The Funnel of Injustice




My attempt to Make a Chart....The Funnel of Injustice

 


So, I just left a class of mine that really burnt my toast. The discussion today was about the Criminal "Justice" system, and it was incredibly mind blowing to hear so many people feel so strongly about a topic that’s very clear they truly know nothing about.




Let me just say that I do believe there are individuals who commit crimes who should be imprisoned and that’s that. But lets look at the reality of prisons. First, they are seen in the economic world as gold mines. Corporations such as Victoria's Secret, Microsoft, Starbucks, Lee Jeans, and Nintendo (just to name a few) all make money using prison labor. Yes, you read that correctly. Your cute little Vicki Secret thong was mass produced by prisoners who don’t have to be paid minimum wage, who aren’t provided with health benefits, or covered by worker's comp.


 I read an article that has this crazy chart showing the differences in the amount spent on an inmate vs. the amount that teachers are paid (CRAZY CHART) <
Okay, another little stat, I learned in my Black Adolescent Male class, that only 33% of young black males are graduating from high school in Cincinnati. So we look at the fact that there really isn’t that much of a gap between the salary of a teacher here in the state of Ohio and the cost of keeping someone incarcerated and we begin to make sense of all this nonsense. Everyone would have to be completely oblivious to society if they didn’t agree with me when I say, the media has its way of creating a face for crime, and that face is the face of a black man. People of color are disproportionately arrested. Society has already taken it upon itself to believe the stereotype that black men are violent and criminals. That stereotype the mass media has fed into leads to people placing more money into prisons, and essentially leaving our school systems without the proper funding. It's a vicious cycle.


Not So Fun Fact:
*Possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine is a minimum sentence of 5years
*Possession of any amount of crack cocaine is mandatory minimum sentence of 5years


Questions to ask yourself:
Who is more likely to have possesion of crack cocain? Who is more like to have possession of powder cocaine?
How much is 500 grams? A: OVER A POUND!
So you mean to tell me, I can have over a pound of powder cocaine and a gram of crack cocaine and I'm gonna go to jail for the same amount of time? hmmmm...okay.


I guess I just said all of that to get everyone's wheels turning, get some dialogue going, and to make people want to be conscious about how our Criminal "Justice" systems are and how it really is affecting society and the economy. White collar crimes, such as fraud and embezzlement cost more than robberies, burglaries, and auto theft combined, yet they are less likely to be detected or even seen as criminals.


All of that was just FOOD FOR THOUGHT.


Good day people.