WE IN SAN DIEGO.....
October 4, 2002
To Whom It May Concern:
Provided below is the clearest example of the past and continuing failure of our "historical social service organizations" to effectively plan and implement positive solutions for our Black Community. We can picture them gathering together around the table in 1980 to socialize, discuss, visualize, plan and implement new social service programs aimed at improving the "State of Black America" by the start of the new millennium.
The recent news article attached below entitled "Number of Black Men in Prison up Fivefold" clearly demonstrates our lack of "effective strategic planning" during the last twenty years.
Our social service organizations, whose main focus is the annual renewal of grants required for them to continue to serve as the "Overseer of the Underserved" and "Masters of the Status Quo", have become a "tired act".
To allow them to continue to plan for "Our Collective Better Future" will no doubt result in our disappearance by 2020. We in San Diego are "Tired of It". It is past time to take charge of our own future and it is now time to write our own story.
We must create our own solutions starting with the development of our own economic base.... by establishing our own business support infrastructure system.... wherein we collectively aligned our creativity, talents, and business experience... for use on our own behalf in our own communities to create community wealth for ourselves...as the means to reclaim our youth and save our children from the prison business industry.
We in San Diego and all of us across this nation are whom this concerns. We in San Diego have a sense of urgency. We in San Diego have stopped talking and are now doing. We in San Diego are following the researched blueprint for "Our Collective Better Future". We have no choice.Neither do you.Stay Tuned......
We In San DiegoNumber of black men in prison up fivefold The San Diego Union - Tribune; San Diego, Calif.; Aug 28, 2002; Fox Butterfield; Abstract:The study found that in 2000 there were 791,600 black men in jail or prison and 603,032 enrolled in colleges or universities. By contrast, the study said that in 1980 there were 143,000 black men in jail or prison but 463,700 enrolled in colleges or universities.
The number of black men in jail or prison has grown fivefold in the past 20 years, to the point where more black men are behind bars than are enrolled in colleges or universities, according to a study released yesterday.The increase in the black male prison population coincides with the prison-construction boom that began in 1980. Then, black men enrolled in institutions of higher learning outnumbered men behind bars by a 3-1 ratio, the study said.
The report was prepared by the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based research and advocacy group that supports alternatives to incarceration.The study found that in 2000 there were 791,600 black men in jail or prison and 603,032 enrolled in colleges or universities. By contrast, the study said that in 1980 there were 143,000 black men in jail or prison but 463,700 enrolled in colleges or universities.
Some criminal justice experts said it is misleading to compare the two categories because the number in jail and prison includes all adult black men 17 years or older, while the number in institutions of higher learning is confined to a narrower age range.During the prison-building boom of the last two decades, the number of Americans of all races in jail or prison quadrupled, to 2.1 million in 2000 from 502,000 in 1980, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
In that same period, the number of Americans of all races attending colleges and universities rose to 14.8 million from 12.1 million, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, an increase of 22 percent.Credit: NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
