America Behind Bars

A great article about a great ministry – addressing a great problem: here.
Quotable:

We must reverse the trend that has created an America with less than 5 percent of the world’s population but over a quarter of the world’s prisoners. And we must dismantle the pipeline to prison that places one in three black and one in six Hispanic boys born in 2001 at risk of incarceration in their lifetime. It is completely unacceptable that in our rich nation the only thing we will guarantee every child is a jail or detention cell after s/he gets into trouble. It’s time to guarantee all of them health care, a fair chance to get ready for and achieve in school, and safe and stimulating summer and after school programs with quality caring teacher-mentors. We need to end the galloping poverty that leaves them hungry and homeless and hopeless. We need jobs in their future so they can see that school leads somewhere. It’s time for a critical mass of Americans to demand and work for a fundamental paradigm shift which prevents and breaks up the Cradle to Prison Pipeline and makes successful prisoner reentry a more likely by-product.

This will be a major concern at the Wild Goose Festival, June 23-26, 2011.