It costs $35,000 a year to keep one person incarcerated in a New York State Prison.
According to Department of Justice 2009 data, Black males were incarcerated at a rate more than 6 times higher than white males.
In the United States, black men have a 1 in 3 chance of spending time in a prison or jail.
The United States rate of incarceration is the highest in the world.
The number of people incarcerated in state and federal prisons has increased nearly seven-fold from 1970 to 2007.
One in ten black men aged 25-29 was in prison or jail in 2007 as were 1 in 28 Hispanic men and 1 in 59 white men in the same age group.[1]
In New York State, one of every seven people who are incarcerated is diagnosed as HIV positive.
In 1979, a small group of men behind prison walls, birthed the Seven Neighborhood Study, a project that shone a spotlight on a secret, yet systematic, exodus-like trend occurring in seven NYC neighborhoods to upstate New York prisons to feed its prison population appetite. Their results show that 75% of the New York State prison population comes from only seven neighborhoods in New York City, a trend that continues today.
Prison based education is the single most effective tool for reducing recidivism.
People who leave prison with a high school diploma have a recidivism rate of 30%, for those who have received their Masters, that number is brought down to almost 0.
Of the $5.3 billion awarded in Pell grants in 1993, about $34 million were awarded to incarcerated men and women. This represents less than 1/10 of one percent (.1%) of the total grant awards.[2]
Despite the position of policy experts within the federal and state government, including both educators and correctional officials, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act effectively dismantled correctional higher education.
[2] Karpowitz, Daniel, and Max Kenner. Education as Crime Prevention: The Case for Reinstating Pell Grant Eligibility for the Incarcerated. Bard Prison Initiative. Web. <http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:wP7Q0CxfKnEJ:www.bard.edu/bpi/pdfs/crime_report.pdf+PEL+grants,+prison&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjCACtJkWIXumLTiH7bEYMNk3wfADxoke74mHF-KguDMDD37XNobwZaqwAmKXBcRjRcVqEIjjAq984DK4QPQnDgyo6FUA-7b290g6j15FNEwIpPSd5snp3MVMKqjyhKD040ZIj2&sig=AHIEtbQx1GjkHXfBgpXmN4pwWVxzzni96w>.
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