¶ … incarceration of minorities, most prominently black males and its effect on communities with black males. It begins with making a bold statement. "The number of people incarcerated in the United States has grown seven times over the past 40 years, and this growth has been concentrated among black men with little education" (Goffman, 2009, p. 339). Goffman makes a direct correlation with lack of education and incarceration for black males. He notes that those with a high school diploma are 30% more likely to be incarcerated with odd jumping to 60% if they did not finish high school. The statistics also highlight black children and the fact that 25% of black children born in 1990 have fathers in prison.
Some news stories and articles throughout the years, especially the recent Black Lives Matter movement, have shown the rise in incarceration and targeted arrests of black men by law enforcement. This kind of article, written 7 or 8 years before the movement took roots, truly shows that the problem of black men being targeted by law enforcement is real. The government is trying to in some way or another prevent upward mobility for black citizens. Whether these arrests are motivated through racial prejudice or simply economic disparity, black men are clearly targeted more than any other group.
The article continues by sharing that police presence and supervision has increased in poor communities. Decades prior there were hardly police in and around those neighborhoods. Now there are police helicopters, searchers, chases, and multiple arrest warrants out for small infractions. While research points to poor communities having a small population of criminals performing major crimes and later standing trial, most members of poor urban communities, specifically poor black communities had little interaction with police before the 1990's. "Before the 1990's, in fact, the ghetto was frequently described as nearly abandoned by law enforcement" (Goffman, 2009, p. 340).
The mention of lack of policing decades' prior is a stark contrast to the reality of policing in poor urban communities now. This may come as a result of the privatization of prisons and the profits that came/come from having prisoners. It seems once money motivated acquiring prisoners for prisons, that is when the policing in these areas increased. Thus, leading to a result of a higher number of prisoners in prisons and targeted arrests.
Along with privatization...
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The middle of the decade of the 1980's was witness to the creation of the Technology Assessment Program Information Center and the Technology Program Advisory Agency. Their functions were as follows: Technology Assessment Program Information Center: Picked up laboratories for testing equipment, supervised the testing process, published reports concerning the results that the lab released after testing. Technology Program Advisory Agency: This was a large advisory body of senior local and federal
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