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Medical copays reduce health care access in MS prisons; Israel planted explosives in pagers sold to Hezbollah according to official sources; Serving looks with books: Libraries fight 'fast fashion' by lending clothes; Menhaden decline threatens Virginia's ecosystem, fisheries.

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JD Vance calls for toning down political rhetoric, while calls for his resignation grow because of his own comments. The Secret Service again faces intense criticism, and a right to IVF is again voted down in the US Senate.

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Rural voters weigh competing visions about agriculture's future ahead of the Presidential election, counties where economic growth has lagged in rural America are booming post-pandemic, and farmers get financial help to protect their land's natural habitat.

Unlocking the Truth: Incarceration Tied to Racial Achievement Gap

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Monday, March 20, 2017   

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The mass incarceration of African Americans has contributed significantly to the racial achievement gap in the nation's schools, according to a recent report.

The so-called war on drugs vastly expanded the U.S. prison population. But while African Americans are no more likely to sell or use drugs, they are three times more likely to be arrested, more likely to be convicted and will serve more time in prison than whites.

According to Leila Morsy, senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales and co-author of the report, when a parent is sent to prison, their children become more susceptible to depression, behavioral problems and ADHD.

"Their grade point average drops, they're also more likely to drop out of school,” Morsy said. "Boys are more likely to drop out because they themselves have been incarcerated."

The report, published by the Economic Policy Institute, urged educators to join with criminal justice reformers to advocate for policies that would end mass incarceration. Earlier this month, Tennessee Chief Justice Jeff Bivins said he wants to take a comprehensive look at the state's criminal sentencing laws for the first time in 30 years.

In Tennessee, African Americans make up about 17 percent of the population but 44 percent of the inmates in prisons and jails. Ames Grawert, counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, said the effects of mass incarceration are serious and pervasive.

"it can't possibly be just a criminal justice issue, just a racial justice issue - although it is both of those things,” Grawert said. "It's an economic justice issue. It's an education issue. It’s an issue that affects all of us in a myriad amount of ways."

Morsy stressed that sentencing reform and increased educational and employment opportunities for released offenders also would benefit those left behind when a parent goes to jail.

"Improvements in our criminal justice policies will lead to improved outcomes for children and are very likely to contribute to narrowing the achievement gap,” she said.

In 2014, more than 600,000 inmates nationally were serving sentences of a year or more in state prisons for nonviolent crimes.


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