OT The Prison Industrial Complex, South Bronx Style: Excerpts from "Amazing Grace" by Jonathan Kozol

Rikers Island-"a 415-acre Alcatraz in the East River " where, says the
Times, "90 percent of the captive population is black or Hispanic"-was
erected largely on compacted trash and stands less than 1,000 yards
across the water from the Hunts Point Sewage Treatment Plant and about
two miles north and east of the narrow water passageway called Hell
Gate.

Passengers departing La Guardia for Boston on the Delta shuttle get a
good view of the island if they're sitting on the left side of the
plane, though few may know that what they see beneath them is the
largest penal institution in the world, serving some of the most
damaged human products of the largest ghetto population in America.

The city spends $58,000 yearly on each adult inmate, $70,000 on each
juvenile-nearly ten times what it spends to educate a child in its
public schools.

"The cost is justified," says a woman who runs an education program on
the island, "in terms that go beyond financial calculations. Without
this island, the attractive lives some of us lead in the nice sections
of New York would simply not be possible.

"If you want to get your outcasts out of sight, first you need a ghetto
and then you need a prison to take pressure off the ghetto. The fact
that it doesn't make financial sense is not the point.

"Short-term terror and revulsion are more powerful than long-term
wisdom or self interest. That's why corrections is one of the few
growth industries in New York City now.

"Think of it in 'entrepreneurial' terms," she says. "Our biggest 'area
of opportunity' is the South Bronx, Harlem second, and then Brooklyn.
That may sound insensitive but that's the way things really are. Guys
who grow up in some of those neighborhoods have two real choices:
either to be our clients or else our employees.

"Well," she adds, "obviously they have some other options. But those
are certainly two of the big ones. We employ more than 10,000 people,
8,000 of them guards. a huge employment opportunity in a downsized
economy."

As jobs have fled the city in the past 12 years, putting hundreds of
thousands of idle people on street corners, stronger and stronger drugs
have been imported into the poor neighborhoods and drug laws have grown
more severe, the population of the prison island has skyrocketed.

There were 6,000 inmates there in 1982. There are 18,000 in the spring
of 1994 while I am visiting Mott Haven-a number that will rise to
20,000 one year later. This number, however, which records the
population of the ten jails on the island at a given moment, fails to
reflect the vast number of inmates who enter or leave the system in the
course of any year.

In all, about 130,000 men and women are incarcerated on the island and
within the city's other jails in any 12-month period. Most are in
pretrial detention because they do not have the money to make bail.

After trial and conviction, those with lengthy sentences are
transferred to one of the 69 state prisons, in which an other 68,000
inmates now are held-more than a fivefold increase over 1973, when the
prison system held only 12,500 inmates.

Nearly three quarters of the inmates of state prisons in New York come
from the same seven neighborhoods of New York City: the South Bronx,
Harlem, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, South Jamaica, East New York,
and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, all but the last of which are
deeply segregated ghetto neighborhoods.

Twice as many black men in New York are under control of the criminal
justice system as are enrolled full-time in all the colleges within the
state. In the city itself, they are 14 times more likely than white men
to be incarcerated-Hispanic men 12 times more likely. Of children
imprisoned in "secular detention" in the city, 97 percent are black or
Hispanic.

The national statistics parallel those of New York State in most of
these respects. Only 23,000 black men earned degrees from colleges and
universities in the United States in 1990. In the same year, 2.3
million black men and black juveniles passed through the nation's jail
and prison systems.

Good thing you were referring to 15 years ago or you would
probably have tried to blame our great President Bush, rather
than Clinton who was President back then.

Seems to me the black men that are committing all those crimes
would be better served if they furthered their education instead.
That is hard to do however without first graduating from high
school. It is a good thing most parents of children of other
minorities are making sure THEIR children are getting an
education. One sees far fewer orientals in our prisons. I
guess they better understand the meaning of self reliance and
personal responsibility and put fourth the effort to take
advantage of the many extraordinary opportunities offered to
minorities in this great country of ours. We can thank our great
President for being the first President to pass a comprehensive
education law in the US so that every child gets the opportunity
to learn. He wanted the children on the US to have that right so
much that he left Ted Kennedy, one of his worst adversaries,
write the law during his first term.


mike hunt



Little Richard wrote:[color=blue]
>
> Only 23,000 black men earned degrees from colleges and
> universities in the United States in 1990. In the same year, 2.3
> million black men and black juveniles passed through the nation's jail
> and prison systems.[/color]

On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 18:36:21 -0400, [email]BigJohnson@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:
[color=blue]
>Good thing you were referring to 15 years ago or you would
>probably have tried to blame our great President Bush, rather
>than Clinton who was President back then.[/color]

Reminds me of Gore during the 2000 campaign.

"We need to fix public education....blah blah."

They had it for EIGHT YEARS during the Clinton "administration". Why
didn't they fix it then?


------------------------------------------------
The DNC - Building a bridge to the 19th Century.

[email]BigJohnson@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:[color=blue]
> Good thing you were referring to 15 years ago or you would
> probably have tried to blame our great President Bush, rather
> than Clinton who was President back then.
>
> Seems to me the black men that are committing all those crimes
> would be better served if they furthered their education instead.
> That is hard to do however without first graduating from high
> school. It is a good thing most parents of children of other
> minorities are making sure THEIR children are getting an
> education. One sees far fewer orientals in our prisons.[/color]

oh MY GOD you are one wretched, disgusting racist.

I repeat my question -- when are you going to do us a favor and die?
[color=blue]
> I
> guess they better understand the meaning of self reliance and
> personal responsibility and put fourth the effort to take
> advantage of the many extraordinary opportunities offered to
> minorities in this great country of ours.[/color]

you foul pig
[color=blue]
> We can thank our great
> President for being the first President to pass a comprehensive
> education law in the US so that every child gets the opportunity
> to learn.[/color]

Unfunded Mandate

you foul racist pig
[color=blue]
> He wanted the children on the US to have that right so
> much that he left Ted Kennedy, one of his worst adversaries,
> write the law during his first term.[/color]

this takes the cake... the most completely and utterly disgusted I've
ever been by any post I've _ever_ seen since I discovered the usenet.
[color=blue]
>
>
> mike hunt
>
>
>
> Little Richard wrote:[color=green]
> >
> > Only 23,000 black men earned degrees from colleges and
> > universities in the United States in 1990. In the same year, 2.3
> > million black men and black juveniles passed through the nation's jail
> > and prison systems.[/color][/color]

Why, because you can no longer continue to spout you lies,
misinformation, and disinformation without being challenged
with the facts? LOL

Do a bit of research and you will discover;

Back people do commit more crime than other races and most of
their victims are other unfortunate black people.

Far more scholarships are available to blacks, woman and other
minorities than whites

Orientals do better academically than others, particularly in the
sciences and math

NCLB is NOT under funded. I was never intended to just throw
money at schools. There are those that have not applied for
funding because the do not want to supply the matching funds or
have failed to meet the criteria required to get the EXTRA
federal funding available to them


mike hunt




Learning Richard wrote:[color=blue]
>
> [email]BigJohnson@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:[color=green]
> > Good thing you were referring to 15 years ago or you would
> > probably have tried to blame our great President Bush, rather
> > than Clinton who was President back then.
> >
> > Seems to me the black men that are committing all those crimes
> > would be better served if they furthered their education instead.
> > That is hard to do however without first graduating from high
> > school. It is a good thing most parents of children of other
> > minorities are making sure THEIR children are getting an
> > education. One sees far fewer orientals in our prisons.[/color]
>
> oh MY GOD you are one wretched, disgusting racist.
>
> I repeat my question -- when are you going to do us a favor and die?
>[color=green]
> > I
> > guess they better understand the meaning of self reliance and
> > personal responsibility and put fourth the effort to take
> > advantage of the many extraordinary opportunities offered to
> > minorities in this great country of ours.[/color]
>
> you foul pig
>[color=green]
> > We can thank our great
> > President for being the first President to pass a comprehensive
> > education law in the US so that every child gets the opportunity
> > to learn.[/color]
>
> Unfunded Mandate
>
> you foul racist pig
>[color=green]
> > He wanted the children on the US to have that right so
> > much that he left Ted Kennedy, one of his worst adversaries,
> > write the law during his first term.[/color]
>
> this takes the cake... the most completely and utterly disgusted I've
> ever been by any post I've _ever_ seen since I discovered the usenet.
>[color=green]
> >
> >
> > mike hunt
> >
> >
> >
> > Little Richard wrote:[color=darkred]
> > >
> > > Only 23,000 black men earned degrees from colleges and
> > > universities in the United States in 1990. In the same year, 2.3
> > > million black men and black juveniles passed through the nation's jail
> > > and prison systems.[/color][/color][/color]

What about the children?

Is the question really that hard?

[email]RustyFendor@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:[color=blue]
> Why, because you can no longer continue to spout you lies,
> misinformation, and disinformation without being challenged
> with the facts? LOL
>
> Do a bit of research and you will discover;
>
> Back people do commit more crime than other races and most of
> their victims are other unfortunate black people.
>
> Far more scholarships are available to blacks, woman and other
> minorities than whites
>
> Orientals do better academically than others, particularly in the
> sciences and math
>
> NCLB is NOT under funded. I was never intended to just throw
> money at schools. There are those that have not applied for
> funding because the do not want to supply the matching funds or
> have failed to meet the criteria required to get the EXTRA
> federal funding available to them
>
>
> mike hunt
>
>
>
>
> Learning Richard wrote:[color=green]
> >
> > [email]BigJohnson@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:[color=darkred]
> > > Good thing you were referring to 15 years ago or you would
> > > probably have tried to blame our great President Bush, rather
> > > than Clinton who was President back then.
> > >
> > > Seems to me the black men that are committing all those crimes
> > > would be better served if they furthered their education instead.
> > > That is hard to do however without first graduating from high
> > > school. It is a good thing most parents of children of other
> > > minorities are making sure THEIR children are getting an
> > > education. One sees far fewer orientals in our prisons.[/color]
> >
> > oh MY GOD you are one wretched, disgusting racist.
> >
> > I repeat my question -- when are you going to do us a favor and die?
> >[color=darkred]
> > > I
> > > guess they better understand the meaning of self reliance and
> > > personal responsibility and put fourth the effort to take
> > > advantage of the many extraordinary opportunities offered to
> > > minorities in this great country of ours.[/color]
> >
> > you foul pig
> >[color=darkred]
> > > We can thank our great
> > > President for being the first President to pass a comprehensive
> > > education law in the US so that every child gets the opportunity
> > > to learn.[/color]
> >
> > Unfunded Mandate
> >
> > you foul racist pig
> >[color=darkred]
> > > He wanted the children on the US to have that right so
> > > much that he left Ted Kennedy, one of his worst adversaries,
> > > write the law during his first term.[/color]
> >
> > this takes the cake... the most completely and utterly disgusted I've
> > ever been by any post I've _ever_ seen since I discovered the usenet.
> >[color=darkred]
> > >
> > >
> > > mike hunt
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Little Richard wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Only 23,000 black men earned degrees from colleges and
> > > > universities in the United States in 1990. In the same year, 2.3
> > > > million black men and black juveniles passed through the nation's jail
> > > > and prison systems.[/color][/color][/color]

[email]BigJohnson@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:[color=blue]
> Good thing you were referring to 15 years ago or you would
> probably have tried to blame our great President Bush, rather
> than Clinton who was President back then.
>
> Seems to me the black men that are committing all those crimes
> would be better served if they furthered their education instead.[/color]

Yep.
[color=blue]
> That is hard to do however without first graduating from high
> school.[/color]

Yep.
[color=blue]
> It is a good thing most parents of children of other
> minorities are making sure THEIR children are getting an
> education.[/color]

It's a "Black Problem" then, Mike?
[color=blue]
> One sees far fewer orientals in our prisons.[/color]

Orientals? Why not just call them "Celestials"?

<quote>

The institutions Americans consider champions of the downtrodden - -
the press, churches, labor unions and the courts -- mostly remained
silent or joined in the fray against "Celestials," "Japs" and "John
Chinaman," derisive terms that were often used for Asians.

</quote>
[[url]http://modelminority.com/printout390.html][/url]
[color=blue]
> I
> guess they better understand the meaning of self reliance and
> personal responsibility and put fourth the effort to take
> advantage of the many extraordinary opportunities offered to
> minorities in this great country of ours.[/color]

So then, you think that Blacks are just inferior? Would that be
because of genetics, or environment?
[color=blue]
> We can thank our great
> President for being the first President to pass a comprehensive
> education law in the US so that every child gets the opportunity
> to learn.[/color]

Unfunded mandate. Why? It is only voluntary in the sense that I
"voluntarily" go to work so that I can feed my family.
[color=blue]
> He wanted the children on the US to have that right so
> much that he left Ted Kennedy, one of his worst adversaries,
> write the law during his first term.[/color]

Law - Money = Hot Air

[color=blue]
>
>
> mike hunt[/color]

Change your name to "John Crow"
[color=blue]
>
>
>
> Little Richard wrote:[color=green]
> >
> > Only 23,000 black men earned degrees from colleges and
> > universities in the United States in 1990. In the same year, 2.3
> > million black men and black juveniles passed through the nation's jail
> > and prison systems.[/color][/color]

[email]BigJohnson@mailcity.com[/email] wrote:[color=blue]
>
> One sees far fewer orientals in our prisons. I
>[/color]

<CITE:http://modelminority.com/printout390.html>

[M]ost state legislators voted this year to stop calling Asian
Americans "Orientals" in state documents. The bill was introduced by
the nation's first Korean-born legislator.

I suppose Mike is stuck in the 1920s.

Some Racists never change their stripes.