Black Male Rehabiiitation – Part Two

Part Two

YOUNG, BLACK, “CRIMINAL” MALES: Reform and rehabilitation or deform and institutionalization? That is the question!

I asked him where he sees himself in 5 years. He turned and faced the wall. He put his hands above his head, laid flat against the wall, in position for a police search. He then dropped both his arms to the back of his body; his wrists crossed each other into a handcuff position. There was silence. He dropped his head down in some sense of regret as I sat there speechless to such a surreal response. My heart cried big, tears fell on my insides.

He can’t sit still. He’s very anxious, just as he was in his childhood. He was confined to a small quarters of approximately 8 x 6 x 8 for over 5 years. Now that he’s out of his mind-blowing, mentally draining space, he can’t contain himself. The wicked streets are fast, things are happening, there’s never a dull moment. The streets call him to come out and play, and these same streets will consume him once again, some day.

He’s a parolee. He’s only 23! A rebellious young man from his early youth, his first “crime” was throwing a basketball into his gym teacher’s face, in a fit of anger and rage. A young, “problem-black-male,” he was tagged as a “criminal” and locked up at a young age. Since released, he’s wandering around, trying to figure himself out. Bad environments call him for quick cash. His parents are doing their own things, confronting their own mistakes of the past, while he continues to rebel, lashing out and “just doing me,” as he says.

Highly intelligent, he was once accepted to a major university on a scholarship. A handsome young lad with bold features and a worked out body, he’s just another “threat” to society in the eyes of most people. To him, he is “just trying to survive!” He sees that others fear him. He feels it. It gives him power similar to that every human being longs for. It allows him to prey on their fear, attacking those he perceives as weak and non-threatening.” He is so full of himself, nothing else matters. He repeats, “What do I have to lose.” He’s hyper-sensitive. In mental streaks of violence, in moments of sensitivity and care, in ongoing fits of rage, in the abstract, he is the result of the 80s and 90s crack cocaine pandemic.

There are signs of the affects of crack cocaine on the children of parents who used crack cocaine during this time period. There is a “crack-baby” mentality. His way of thinking, his parents’ crack cocaine addictions are likewise the root cause of a minority of young black males, a silent group of adult children, born to users. The consequence is social demise and criminality. It’s just a matter of time before the criminal justice system catches up to him as he has not completed the stringent requirements of his release and parole. He has to report to an overwhelmed probation officer who sees him as just another convict. He can’t get into any trouble or be in the wrong place at the wrong time, however easy, because he will go right back to prison. Because of his look and “swagga,” he remains a target, profiled to his imperfections.

Crack babies! Who are they? Where are they? They are now a silent population, menacing and reproducing the same – drug sales, drug addiction and prison stints. There is a whole generation of black youngsters born in the 80s and 90s now suffering, victims to their poverty and desperation, and needing outlets to vent. Prison regurgitates these young, so-called “criminals” (most drug addicts) back onto the streets. “Rehabilitation” that doesn’t rehabilitate sends mentally challenged youth (“criminals”) back into poor communities.

This is a severe threat to the working class and the innocent who more often than not fall victim to drug related criminal activity. These are the children addicted to the same drugs their parents were addicted to. These are young blacks, mostly male, suffering from autism, social anxieties, and manic depressions. In addition to hyper-sensitive episodes, these youth tend to be constantly sad, irritable and tense. They long for some kind of excitement. They want material things. They are constantly restless. The streets call them and provide the attention they long for. They are driven by the sale and use of illegal substances.

Police departments, jails and prisons are overcrowded. Probation departments are all overwhelmed as are the court systems. “Judges have extraordinarily difficult jobs, beset on a daily basis with problems, some of which appear insoluble: large calendars; dilatory, unprepared and provocative attorneys; witnesses who lie; bad faith violations of court orders and rules; wastefulness; difficult decisions under high pressure; and lack of resources needed to do the work.” (Source: Rothman, supra, 115.200 at I-6) In frustration, “The United States still locks-up more people than any other country in the world.” (Source: www.the nation.com; “Closing Prisons Revolving Door, October 17, 2007).

What we are really dealing with is drug addiction, recidivism, criminality, desperation, predators, and prey. What we have is an assembly line of petty criminals. The court systems are backed up, parcels are falling off the conveyor belt, onto sticky surfaces – crack mentalities, hunger and desperation. Prisons are revolving doors of criminality and drug addiction. These youngsters come out, have very few resources, and end up in trouble again and again. Their criminal behavior is a survival technique based on “need.” Crime is common-place in impoverished, drug ridden communities wherein, “its every man for him.” These are people involved in illegal activities; most of them commit drug related crimes.

The same people are found guilty again and again by a court of law. With little opportunity, drugs readily available, hunger drives willing individuals to do anything to change their “bad” situation. In this state of being, they don’t consider consequences until after the fact. They become predators and innocent people become their prey. They consider most people weak and they use peoples’ weakness to gain advantages for themselves. In nature (the jungle/the ghetto) the strong prey on the weak. Lost in drug addiction, drugs big business and the root of criminality in poor communities, they become predators.

“At yearend 2007, over 5.1 million adult men and women were supervised in the community, either on probation or parole. More than 8 in 10 were on probation (4,293,163), while less than 2 in 10 were on parole (824,365). About 1 in every 45 adults in the U.S. was supervised in the community, either on probation or parole, at yearend 2007. The total community supervision population grew by 103,100 offenders during 2007.

While the parole population (up 3.2%) increased at a faster pace than the probation population (up 1.8%) during the year, probation accounted for three-quarters (77,800) of the growth in the number of offenders under community supervision. Among offenders on probation, about half had been convicted for committing a misdemeanor (51%), 47% for a felony, and 3% for other infractions. The most common type of offense for which offenders were on probation was a drug offense (27%).

Nearly all offenders on parole had been sentenced to a period of incarceration of one year or more (96%). The most common type of offense for which offenders were on parole was a drug offense (37%). At mid-year 2008, there were 4,777 black male inmates per 100,000 black males in state and federal prisons and local jails, compared to 1,760 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 727 White male inmates per 100,000 white males. The state prisons held an estimated 248,900 property offenders and 253,300 drug offenders.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison#Population_statistics)

Why are there a disproportionate number of young black males in prison? The problem is drug addiction and sales. The result is crime. The “War On Drugs” was a failed policy. It was billed as “a prohibition campaign undertaken by the United States government with the assistance of participating countries, intended to reduce the illegal drug trade curb supply and diminish demand for specific psychoactive substances deemed immoral, harmful, dangerous, or undesirable.

This initiative includes a set of laws and policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of targeted substances. The term was first used by President Richard Nixon in 1969. This policy created a disaster. Drugs filtered onto the streets, by Mexican Drug Cartels to Latino gang bangers and drug dealers have changed the face of black communities forever. Children are born short-sited. Addictive personalities plague the streets.

Environment sets the example. The crack addicted black community has moved from South Central Los Angeles to Skid Row. Downtown Skid Row has taken on a new face. The City Officials and migrants moved the blacks out of their communities and are now highly critical of black peoples existence. What they don’t highlight is the fact that most of the drugs come predominantly from Mexico. These drugs rule the streets of downtown L.A. and are snuffing out generations of mostly black people.

In a seemingly biased report about drug use on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, a journalist wrote, “Sights like this are common on L.A.’s skid row, a rock-bottom depository and national embarrassment. A place where disease, abuse, crime and hard-luck misery are on public display and have been for years, conveniently out of sight and mind for most Angelinos. (Source: By Times columnist, “A Corner Where L.A. Hits Rock Bottom,” October 17, 2005) A disproportionate number of blacks live on the streets of Los Angeles infamous Skid Row.

I don’t understand this journalists’ shock, but I do. The “rock bottom” the columnists mentions is due to black communities taken over by 20 years of migration (illegal immigration), fewer jobs, and ensuing drug abuse. Now Skid Row is populated with predominantly Black people! There are black babies and children being raised on the filthy streets of Los Angeles. Immigrant owned start-up businesses (mostly flower shops and garment sweat shops) have pushed blacks further into despair. These merchants once contracted with the city to use water trucks to wash the homeless people off the streets to stop them from sleeping in front of “their” buildings, on “their” sidewalks.

Blacks have been pushed out of their communities by crime, drugs, and the impact/success of illegal immigration. In these black victims’ lives of desperation and despair, drugs and sex are a sedative to the squalor and the pain faced by the haves and the have nots. In a grandiose, false sense of pride and acceptance, blacks wear cheap clothing and jewelry while most of them are on some type of Public Assistance Program. The missions and homeless shelters are over crowded with blacks, mostly black males who are ex-offenders, drug abusers with little or no job prospects. They are down and out. Even though the shelters and Skid Row Organization housing gives them some sense of belonging, the drugs, sex and crime provide escapes from their realities.

Skid Row is the New Black Community in Los Angeles, California. Young black males, hungry, uneducated, rebellious, angry and addicted to drugs and money plague the streets, just like in a jungle where every living things is subject to it’s environment and predatory threats leave casualties. Victims of the “Crack Cocaine Epidemic,” these young black males are hyper-sensitive; anger-reactive; resentful, buck wild and self-seeking. They are explosive. They have no respect for authority, or “normal” people. They are fowl mouthed and lost in their insensitivity.

The big picture and the greatest problem to every American is that these young men are in and out of prison. They become Institutionalized (Source: Real-life acquaintances and subjects – Charles; Jerry; Marc; Bernard, Anthony, and others, all young black males in their 20s, all whose parents did crack cocaine). Prison becomes their second home. And, there is absolutely no “rehabilitation” in the prison system.

Inside, there is an abundance of criminal activity: drugs, gang banging, murders, rapes, stabbings, robberies, thievery, involuntary slavery and servitude and the likes. Where the rehabilitation one is might ask. It is deep into the tax payers pockets. Prison is a big industry that provides a myriad of job opportunities to a segment of the population; however, the prison industry is but a revolving door of anger and hate. It is a gang members haven, a “devils den.” Prison hardens already hardened hearts and denies the fact that most of these offenders are drug addicted, drug dealers, or drug related “criminals.”

Most commit misdemeanors and do prison time. Ironically, most brag about it as if it is some type of accomplishment, or a “badge of honor.” Many of these young men don’t mind “doing the time.” It’s just “part of [their] life,” one young black man said. “Once you are a criminal, you’re a criminal for life.” Jobs and resources; straightening-up their acts are but pipe dreams with little or no resources and a society that labels and denies them every step of their way after they are released. They fend for themselves like predatory animals in a jungle, sure to come to their unwavering fate – another prison sentence. The Prison System if a failed system. It is not working!

What is institutionalization? The dictionary meaning is, “to make [people] part of a structured and usually well-established system: a society that has institutionalized injustice.” It is, “To place (a person) in the care of an institution.” The care becomes dependent care and a way of life. Prisons become second homes to these young black male offenders. They accept this as a fact of their lives.

Home is “the place in which one’s domestic affections are centered.” Then, institutionalized provides them with an odd sense of comfort. It is a place where there are people who understand each other. It offers them an unconsciously desired sense of discipline they dont find on the streets. A prison yard is a place where they mature wanting to leave, but then grow accustomed to the environment and want to go back. There’s no home like the one a person grows up in.

Even in a better environment, the freedom does not offer them the value of their identity. Prison offers them a sense of value and purpose. It becomes a place wherein drug addicted personalities and criminal mentalities, their similarities, meet and bond. When these ties are severed, a sense of displaced anxiety takes control, and an institution becomes a home away from home. “Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.” – William Shakespear.

Human animal tendencies – survival techniques – have become synonymous to human criminal tendencies – survival techniques. Our greatest adversary is their potential. When animals are captured and set free, sometimes they survive and sometimes they do not. Each species requires different care and protection with the ultimate goal of re-introducing them to the wild. Care givers make sure these animals do not become too accustomed to humans as the intent is to release them back into the wild where they don’t encounter humans. Similarly, young black males are released onto our streets but they are accustomed to prison. With little governance and no way to go, they fall victim to their circumstance.

“In November [2008], Lovelle Nixon [a 26-year-old former janitor] finished serving a 9-month sentence for violating parole. By late February [2009], his parole officer had lost track of him. A month later, he killed four Oakland police officers” (Los Angeles Times Report). This young, black, male parolee sold his soul the “Devil,” taking innocent lives, giving up and giving in to the challenges and the pressures of life he was faced with. This young black male is a product of the system, and product of a crippled black community, and part of a greater problem – hypersensitive, autistic black males bucking the system and reeking havoc.

It’s their fault, why should we care? To some degree, people with this attitude are absolutely right. Blacks should rid themselves of the baggage its culture has carried and passed along to its youth. This includes drug abuse and a lack of family structure – someone to really care. Learning self control is of the greatest importance. And respecting the life and property of others must be inbred into the psyche of every young black male verses revolving rebellion – anti-social and criminal behavior.

Prisons should own up to their “mission and responsibility to rehabilitate rather than regurgitate drug addiction and crime! These young people need help. Prison should be a place of higher education, matriculation, and enculturation. After the trained (literally brainwashed) person returns back into society, s/he should continue paying back for criminal mistakes by serving the Government, states, or cities for at least 2 years after their release.

Rather than a clogged court and probation system, we would have government bolstered by the work force. If and when that “job parolee” doesn’t meet up to the standards, he should be sent back for more educational and positive brainwashing. For example, family values should be drilled into a young black males head – take care of your children. As well, the respect for people, places and things should be impressed upon them – imbedded into their psyches.
Mental health studies should identify and deal with the affects of crack cocaine addiction on the adult children of users. This new form of rehabilitation would be far better than the current hardening of hearts misdirection we call rehabilitation.

The slick, “don’t give a damn,” hateful and mentally despondent attitudes our prisons send back out onto the streets is detrimental. The current “game” isn’t working and hasn’t changed a thing. Instead prisons send out worse criminals, especially rebellious black male youth, who challenge authority and suffer from slight mental disabilities such as Autism. They come back out into the community with no jobs, no prospects, and not opportunity.

Starving for attention, they end up back into the same things that sent them away to prison in the first place. Innocent, law abiding citizens in poor communities are affected. City governments and leaders respond in a number of ways to no avail. Blacks on the higher economic scale ignore, avoid, and typically move away from the communities wherein parolees (poverty and crime) dwell.

“Oh, just another black male dead, its his fault, who cares!” Or, “They’re all bad, all criminal! No! Most are sick. They are all suffering from the remnants of their history, their current place in society, and severe addictive (angry, hungry, hurting, c

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