Apparently a LOT of folks are in jail...Who Knew

The New York Times is running what people in certain circles of society would call one of the most unsurprising headlines of the century. The focus is on about 1% of the entire United States population being incarcerated. We are talking about "behind bars", not probation and parole. The "newsflash" of course breaks out the stats on who is disproportionately represented in this survey of the caged. Guess who tops the list? To over-summarize the article (that is part of a blogger's job after all), we are in piss poor shape. With 1 in 15 black adults in prison, the percentages for black men and women under 40 provides an indicator of where the landscape of freedom is headed within the next generation. We won't say in the toilet, because that would be bleak and not take into consideration the progress of many African Americans. We'll say in the gutter. How did it get this way? Here's our shameless, yet relevant plug:

Dig Deeper:
Onyx has Common Sense Interview the Criminal Justice System:
http://www.onyxcranium.com/oneononyx/csi.html