40 Reasons our Jails and Prisons are filled with Minority and Poor Folks.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/40-reasons-our-jails-and-prisons-are-full-black-and-poor-people?akid=13185.294211.6kPyXJ&rd=1&src=newsletter1037437&t=1

One.  It is not just about crime.  Our jails and prisons have grown from holding about 500,000 people in 1980 to 2.2 million today.  The fact is that crime rates have risen and fallen independently of our growing incarceration rates.

Two.  Police discriminate.  The first step in putting people in jail starts with interactions between police and people.  From the very beginning Black and poor people are targeted by the police. 

Nine.  Though Black people make up about 12 percent of the US population,Black children are 28 percent of juvenile arrests.  DOJ reports that there areover 57,000 people under the age of 21 in juvenile detention.  The US even has 10,000 children in adult jails and prisons any given day.

Ten.  The War on Drugs targets Black people.  Drug arrests are a big source of bodies and business for the criminal legal system.   Half the arrests these days are for drugs and half of those are for marijuana.