Crime and Philly
The intersection of 7th St. and Arch St. (view map) defines irony. It is the type of wry irony that makes you sad but forces you to smile at its bitter poignancy.
701 Arch Street is home to the African-American Museum in Philadelphia. Right across the street at 700 Arch St. is a Federal Detention Center.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the rate of incarceration for black males was 4,618 for 100,00 people as of June 30, 2007. White men are incarcerated at a rate of 773 per 100,000. That is a rate of 4.62% vs. 0.77%.
Out of the 2.1 million incarcerated men, 35.4% are black. That comes out to 724,500 men, or 4.4% of the U.S. black male population. According to the Washington Post, 1 in 10 black males between the ages of 24 and 30 are behind bars. The article also notes that the increase in prison population over the last decade has been due in part to tougher sentencing guidelines.
So at what point do we blame the environmental factors over personal responsibility (or vice-versa?). Sounds like a familiar debate, doesn’t it?
Another factor worth pondering is how the justice system contributes to these skewed results. The racial disparities among prisoners are fascinating and disturbing, especially when the population of a city like Philadelphia is split roughly in half among blacks and whites (45% and 47.6%, respectively). Read more…
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