans in our midst.
When we raise our expectations of politicians and hold them accountable, they either have to perform or risk getting voted out.
Meanwhile, as a woman who has been mugged at gunpoint by a young black male, I have to add that I have a modicum of fear when I encounter a black male in a position to threaten me.
Though I understand the desperation of robbers and criminals, I just wish they'd get their shit together and put down the guns...and that includes ALL criminals.

[Usiku]

Law enforcement and government have become completely subjective and selective processes and institutions. This type of callous mentality within the country causes segments to suffer unfairly. This has spilled over into other countries and is a contributor to the pain and suffering American families of war are now experiencing.

Back to the point. There have always been solutions and the means to bring them about. We supposedly have the best, brightest and most caring people in our government and law enforcement yet the atrocities continue and seem to escalate.

Yes there are solutions but they are being ignored because they are not profitable and because those who are negatively affected do not "feel" enough to direct the change within so they can demand the change without. I'm talking about Americans not Blacks. If this single point is not understood, the rest is futile. There must be recognition before there can be transition.

We are a nation of soultion seekers. Seeking to democratize the world into a better place while we pass over internal solutions. We seek cures for cancer while our citizens, our communities are being eaten up and left untreated.

[BinBaldwin]

Appalachia is the poorest White Region in the Country. Appalacia crime rate is LOWER than the national average. Look it up. Its the truth.

[BinBaldwin]

Same old 60s argument about black crime . Guess what. ITS YOUR FAULT. Yes YOUR FAULT for embracing the OJs and Tookie Williams and Mumia Abu Jamals and William Jeffersons and Marion Barrys. Yes the black community makes Heroes of these men. Yes its YOUR FAULT you that success for a black kid means a 10lb Gold Chain hanging from his neck.

[MrsTeapot]

America locks people up to support the private sector prison lobby. I found that out first hand.

In a UK jail I was using a program proven to displace anger and destructive behaviour and open space where questions, experiments and constructive pursuit of Work arise naturally. The men didn't have love, but finding work would set them on the road looking for it.

It all happened, the program got some press, and there was talk of introducing it in one of the many jails a private sector US company was about to build.

It didn't take long for an executive of that company came acallin'. "Mrs Yankee do-good," he said, red-faced and shaking with anger, "don't you even think of bringin' this Machine Sense program to one of my jails. And in fact, don't try to bring this back to America."

"Now why would that be?" I asked, wanting to hear him say it out loud. He shook his finger at me, angrier than before. "In a week you'd ruin my repeat business, and my shareholders wouldn't much like that, now would they?"

Why we lock up so many isn't a mystery; it's just another chapter in the sad story of America's decline at the hands of an abusive administration - and, it would seem, a cowardly pride of dying-off democrats.

[Troubledgoodangel]

The fact that there are so many young African Americans in jail is the product of liberal social engineering of the last four decades. The statistics tell us, that the U.S. is leading the world in detentions, with 2.4 million Americans behind bars. This is both sickening and scary. This is not Democracy, but Correctioncracy! What is worse, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Because the liberal permissiveness spearheaded by the women's lib has broken the families as we have known them for milliennia, the causes for social disintegration became ever more veiled and complex. But no matter how we splice them, they all come down to two things: the removal of the role of the father, and the prohibition of corporal punishment as a fundamental prerequisite for instilling discipline! Had common sense prevailed in society, and had these two elements not been removed, the familes would have never been broken as they are now, and the rates of encarceration would have been less than half of what we see today!