Kathleen Alexander

Timely piece with telling facts -- "What is 47" for the number of years African-Americans have actually been free in the U.S.  Another relevant read is the New Yorker article (1/30/12) by Adam Gopnik on "The Caging of America".  ". ..mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundametnal fact of our country today--perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavary was the fundamental fact of 1850.  In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system--in prison, on probation or on parole--than were in slavery then.  Over all, there are now moe people under "correctional supervision" in America--more than 6 million--than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height."

Also, listen to Michelle Alexander talk about her new book "The New Jim Crow:  Mass Incarceration" aired on NPR a week ago.

We need to reintroduce vocational training in high schools for those not college bound.