(Taylor media Services) According to a report released last Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, for the first time in history more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison. The report urges states to reduce soaring incarceration costs by devising alternative sentencing programs, especially for non-violent offenders.
The group bearing the greatest burden of the increased incarceration is young Black males between the ages of 20 and 34. The Pew report found that a startling 1 of every 9 African American males in that age group is in jail or prison. For the nation as a whole, 1 of 30 young men in the 20 to 34 age group is living behind bars. As of January 1st, there were 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and another 723,131 in local jails.
The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. Even though communist-led China has at least 4 times as many citizens as the United States, it has fewer of its citizens in jail or prison. [For more details, visit PEW online
(Taylor Media Services) Three of the nation’s best known Black females are included in the Gallop Polling organization’s list of the world’s ten most admired women. The list, released last week, is headed by Democratic Party presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton (18%). However, the number two spot on the list went to television talk-show diva Oprah Winfrey (16%). The other Black women on the list were Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (5%) and poet Maya Angelou (1%).
Barack Obama – among nation’s most admired men
Meanwhile, the list of most admired men included two Blacks: U.S. presidential contender Barack Obama (5%) and former South African leader Nelson Mandela (3%). However, President George Bush topped the list by drawing support from 10% of the slightly over 1,000 Americans surveyed by Gallop and the newspaper USA Today. It was the lowest rating for Bush since he became president in 2000. He was followed by former President Bill Clinton (8%).
[Contact Robert N. Taylor Med Services at RobertTaylor@blacknewsjournal.net ]
(Taylor Media Services) A recently released six-year study concludes that the social “isolation and limitations” of poor, inner city neighborhoods can have a more negative impact on a child’s verbal and cognitive (thinking) skills than growing up in a low-income family. In a study released last month, researchers found that children in Chicago who spent most of their lives in segregated, low-income neighborhoods scored lower on verbal tests even when their families were middle income.
In fact, the study revealed that living in a so-called “disadvantaged” neighborhood for at least two years lowered a child’s verbal test scores by four IQ points – or roughly the equivalent of one year of education. The study looked at 2,000 lower-income and middle-income students aged 6 to 12 over a six year period. The study involved researchers from three universities and was published in a December issue of the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
University of Chicago professor Stephen Raudenbush, one of the authors of the study, said that regardless of the family’s efforts, growing up in or moving into “a high risk community makes it [verbal and cognitive skills] worse.” He added, “Children who stay in these communities are at a distinct disadvantage the rest of their lives.”
[Contact Robert N. Taylor Med Services at RobertTaylor (AT) blacknewsjournal.net ]
(Posted by Taylor Media Services) A series of new studies paint a mixed economic picture for American families but one fact emerges fairly clearly: When compared to whites, Black families in America are becoming worse off financially. The most telling figures in a groundbreaking study released last week by Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution show that in 1974, the typical Black family earned 63 cents for every dollar earned by the typical white family. However, by 2004, the racial gap in median family income had widened with Blacks now earning only 58 cents for every dollar earned by whites.
Meanwhile, other reports revealed that even when they reach middle class status, Blacks have more difficulty passing their economic achievement on to their children. The studies showed that Black children born to middle class parents in the 1960s were much more likely than whites to have slipped down the economic ladder into poverty. In fact, it appears that 45 percent Black children born to middle class families in the 1960s are now economically worse off than their parents (when inflation is taken into account).
The above findings came from a series of three reports from the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. It also appears that Blacks are suffering financially for failing to marry. The Brookings Institution study suggested that a major reason for Black family poverty is that Blacks are much less likely than whites to get married and single parent headed households tend to be poorer than two-parent households. Currently, for example, an estimated 70 percent of Black children are born out of wedlock compared to just 25 percent of white children.
(Posted by Taylor Media Services) With virtually all polls showing large percentages of whites believing that former football great O.J. Simpson “got away with murder” when he was found not guilty in 1995 of the murders of this ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman, is it possible for him to get a fair trial on his current charges growing out of an alleged September robbery in a Las Vegas hotel room to regain property which he claims had been stolen from him?
O.J. Simpson
Even though Simpson says he maintains his “confidence in the jury system,” the above question was raised repeatedly last week after a Las Vegas judge refused to dismiss any of the 12 charges against Simpson growing out of the so-called hotel “sting.” According to an Associated Press-Ipsos survey, 70 percent of whites questioned already believe Simpson is guilty of the latest charges compared to only 41 percent of Blacks who think he is guilty.
However, 73 percent of whites think he will get a fair trial compared to only 36 percent of Blacks who think a fair trial is possible. Simpson will be formally arraigned on November 28th and the trial on charges ranging from robbery to kidnapping is expected to begin in about six months.
[Taylor Media Services is conducting an informal survey of the readers of the National Black News Journal. Email your thoughts on the question “Can O.J. Simpson get a fair trial?” to TaylorMediaServices@yahoo.com ]
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