April 1, 2011 | 1:43 PM | By

Young, Black women the fastest growing prison population

FILED UNDER: Corrections, Prison, Women

Young, Black women are currently the fastest growing prison population nationwide–despite the fact that crime numbers for the group have not risen.

According to the Atlanta Post, during a recent conference at UC-Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law:

Nikki Jones, a sociologist from UC Santa Barbara and Meda Chesney Lind, University of Hawaii, and attendee of the conference, has studied the statistics of imprisoned black girls for over 10 years and explained, “we have never seen these kind of numbers before.”

At Ethnoblog, Rachel Pfeffer contends that young, Black women do not commit crimes at higher rates than White women, but their arrest rates are higher:

“I’ve been studying this for decades,” said Chesney-Lind. She added, “We have never seen these kind of numbers before. National policies like zero tolerance are responsible for the school to prison pipeline. And a dual justice system that treats white girls differently from black girls is disproportionately impacting African American girls.”

She continued, “In 2008, we knew the arrest rate in California was 49 out of every 1,000 for black girls, 8.9 per 1,000 for white girls and 14.9 per 1,000 for Latinas.”

Two other stats that may surprise: women, overall, are the fastest growing population entering prisons and about 85 percent are mothers.

  • Projectreachinc

        PROJECT R.E.A.C.H. INC.  
     
    PROJECT R.E.A.C.H., INC. is organizing a Nationwide Campaign ”Unite for Freedom” Sunday, August 28, 2011.  With the 48th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom coming up, we still find great disparities within the criminal justice system.   According to two recent research studies, the path that awaits young and under-educated African American men is more likely to lead them to prison than anywhere else.  In fact, with the expansion of the United States prison industrial complex since the 1980′s, things have gotten extremely worse for black men across the nation.
     
    Consider that in 1954, the year that the Supreme Court weighed in favor of desegregation with their Brown v. Board of Education decision, an estimated 98,000 African-Americans were behind bars. Today, that figure stands at nearly 1 million, or nearly ten times the number of black men and women incarcerated at the advent of the Civil Rights movement.
     
    Given current trends, one of every three African American men born in 2011 can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, with African American women moving in the same direction. This most tragic situation is largely attributable to the War on Drugs, particularly the grossly disparate crack and powder cocaine federal sentencing guidelines. Despite changes recommended by The U.S. Sentencing Commission and advocated by grassroots advocates, the guidelines supported by both the Clinton and Bush administrations continues to attribute to the great disparities within the criminal justice system.
     
    Imprisonment is now so common for African Americans that it serves as modern day slavery. Although no community has been as impacted as the African American inner city neighborhood, it stills leads to the mass incarceration of poor/low-income and un-educated people.   It appears that the new face of the prison industrial complex is not only changing, but most disturbing… WOMEN. Between 60 and 80 percent of the women who are incarcerated are mothers.  Most of them provided primary care to their children before they were locked up.  Many of the children whose mothers are incarcerated are in foster care, though some remain with relatives or friends.  Some are allowed to visit their mothers in jail, but what kind of maternal bonding experience is that?  The children of the incarcerated are likely to be incarcerated themselves a generation later.  In some ways they serve time for the crimes of their Mothers and far to often, rehabilitation is not an option. African American women, represent just over 13 percent of the US population, and over 35 percent of women incarcerated.  Black women are disproportionately incarcerated because of the great disparities within the criminal justice system and there is little sympathy for them.Atrocities surrounding this baffling and hard-hitting problem of mass incarceration of women/girls is in need of a -Rosa Parks- moment.  Women/girls face brutality, emotional and sexual abuse once they are in the prison system and at a great cost to all Americans.
     PROJECT R.E.A.C.H. INC. is asking all women, especially mothers to join us by wearing “Red Ribbons” on Sunday, August 28, 2011 for the 48th Anniversary March on Washington as a nationwide campaign to ”Unite” and raise a red flag in the black and poor communites as a teachable moment as it relates to the fastest growing incarcerated population in the country. [Be ready to teach, when questions are asked]                                                                                                                                             ”At no Time do we condone wrongness on either side of the wall”.  Blessings,  
    According to two recent research studies, the path that awaits young and under-educated African American men is more likely to lead them to prison than anywhere else.  In fact, with the expansion of the United States prison industrial complex since the 1980′s, things have gotten extremely worse for black men across the nation.
     
    Consider that in 1954, the year that the Supreme Court weighed in favor of desegregation with their Brown v. Board of Education decision, an estimated 98,000 African-Americans were behind bars. Today, that figure stands at nearly 1 million, or nearly ten times the number of black men and women incarcerated at the advent of the Civil Rights movement.
     
    Given current trends, one of every three African American men born in 2011 can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, with African American women moving in the same direction. This most tragic situation is largely attributable to the War on Drugs, particularly the grossly disparate crack and powder cocaine federal sentencing guidelines. Despite changes recommended by The U.S. Sentencing Commission and advocated by grassroots advocates, the guidelines supported by both the Clinton and Bush administrations continues to attribute to the great disparities within the criminal justice system.
     
    Imprisonment is now so common for African Americans that it serves as modern day slavery. Although no community has been as impacted as the African American inner city neighborhood, it stills leads to the mass incarceration of poor/low-income and un-educated people.   It appears that the new face of the prison industrial complex is not only changing, but most disturbing… WOMEN. Between 60 and 80 percent of the women who are incarcerated are mothers.  Most of them provided primary care to their children before they were locked up.  Many of the children whose mothers are incarcerated are in foster care, though some remain with relatives or friends.  Some are allowed to visit their mothers in jail, but what kind of maternal bonding experience is that?  The children of the incarcerated are likely to be incarcerated themselves a generation later.  In some ways they serve time for the crimes of their Mothers and far to often, rehabilitation is not an option. African American women, represent just over 13 percent of the US population, and over 35 percent of women incarcerated.  Black women are disproportionately incarcerated because of the great disparities within the criminal justice system and there is little sympathy for them.Atrocities surrounding this baffling and hard-hitting problem of mass incarceration of women/girls is in need of a -Rosa Parks- moment.  Women/girls face brutality, emotional and sexual abuse once they are in the prison system and at a great cost to all Americans.
     PROJECT R.E.A.C.H. INC. is asking all women, especially mothers to join us by wearing “Red Ribbons” on Sunday, August 28, 2011 for the 48th Anniversary March on Washington as a nationwide campaign to ”Unite” and raise a red flag in the black and poor communites as a teachable moment as it relates to the fastest growing incarcerated population in the country. [Be ready to teach, when questions are asked]                                                                                                                                             ”At no Time do we condone wrongness on either side of the wall”.  Blessings,  Richard P. Burton, Sr., Director  
     PROJECT R.E.A.C.H., INC. P.O. Box 440248Jacksonville, FL 32244Bus: 904-786-7883   Cell: 610-349-3358E-mail: projectreachinc@msn.com   http://projectreachinc.webs.com/ A non-profit 501 (c)(3) (Re-enfranchisement) OrganizationWe provide events speakers and organize and facilitate criminal/juvenile justice forums  We provide events speakers and organize and facilitate criminal/juvenile justice forums
    PROJECT R.E.A.C.H., INC. P.O. Box 440248Jacksonville, FL 32244Bus: 904-786-7883   Cell: 610-349-3358E-mail: projectreachinc@msn.com   http://projectreachinc.webs.com/ A non-profit 501 (c)(3) (Re-enfranchisement) OrganizationWe provide events speakers and organize and facilitate criminal/juvenile justice forums