“We think it’s somehow normal for black youth or Latino youth to be going through the system this way”
said Barack Obama (TIMESVIDEO) on July 16, 2015 at the El Reno prison, a medium-security penitentiary in Oklahoma. Obama stated that United states has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prisoners. This is actually true. The United States population is around the 321 million according to the U.S. Census, indeed making it around the 5% of the 7.1 billion of the world population. According to the World Prison Population List, the United States’ prison total constitutes a rate of 716 per 100,000 of the national population, making it pro rata by far the biggest user of prison in the world:
- ATTN: How Corporations Are Getting Rich Off of Prisoners – VIDEO,
- John Legend’s #freeamerica – kick-off speech,
- The Only Man Who Can Fix Mass Incarceration Is Barack Obama by TheAtlantic,
- ‘Forgotten Youth: Inside America’s Prisons’ by Al Jazeera
- TED’s Alice Goffman: How we’re priming some kids for college — and others for prison – VIDEO,
- Werner Herzog’s brilliant 2012 television mini-series (Investigation Discovery channel and Channel4) On Death Row, and chilling Documentary Into The Abyss – Death Row – TRAILER (ORDER DVD),
- NYTimes
we finally see the media jumping on this enormous problem. With headlines as: “Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years In Massive Juvenile Justice Bribery Scandal” e.o. on august 11th, and with facts like: ‘700% increase within 40 yrs’ in incarceration growth, you basically know that you have a corrupt system. I have a feeling it’s time to start writing the apologies letters, Washington… Have a look at the trailer of the upcoming special of VICE on the criminal justice system with an Shane Smith and Barack Obama interview at El Reno prison – VICE Special Report on Prisons: ‘Fixing The System’ (Trailer) airing air September 27th! Photo credit: ATTN: