Randall Shelden and William Brown

The Impact on Black Families and Communities Although precise data are hard to come by, we can easily infer from the discussion in the first three parts of this series that recent developments have had a negative impact on black communities in general and families in particular. The inner-cities of America have been the most…

Jailing Minority Kids Growing numbers of African-American youths are finding themselves within the juvenile justice system. They are more likely to be detained, more likely to have their cases petitioned to go before a judge, more likely to be waived to the adult system and more likely to be institutionalized than their white counterparts. As…

There is now little doubt that there is a close correlation between the “war on drugs” (and on “gangs”) and the growth of the prison industrial complex. This “war” was officially launched by President Reagan in the mid-1980s when he promised that the police would attack the drug problem “with more ferocity than ever before.”…

This article, the first in a four-part series, previously appeared in Znet. Modern prisoners occupy the lowest rungs on the social class ladder, and they always have. The modern prison system (along with local jails) is a collection of ghettos or poorhouses reserved primarily for the unskilled, the uneducated, and the powerless. In increasing numbers…