Abstract
The “plague on our house” caused by crime and punishment reflects our common concern. The emphasis, “Partnerships in Corrections,” is appropriate. Inasmuch as we are all religious persons—Christian and Muslim—we must develop partnerships to combat this severity or run the risk of losing not only a generation but a race of people—the loss of ourselves. This imperative is based upon the following statistics: Two of four Black children bom in the 80s will live in a fatherless home. More Black young men are in the criminal justice system than in college—609,000 to 439,000. Homicide is the number one killer of young Black
men. Black males have a jobless rate twice that of white males. Black children are more likely to die as infants. Black men are less likely to reach retirement. An estimate: 1 million persons. Black and white, are incarcerated. Of this number 80% lack a high school diploma and 75% lack basic reading and math skills. The U.S. now has the world’s highest known rate of incarceration with 3,109 prisoners per 100,000. The total cost of incarcerating the 1 million Americans in prisons and jails is $16 billion a year, averaging between $17,000-$30,000 for each prisoner. We are losing the war on drugs. At least 50% of all inmates indicate that one family
member had also been incarcerated.