252 Search results for "incarceration"

Chino XL, Rhymefest, Immortal Technique, Jasiri X (Photo by Paradise Gray) Most of the discussion around rap music is almost always about it’s negative effects. Blog after blog of so called intellectuals rant about mainstream rap music’s bad influence on youth. I often wonder why they never mention the countless MCs all over the country […]

Lisa Ling’s “Incarceration Generation explore the disproportionate number of Black men incarcerated in America’s prisons; how so many of us end up there and why it is so difficult for many of us to turn our lives around. Check out a preview at BlackYouthProject.com!

REPORT: Large-scale Juvenile Detention Does NOT Curb Juvenile Crime   Colorlines Magazine writer Jorge Rivas has written an eye-opening article regarding a recent report from the Annie E. Casey foundation, asserting that incarcerating high numbers of troubled young people does not curb juvenile crime , and may actually increase crimes rates instead. He writes: “Even […]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVEDpC_6iIE When I was nine years old my stepmother told me blatantly: “don’t you bring no white women home to my house.” The statement, which was racially charged with 4 ounces of abhorrence, 2 cups of historical baggage, and a whole recipe of nuances that could rationalize or reprehend statements similar to my stepmothers. Regardless […]

I don’t expect much from Michelle Bachmann. Anyone who claims to understand U.S. history but states that the “founding fathers” did not care about skin color is clearly a deluded revisionist. Yes, Bachmann actually said, “It didn’t matter the color of their skin. It didn’t matter their language. It didn’t matter their economic status,” Bachmann […]

Do black men get better health care behind bars? Monique W. Morris, The Grio | June 30, 2011 More than 850,000 black men and women are currently incarcerated in federal or state prisons, or in local jails throughout the U.S. The conditions of confinement have caused deep wounds for African-Americans, compromising the healthy development of communities and […]

Evaluating the Drug War on Its 40th Birthday, by the Numbers Akiba Solomon, Stokely Baksh, Colorlines | June 17, 2011 On June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one in the United States.” To eradicate this enemy, he called for “a new, all-out offensive.” But 40 years of get-tough policies haven’t ended substance abuse. Instead, […]

The Price of Choosing Jails Over Schools Latoya Peterson, The Root | April 9, 2011 As federal, state and local governments across the nation slash their budgets to close looming shortfalls, there is one clear winner in the budget battles: correctional systems, which cost the nation nearly $70 billion annually. During the last two decades, funding […]

In Post Racial America Prisons Feast on Black Girls Rachel Pfeffer, New America Media | March 15, 2011 African American girls and young women have become the fastest growing population of incarcerated young people in the country. Efforts to stop mass incarceration focused on black girls are almost nonexistant in government policy, the media, foundations and […]

As political pundits, political action committees, and politicians gear up for what is bound to be another bare knuckle brawl in 2012, young activists around the country are setting agendas to intending to move their issues from the margins to the center of American life. As scholar/activist, Dr. Cathy Cohen, points out in her book […]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWh9-GnL9QI I know that here on the Black Youth Project we blog about very heavy topics—incarceration, spousal abuse, racism, etc. So, today I want to share a YouTube’s video that made me have what I call belly laughs. It is a video that tells the story of the heroines of the movement for freedom. It […]

I walked up to a 40-foot high fence, while noticing a small yellow sign in the peripheral. The sign said “Caution: High Voltage Fence.” It was made apparent that I was entering into what I could only understand as one of the many manifestations of an incarceration system. When I entered through the front door […]