Jailed for Life for Stealing a $159 Jacket? 3,200 Serving Life Without Parole for Nonviolent Crimes

 Too many  Americans accept the racist ideology that blacks are inherently criminal. Study after study proves the biases in the criminal justice system but the national will to change this grotesque practice is lacking. Unless a collective movement like the Civil Rights Movement is set in motion this will continue. Check out Prison Reform Movement, US Prison Culture, The Dream Defenders,  The Black Youth Project & The Innocence Project to an lend a hand in ending this injustice.

A  new study by the American Civil Liberties Union has found that more than 3,200 people nationwide are serving life terms without parole for nonviolent offenses. Of those prisoners, 80 percent are behind bars for drug-related convictions. Sixty-five percent are African-American, 18 percent are white, and 16 percent are Latino — evidence of what the ACLU calls “extreme racial disparities.” The crimes that led to life sentences include stealing gas from a truck, shoplifting, possessing a crack pipe, facilitating a $10 sale of marijuana, and attempting to cash a stolen check. We speak with Jennifer Turner, human rights researcher and author of the new ACLU report, “A Living Death: Life Without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses. Read more at Democracy Now!.