Modern day Slavery? More Black Men are incarcerated now than there were Black male slaves in 1850

Recently i watched a MSNBC special called the "Black Agenda" were they revealed that there are more Black men incarcerated today than there were Black male slaves in 1850. Studies show there is a MASS incarceration CRISIS in the Black community.

The statistics are sad and disturbing to me, the even sadder part is that most Black people (inclusing myself) are not completely surprised by the statistics because we ALL know at least 1,2,3,4,5.... or more people who are currently incarcerated or have been incarcerated at some point in life.

If you don't already know... Jail is BIG BUSINESS, i will do another article specifically on that topic but for now, i want you to look at these GROWING statistics.

1 in 15 black children have a incarcerated parent while only 1 in 111 white children have a incarcerated parent

Black men make up 6.5% of the United States population and 40.2% of the prison population

$88,000 is spent on each incarcerated juvenile per year while only $9,000 is spent per student for education.

78% of released Black inmates return within 3 years

The thing that really bothers me is the way a lot of people in OUR communities tend to glamorize prison life. They make it seem like it's the cool place to be and having a jail i.d. is some sort of badge of honor. A lot of times people treat the person who hasn't been to jail before like they are Corny or a Nerd, while the person who has been locked up is a hero and looked up to. This is a BACKWARDS mentality!!!

We need to wake up and open our eyes and see that there is a BIGGER plan in place. We need to teach our youth that Jail is NOT the place to be, give them other alternatives to the streets & positive role models. Please watch the video below.