There is a great deal of angst in the conversations around racial disparity in MN schools and justice systems. It is deserved. MN institutions have fostered a continuum of cradle to prison policies since the Codefor policies of the 1990’s arrested 44% of the Black Adult Male population in Hennepin County.
Once a youth in child protective services has crossed the line and entered the juvenile justice system, no longer are the services available to other abused and neglected children available. As former MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz has stated, “90% of the youth in the juvenile justice system have come through the child protection system” & more memorably, “the difference between that poor child and a felon, is about 8 years” (or my take on the topic) “the difference between that poor child and a mentally unbalanced, drug using preteen mom with no parenting skills, is about 8 years”.
The central question posed by this report
is, “How can young African American men
and Hennepin County help each other
succeed?” For years, there have been
many mechanisms in place to benefit 18
to 30-year-old African American men; yet
the outcomes for many of these men
continue to be poor. For example:
• Forty-four percent are arrested
each year.
• They are 27 times more likely to go to
jail than young white men.
• Twenty-eight percent of these young
men enrolled in the Minneapolis Public
Schools graduate from high school in
four years.
• They are twice as likely to die
as young white men ages 18 to 30. read the whole report here; Macalester.edu
