Only 15% of adults in prison have earned a postsecondary degree or certificate – either before or while being incarcerated. Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington...
Living conditions in a solitary cell at New York’s Rikers Island jail. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
Black men comprise around 13% of the male population, yet...
HARRY C. ALFORD (NNPA)—In the interest of full disclosure, I have a bachelor’s degree in Correctional Administration from the University of Wisconsin. During the summer of 1969, I did my required internship at the Wisconsin School for Girls in Oregon, Wis. These were underage offenders who were found guilty of petty crimes or “bad behavior.” My ambition was to change bad human behavior into honorable behavior. The curriculum I was reading promoted the best models of rehabilitation. I was so pumped but the internship showed me the reality of our system of corrections.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins Today, my brain froze in its tracks. I found myself speechless, yet full of enough energy to power a nuclear warhead. The emotions bounced around my insides like disco lights, and I found myself more sensitive to my environment than I’d been since the day I came out of my mother’s womb. Losing my grandmother this week, in conjunction with the extraordinary announcement by Attorney General Eric Holder, made for the kind of emotional cocktail that might possibly kill a man, like using uppers and downers while drinking a glass of Vodka. I don’t drink or use drugs, but I think this might be how it feels.
