Youth Jail Chronicles

July 29, 2010 9:29 PM

Youth Jail Chronicles.

From YouthUprising and YAK films who brought us yesterday's dancing video.

posted by serazin (8 comments total)

Is this a coincidence that most of this youth is black?
posted by knz at 11:46 PM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

knz- it's incarcerated young people in the us, they aren't all black, but most of them are. I'm sleepy so I'm not looking up the stats, but a hugely disproportionate amount of non-whites are incarcerated in the US. It sometimes called an epidemic.
posted by thankyouforyourconsideration at 12:00 AM on July 30, 2010

Bleck... I'm not eloquent. I didn't realize, at first, that not all interviewed had been jailed. What I'm trying to say is:

It is not coincidence that a short film titled "Youth Jail Chronicles" (focusing on people affected by incarcerations, and set in the U.S. of A.) is filled with young African-Americans.

Not A Coincidence.
posted by thankyouforyourconsideration at 12:20 AM on July 30, 2010

Everyone knows, young criminals in America are nearly all African-American. At least, in those parts of America where anything matters.
posted by Goofyy at 3:15 AM on July 30, 2010

a hugely disproportionate amount of non-whites are incarcerated in the US. It sometimes called an epidemic.

It's a tough epidemic to treat because it's being fed from two directions: authorities are sending too many African-American youths to jail, and too many African-American youths are doing things that make them likely to be sent to jail. Both sides need to back off.
posted by Faze at 4:22 AM on July 30, 2010

It's true that minority youth are jailed in disporportionate numbers all over the country, but I think the fact that that this was filmed in Oakland, CA, may have something to do with the racial makeup as well. If this video had been made in Appalachia somewhere there would be a lot of white kids with similar stories. Being poor has a lot to do with ending up incarcerated.
posted by dortmunder at 6:40 AM on July 30, 2010

and too many African-American youths are doing things that make them likely to be sent to jail.

Focused on the 25 largest counties in the state, the report finds that African Americans are arrested for marijuana possession at substantially higher rates than whites, typically at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites. Further, blacks are arrested for marijuana possession far out of proportion to their percentage in the total population of the counties.

And (same source)

In San Diego and Orange counties, each with about three million residents, the marijuana arrest rates for blacks are 365% and 221% higher than the arrest rates for whites. In San Diego County, blacks are 5.6% of the population but 20% of marijuana possession arrests.

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, each with about two million people, the marijuana arrest rates for blacks are 265% and 255% higher than the arrest rates for whites. In Riverside County, blacks are 6.6% of the population, but 17% of the arrests. In San Bernardino County, they are 9.5% of the population, but 23% of the arrests.

The report also points out that black kids use marijuana at lower rates than white kids. What makes the difference is that minority youth are more likely to live in neighborhoods that are heavily patrolled by police; there are more white kids walking around with a baggie of weed in their pockets, but because they are far less likely to be subject to a stop-and-frisk because of where they live, they are therefore less likely to get arrested or ticketed for possession. The white kids are doing things that are likely to get them put in the system, just like black kids (and in far greater numbers). They're just waaaaay less likely to be caught for it.
posted by rtha at 9:29 AM on July 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

there are more white kids walking around with a baggie of weed in their pockets, but because they are far less likely to be subject to a stop-and-frisk because of where they live, they are therefore less likely to get arrested or ticketed for possession.

This. A young black man is presumed already to be a criminal, just by walking down the street walking that walk with the baggy pants.
posted by RedEmma at 9:52 AM on July 30, 2010