KALAMAZOO (WKZO) — No nation has a larger percentage of its population behind bars than the U.S. If you took all the nation’s inmates and put them in one place, they would constitute the 14th largest state in the country.
Yale Prof. James Forman Jr. says mass incarceration is a relatively new phenomena in the U.S. really exploding in the 80’s and 90’s because of drugs like crack and meth and the crimes they caused.
He says the nation needs to start treating our criminals as if they were our own sons and daughters, and find alternative programs, treatment and job training programs to steer them early into productive lives.
He says for the first time in 40-years legislators are beginning to realize that too many people are in prison. He says officials aren’t necessarily looking at the right solutions, but they at least recognize there is a problem.
He noted that Kalamazoo seems like a different place. He says he usually isn’t greeted by the Police Chief, the Sheriff and the Prosecutor when he is invited to speak in a community.
They usually hold much different values than he does. We saw a judge in the crowd as well.
Professor Forman was the first in a series of speakers invited to Kalamazoo by the Lewis Walker Institute at WMU to speak on the subject of criminal justice race and poverty.
