the Jailing of Black America

Chilling statistics from the New York Times article: Jena, O. J. and the Jailing of Black America by ORLANDO PATTERSON of Harvard University.

America has more than two million citizens behind bars, the highest absolute and per capita rate of incarceration in the world. Black Americans, a mere 13 percent of the population, constitute half of this country’s prisoners. A tenth of all black men between ages 20 and 35 are in jail or prison; blacks are incarcerated at over eight times the white rate.

The effect on black communities is catastrophic: one in three male African-Americans in their 30s now has a prison record, as do nearly two-thirds of all black male high school dropouts.
...
The rate at which blacks commit homicides is seven times that of whites.

Something is very wrong - obviously. See Prof. Patterson's article for his perhaps surprising views.