Thursday, November 11, 2010

260,000 Homeless Veterans—6,500 Are Women

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | 260,000 Homeless Veterans—6,500 Are Women: "Source: Miami Herald | Women veterans are “up to four times more likely to lose their homes than civilian women.” Among the hundreds of thousands of veterans who end up homeless in this country are 6500 women. They struggle with the same constellation of issues as other vets: mental health issues, addiction and an inability to re-adapt to civilian life. Some are sexual abuse survivors and others have lost their children. The number of women veterans who are homeless have doubled over the past ten years and even so, they make up only a small fraction of the estimated 260,000 veterans overall who find themselves homeless over the course of a year. Programs established to provide housing and supports for homeless vets are often struggling for funding."

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Destruction of the African Male in America is Now Complete.

Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected - NYTimes.com

But a new report focusing on black males suggests that the picture is even bleaker than generally known.

Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.

Poverty alone does not seem to explain the differences: poor white boys do just as well as African-American boys who do not live in poverty, measured by whether they qualify for subsidized school lunches.

The data was distilled from highly respected national math and reading tests, known as the National Assessment for Educational Progress, which are given to students in fourth and eighth grades, most recently in 2009. The report, “A Call for Change,” is to be released Tuesday by the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocacy group for urban public schools.

Although the outlines of the problem and many specifics have been previously reported, the group hopes that including so much of what it calls “jaw-dropping data” in one place will spark a new sense of national urgency.

“What this clearly shows is that black males who are not eligible for free and reduced-price lunch are doing no better than white males who are poor,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the council.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Steve Sailer's iSteve Blog: An Uncle Tim

Steve Sailer's iSteve Blog: An Uncle Tim: "An Uncle Tim


Perhaps the best-written response to Tuesday's election -- frank, clear, logical, and pithy -- is by professional anti-racist Tim Wise"

Mr. Wise is just pathetic.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

[Ireland] Anarchists Condemn Police Violence Against Students

[Ireland] Anarchists Condemn Police Violence Against Students - Anarkismo

student_bleeding.jpg“I witnessed masked men in padded clothing beat a woman around the head with a baton. She was so scared she couldn’t move even as they shouted at her to do so. My friends and I helped her away from where the police where hitting people. The police refused to listen to our calls for medical attention and instead pushed me on top of this woman using a large plastic shield. This was only one of many instances of brutality. I also saw police punch, kick, drag and throw to the ground the people who occupied the Department of Finance.[1]. It was clear to everyone that the police decided to intimidate and physically assault us. The low number of arrests compared to the very high level of injuries suggest that this was a tactic decided at a high level. It was as if the police wanted to provoke a violent response from us. All we could do was try to defend ourselves and each other from these thugs.” [2]

“While several WSM members where present in the demo, other members watched from the vantage point of our office window which directly overlooked the scene. We witnessed many injuries as a result of police violence, mostly unprovoked batoning, but also the use of the edges of riot shields to dig into people. We witnessed police horses being run directly into a mass crowd, we saw women and men sitting on the ground, beaten with lumps of stick the police call “batons”. We witnessed police dogs being reared into the crowd as people shouted “peaceful protest”. I heard the police swear and verbally threaten students, one saying they would “knock the fucking ***” out of me if I didn't move.”

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

December 2009 Newsletter : Sexual Victimization and Requests for Assistance in Inmates’ Letters to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission

Federal Probation : December 2009 Newsletter : Sexual Victimization and Requests for Assistance in Inmates’ Letters to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission

THOSE NOT EDUCATED in the criminal justice system often believe that it works without flaws: someone breaks the law, is caught, and is issued a sentence proportional to the crime. The time in jail or prison is served quietly, while the offender is rehabilitated and taught skills that will aid in positively contributing to society upon release. While the offender is serving the sentence, tax dollars allow him or her to be maintained in a safe, secure, and humane environment. As criminal justice academics and practitioners, we know that this sunny look at incarceration is rarely the actual experience of an offender. Although their frequency may be sensationalized by the media, the numerous hardships of prison and jail life (e.g., rape, gangs, drugs, abuse) do exist.

Numerous studies have shown that sexual violence occurs within the confines of correctional institutions; both inmates and correctional staff can be perpetrators, and there are patterns of characteristics among victims of correctional sexual violence. In 2003, the United States Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in order to address the issues of sexual violence in correctional settings. As a part of PREA, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) was established by Congress to conduct a comprehensive study of federal, state and local government policies and practices related to the prevention, detection, and punishment of prison sexual assaults (NPREC 2007).

Sexual violence in correctional institutions is well documented (Beck & Harrison, 2006, 2007; Davis, 1968; Wolff, Shi, Blitz, & Siegel, 2007a), but the dynamics of such and how inmates experience it remain less well understood. Because of the sensitivity of the topic, inmates are not inclined to speak out about their experiences; however, several options for reporting victimization and seeking advice, guidance, and assistance are available. For some individuals, the method of choice is to contact, in writing, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC). This study focuses on the correspondence from inmates to NPREC with a goal of identifying the goals, contexts, and requests included in inmates’ correspondence.

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