By Lila Panagides / Springfield News-Leader
There has been much talk about national security lately, focusing mostly on the Middle East.
Here at home, we are facing a serious national security crisis that, fortunately, is getting some attention — but perhaps not enough from the public.
This crisis developed over the last 20 years due to poor policy choices and a failure to see downstream impacts.
I’m referring to our prison crisis — the mass incarceration of our people.
The U.S. population is 5 percent of the world’s population, yet it incarcerates 25 percent of the total world’s prison population, just ahead of China and Russia.
Nationally, the statistics are abysmal: If you are born black today, you have a 1 in 3 chance of spending some time in prison; if you are Hispanic, you have a 1 in 6 chance; and if you are born white, you have a 1 in 17 chance of ending up in prison.
Published Oct 1, 2014 by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA | Last Updated by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA on Jul 10, 2024 at 11:18 am