Miscellaneous
What is prison really like? In this episode, we are talking about incarceration - mental health implications and issues related to re-entry into society. Craig Pohlman, Ph.D., Jennifer Fights, LPC, will discuss the history of incarceration in the United States. They also have an in-depth discussion with special guest Gemini Boyd (founder of Project Bolt), who was incarcerated for 20 years and is grappling with the challenges of re-entry. Support Gemini Boyd and Project Bolt through the following ways: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ProjectBOLT/Twitter - https://twitter.com/boyd_geminiEmail - jboyd0818@gmail.com Recommended Readings to Learn More About the History of Our Criminal Justice System, Incarceration, and Mental Health Black Codes (United States) - WikipediaSouthern Program Continued Slavery Long After the Civil War - Stephanie BuckDoes An Exception Clause in 13th Amendment Still Permit Slavery? - Becky LittleConvict Lease System - Digital HistoryIt Happened in Florida: Remarkable Events That Shaped History - E. Lynne WrightWorse Than Slavery - David M. OshinskyCriminal Justice Fact Sheet - NAACPBill Clinton and the 1994 Crime Bill - Robert FarleyMass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2019 - Wendy Sawyer and Peter WagnerYes, U.S. Locks People Up At A Higher Rate - Michelle Ye Hee Lee (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Racial Inequities and Our Criminal Justice System Jen Neitzel, Ph.D. - Executive Director of the Education Equity Institute According to the Sentencing Project, 1 in 3 Black men is likely to spend time in prison in their lifetime, compared to 1 in 17 White men. The racial disparity also exists for women. 1 in 111 White women will spend time in prison, however, with Black women this likelihood increases to 1 in 18. It is hard to ignore the connection between the educational system and the criminal justice system when we look at these statistics in conjunction with suspension and expulsion rates for Black children versus White children. Statistics indicate that Black children are 1.8 times more likely to receive an out-of-school suspension than their White peers, with Black boys being more affected by these disciplinary actions. In fact, they are suspended or expelled at a rate of 3.5 times greater than White children. Although suspensions and expulsions are generally associated with older children, recent statistics suggest that an alarming number of young children, who are overwhelmingly Black, are being excluded from early learning environments. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has reported that young Black children are suspended or expelled at up to 4 times the rate of White children. Once a child is suspended from school even one time, he or she is more likely to be suspended repeatedly, drop out of school, or enter the criminal justice system – hence the phrase “school-to-prison pipeline.” In fact, the incarceration industry looks at 3rd-grade reading levels and suspension rates to determine when and where to build new prisons. A key piece that is needed to unravel the ties between our educational and criminal justice systems is to dig deeper into the root causes and historical underpinnings of today’s practices. Beginning in the late 1800s, vagrancy laws, which required Blacks to be able to prove that they had jobs, were particularly malicious. Jobs were very hard to come by in early Jim Crow. If Black people (primarily Black men) were unable to prove that they were employed, they were immediately convicted by law enforcement. The most common way for Black people to overcome their debts to society was forced labor on former plantations and in private companies. By 1880, nearly 25 percent of these convicts were children; some as young as six years of age. As such, many Black children could not attend school, and when they did their learning experiences were woefully ...