OUR DEBT TO SOCIETY

Now that African American voters have exercised their electoral
franchises, isn't it time they demand that the people they elected
correct America's system of racially selective policing, prosecution
and mass imprisonment? The operation of the crime control industry
continues to devastate lives of millions of black families and the
economic and social fabric of their communities.

The "law and order" priorities of legislation and judicial actions
over recent decades have plagued black families' worse. The nation's
lowest wages, life expectancy, highest unemployment and number of
single parent households are among African American prisoners, former
prisoners, and the ruined communities they come from and are
discharged into.

American legislators have run a costly con game on blacks. Through
"law and order" legislations and judicial processes enacted over the
past two decades, Black Americans are 8.2 times more likely to be in
prison than White Americans. Their practices have created a situation
where 9 percent of African Americans are in prisons and jails, and
nearly as many more are on probation, parole, bail, house arrest or
court supervision.

Black Americans, who comprise 13 percent of the national population,
are currently the main fodder of America's era of incarceration. We
are 30 percent of the people arrested, 41 percent of people in jail,
and 49 percent of those in prison. Building and running prisons is one
of the fastest growing industries in America, supported by a judiciary
eager to keep them filled. Combined, state governments spend $40
billion a year to operate their prison systems.

The US has a higher percentage of its citizens behind bars than any
other country. The remarkably high and increasing rates of
incarceration since the 1980s have not been driven by increases in
violent crime. Rather, the burgeoning prison population is the result
of changes in penal policies and practices and soaring number of drug
offenders given prison sentences. America's War on Drugs has created a
social situation among young African Americans where more have done
prison time than military service or earned college degrees.

The US spends an average of $7,000 per year to educate each youth, and
over $35,000 to lock up one. Black voters need to ask their elected
officials to answer: "How can lawmakers justify continuing to spend
such money annually per an inmate from neighborhoods where we spend
one-fifth of that per pupil?"

The problem is that public policy in America only moves to address
human needs when under the insistent pressure of mass movements. When
will a mass movement come to change America's racially selective
policies of incarcerations? Will Black Americans demand more from
officeholders on this issue? We need moratoriums on prosecutions of
juveniles as adults; advocates for the extension of health care, job
and educational opportunities, rights of citizenship to the prisoner
class; and more questions regarding the economic and social effects of
the crime control industry on black children, families and
communities?

It's time for a return on the votes blacks have invested into the
electoral system. Nothing can excuse policymakers from the
responsibility to end racist criminal justice practices impacting
African American families. More then merely a symptom of the tangled
mess of problems that create, sustain, and deepen America's savage
patterns of class and race inequality, mass incarceration of blacks
has become a central part of the mess. For these and other reasons, it
will be an especially worthy target for creative, democratic protest
and policy formation in the new millennium.

Lawmakers need to do more toward allocating funds toward
community-based crime-prevention programs. Most offenders can be dealt
with through much cheaper community programs -- half the costs of
imprisonment. Pure prevention programs for disadvantaged youths can
pay considerable dividends in the future. For every dollar invested,
taxpayers get from $3 to $5 in return later in terms of crimes
prevented, taxes collected from the youth working, etc.

Black Americans' current debt to society is to place "law and order"
issues at the forefront of each of our political agendas and address
ways to dismantle a vast prison industrial complex that feeds on our
people.