"Our initial efforts implied that more young, black, low-skill men had been to prison than were alive."
She found that sociologists and census-takers usually undercount inmates and former inmates, which skews statistics about Black progress. Without those, she argues that the strides African Americans have made in employment, education, voting participation, and wages have been overstated.
Some of Petit's findings include:
"Among male high school dropouts born between 1975 and 1979, 68 percent
of Blacks (compared with 28 percent of whites) had been imprisoned at
some point by 2009, and 37 percent of Blacks (compared with 12 percent
of whites) were incarcerated that year.
By the time they turn 18, one in four black children will have experienced the imprisonment of a parent.
By the time they turn 18, one in four black children will have experienced the imprisonment of a parent.
More young black dropouts are in prison or jail than have paying jobs.
Black men are more likely to go to prison than to graduate with a
four-year college degree or complete military service. Black dropouts are more likely to spend at least a year in prison than to get married."
Dr. Petit concludes: "Decades of penal expansion coupled with the concentration of incarceration among men, blacks and those with low levels of education have generated a statistical portrait that overstates the educational and economic progress and political engagement of African-Americans.”
Read more here.
Dr. Petit concludes: "Decades of penal expansion coupled with the concentration of incarceration among men, blacks and those with low levels of education have generated a statistical portrait that overstates the educational and economic progress and political engagement of African-Americans.”
Read more here.
