African American Illiteracy Essay

Today's education is often viewed as failing in its goal of educating students, especially those students characterized as minorities, including African American, Hispanic, and Appalachian students (Quiroz, 1999). Among the minority groups mentioned, African American males are affected most adversely. Research has shown that when Black male students are compared to other students by gender and race they consistently rank lowest in academic achievement (Ogbu, 2003), have the worst attendance record (Voelkle, 1999), are suspended and expelled the most often (Raffaele Mendez, 2003; Staples, 1982), are most likely to drop out of school, and most often fail to graduate from high school or to earn a GED (Pinkney, 2000; Roderick, 2003).

64% of women who enter prison without a high school diploma, only 16% receive their GED and only 29% participate in any form of vocational training while they are incarcerated

Public opinion surveys show that more and more people believe that crime is increasing. People feel less safe in their environment and have thus started to take measures to protect themselves. Matt Taibbi states, “In 1991 there were about one million Americans behind bars. By 2012, the number was over 2.2 million, a more than 100% increase.” But is this view accurate? Statistics show that the population two decades ago America’s population was approximately 266 million compared to today's population which stands at approximately 322 million. Since the population of America 20 years ago was less than it is today, you can’t possibly compare today’s the crime rates and prison population to rates that were calculated years back. It’ll obviously seem

“Keep trying.” An inspirational advice made by one of the former inmates of Highlands County Jail, Carrie Ashby when she witnessed how her life has changed with the education she received even behind bars. The stigma of neglect and discrimination are just too much for the inmates whom we are trying to help improve their lives, and having low to no education at all makes the situation worse than it is. Instead of letting the time pass through watching televisions or over thinking, it is a brilliant move to spend funds in educating inmates.

“The imprisonment boom that began in the late 1970s has swelled the state and federal prison system to more than 1.4 million prisoners.  Adding those

incarceration rates with 2.2 million people currently in prisons and jails (Trends in the U.S.

Majority of the studies reviewed based on data collected from research studies showed that there’s definitely a correlation between low literacy skills and prison. The research articles focused on the low literacy skill sets for African Americans, specifically African American Males. The accusations stating that prisons build their future prison beds based from the third grade reading scores, have not been proven to be true, but also have not been proven all the way false (Glod & Helderman, 2009). Many says it’s just an urban myth that was carried out throughout the years, but truthfully have not been utilized as an resource mechanism to actually produce prison beds (Glod & Helderman, 2009). The research also reported many barriers for the African American literacy level. The research also focused on the new innovative learning methods to produce and promote reading amongst the African American young males. Stepping out the traditional school setting and empowering the barbershops while engaging the community allowed the barbers and adult clients help enhance reading and identify it with the African American culture (Brinson, 2007). By breaking the research down into four categories has helped structuring this review of the literature (articles).

A survey conducted in 2011 through 2012 showed that 32 percent of people who were in prison had at least one disability. Of that 32 percent, 2 out 10 prisoners reported having some form of a cognitive disability (Bureau of Justice Statistics, n.d.). If the bill that Senator Thurmond Strom introduced to the Senate were to be passed, these prisoners with cognitive disabilities will be even further oppressed and receive even fewer resources upon their release. This proposed bill will have a negative impact on the overall outcome of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Confinement has been the weapon of mass destruction in fighting crime in America. Since the early 1970s, prisons have paved the way to incarceration. The nation’s prison population increased by 705 percent, between 1973 and 2009, resulting in more than one in every 100 adults behind bars. This rapid growth came at a healthy cost that stripped the annual state and federal budget on corrections by 305 percent during the past two decades, to $52 billion. In the same period, corrections spending doubled as a share of state funding. In the United States, one in every fifty-two adults is on probation or parole. According to the National Bureau of Justice Statics, in the United States between the year of 2013 and 2014, an estimated 4.7 million adults were under

An uninformed person might say that the amount of imprisonment is going up because there are more crimes being committed. In the time between 1960 and 1990, property crimes rose by 200 percent and violent crimes rose by 400 percent. So it is clear that rising crime rates did play a part in the increased incarceration rate during that time. However, in recent years, this has not been the case. This is because

Prisons where essentially build to accommodate a number of prisoners but over the years it has reach over capacity. Today in the United States there are approximately 193,468 federal inmates that consisting of the Bureau of Prisons Custody, private managed facilities and other facilities. The inmates ages range from 18- 65 with the median age being in their late 30’s. This number is counting both male and female population with male being 93.3% of inmates and females being 6.7%. The number of inmates has steadily increase since 1980 with only having approximately less than 50,000 but today the number has gone more up. Drug offenses are the highest number for inmate’s imprisonment, the next highest offense would be weapons, explosives and arson; immigration and miscellaneous fall next in lines. The number for the other offenses such as robbery, extortion, fraud, bribery, burglary, larceny, property offenses and other offenses are lower. Overcrowding prison has become problematic as the prison population continue to increase leading to proper care and attention for prisoners.

crime in 2008 had increased in a few categories such as property crime it had decreased in most.

As the number of convicted felons in prisons increase daily, the government is constantly looking for methods to prevent released prisoners from going back to prison. A controversial plan that has taken the country by storm is a plan wanting to give the prisoners the opportunity to receive a college education while in jail. In “College for Criminals,” Bill Keller takes great advantage of statistics and comes off to the reader as knowledgeable and well-informed. The other article, “Let Prisoners Take College Courses,” by John J. Lennon, does a magnificent job of introducing the author to the reader as an honest and compassionate man. Among the two Op-Eds, the author John Lennon does a more effective job in convincing the reader to trust him

Whether guilty of crimes or innocent, our incarceration system is an issue that many activists rally around in terms of its success and promise in correcting and rehabilitating criminal behavior. So, to read letters and hear the voices of those who are living on the marginalized edges of our society, but who rarely have a voice in the issue that’s being nationally rallied around, is an uncommon circumstance that should be noted and have more attention and action drawn to. Their desire to educate themselves within the confines of a prison wall is real and heard by those of us who take time to spend their weekday evenings in the bottom of a church basement, sorting through donated books, and reading literary wish-lists of those who are incarcerated.

But a more pressing factor for discontinuing prison education is the conditions inside the jail. An example is the lockdown, “used a security measure, a lockdown confines prisoner to their cells for an indefinite period” (Thomas 28). This disrupts the class, as the inmates are not permitted to go outside of their cells unless they are assigned maintenance of the institution. This can happen to just one group of detainees that the other groups get ahead of them in their tasks, the inmates in a lockdown are pressured to catch up with the work. Schedules of hearings and trials also disrupt the class schedules. Another condition is the jail staff and