Page 2 The Skanner March 23, 2016
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Arashi Young
Reporter
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2015
MERIT
AWARDS
WINNER
The Skanner has received 20 NNPA awards since 1998
The Skanner Newspaper, es-
tablished in October 1975, is a
weekly publication, published
every Wednesday by IMM Publi-
cations Inc.
415 N. Killingsworth St.
P.O. Box 5455
Portland, OR 97228
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Fax: (503) 285-2900
info@theskanner.com
Opinion
Women of Color Disproportionately Represented in Prisons
B
lack women today yield
significant political pow-
er as the most reliable
Democratic voters. Yet,
despite growing political im-
portance, they score at the
very bottom when it comes
to virtually every economic
indicator from education to
lifetime earnings to house-
hold wealth. Some past histo-
ry that shapes black women’s
lives just aren’t changing fast
enough.
I grew up with no father and
an addicted mother; I raised
myself, became a mother at
15, dropped out of school
and struggled to support my
child and siblings. It was a
dark time. Living with pover-
ty, surrounded by substance
abuse and being neglected, I
didn’t think much about the
future. But nothing was as
dark as waking up in a jail cell
without remembering how I
got there.
More than 1 million women
are behind bars in the United
States. Two thirds are women
of color, and more than a third
of those incarcerated for drug
offenses. Eighty-five percent
have been victims of violence,
rape, sexual assault, neglect
and child abuse.
A recent report shows that
over the past two decades, the
percentage of girls growing
up the way I did who get pris-
on sentences jumped from
Tamisha
Walker
The Safe
Return
Project
20 percent to 50 percent. The
number of women in prison
is now rising at nearly dou-
ble the rate for men. Many
of these women are mothers
criminalized for being addict-
ed while pregnant. Last year,
Tennessee passed a law that
made it a crime to be addicted
“
even after — when it could
have helped accelerate the
healing of my family. Most
incarcerated women have lit-
tle or no access to drug treat-
ment, even though nearly 75
percent of them were using
drugs before their arrest. Nor
is there much available treat-
ment to help abused women
recover.
There’s also little counsel-
ing or parenting education
for incarcerated women, even
though most inside, like my-
self, are mothers. And there’s
scant legal or advocate sup-
port for women coming out of
Many of these women are mothers
criminalized for being addicted
while pregnant
while pregnant.
The right intervention for
addiction is treatment, not
prison, but women of color
disproportionately get pun-
ishment instead of treatment.
Girls of color who have lived
with abuse are more likely to
be labeled as offenders than
White girls.
I was arrested 19 times be-
fore I turned 18. No adult
ever asked what was wrong
or what was leading me down
this road of bad decisions and
bad consequences. There was
no intervention before going
to prison, while in prison, or
prison and seeking to regain
custody of their children.
Like men, women coming
home face employment chal-
lenges, but they often face
more even barriers in getting
assistance for themselves and
their kids if they’ve been con-
victed of a drug offense.
In the six years since I came
home from jail, I have earned
my GED, obtained an associ-
ate’s degree and become an
advocate for changing poli-
cies to better serve people re-
turning home after incarcer-
ation. I’ve reunited with my
sons and kept them close, as-
suring them they won’t expe-
rience the life I knew at their
ages. I’m a trained advocate,
mediator, mentor and leader
in the fight to end mass incar-
ceration.
Had I known that in my
state, California, 54 percent
of drug-related prison sen-
tences go to women of color,
even though women of col-
or are only 38 percent of the
population, I wouldn’t have
been so surprised to end up in
prison like growing numbers
of other young women.
My story inspires others to
work for change, too. But it’s
an uphill fight, especially for
women. I’ve been there, and
know it takes more than in-
spiration, vision and dreams
to change Black history.
My work now focuses on
redefining public safety by
helping people being released
from jails and prison to be-
come whole in our society. My
goal is reduce recidivism by
dealing with conditions that
led to incarceration to begin
with, and facilitating recov-
ery from the pain and disen-
franchisement of incarcera-
tion and the conditions that
led to it.
A record number of women
of color in prison is becoming
part of our shared Black his-
tory, a by- product of systemic
racism, sexism, and oppres-
sion that continues to persist.
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Veterans and Consumers of Color Often Targeted for Fraud
A
lthough the former Co-
rinthian Colleges, once
one of the nation’s larg-
est for-profit colleges,
closed its doors last year,
many of the problems in-
curred by its former students
persist. The now-defunct col-
lege is the only questionable
actor among for-profit col-
leges.
To date, investigations, and
lawsuits have focused on a
growing list of other for-prof-
it schools and colleges includ-
ing but not limited to Comput-
er Systems Institutes, DeVry
University, ITT Tech, Mari-
nello Schools of Beauty and
Trump University.
One of the worst finan-
cial abuses perpetrated are
against the men and women
who sought to successfully
transition from military to
civilian life. Many veterans
enrolled and even graduated
from for-profit institutions,
like Corinthian, but now find
there are three strikes against
them: the promised better ca-
reers and high earnings nev-
er materialized, and thirdly,
educational benefits that un-
derwrote a portion of the so-
called educational cost have
now been suspended.
In response, eight state At-
torneys General have chal-
lenged the Department of Vet-
erans Affairs (VA) to “restore
the educational and vocation-
Charlene
Crowell
NNPA
Columnist
al rehabilitation benefits that
thousands of veterans are
deprived of due to misleading
advertising, or enrollment
practices of predatory insti-
tutions, such as Corinthian
Colleges, Inc.” These Attor-
“
federal student aid, provide
up to $21,084 per year for
tuition; additional funding
covers housing, books and
supplies. VR&E benefits are
awarded for service-related
disabilities that can include
job training and education,
workplace accommodations
and career coaching.
Legally, for-profit colleges
may receive up to 90 percent
of their annual revenues from
Title IV. VR&E assistance is
not included as part of Title
IV. If both Title IV funds –
and 2011, Trump University
operated as an unlicensed
educational institute that
promised to teach real estate
investment techniques. The
office’s investigation revealed
that participating consumers
paid up to $1,495 for a three-
day seminar. While in atten-
dance, they did not receive the
real estate training promised
but were encouraged to sign-
up for programs ranging in
costs from $10,000 to $35,000.
In 2005, the New York State
Education Department ad-
One of the worst financial abuses perpetrated are
against the men and women who sought to successfully
transition from military to civilian life
neys General (AGs) represent
the states of California, Con-
necticut, Illinois, Kentucky,
Massachusetts, New Mexico,
Oregon and Washington.
“Most of the student relief
flowing from enforcement
actions against predatory
educational institutions has,
however, pertained to student
loans – not the hard-earned
benefits of our nation’s veter-
ans,” wrote the AGs.
Two taxpayer funded pro-
grams, the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill
and the Vocational Rehabilita-
tion and Employment (VR&E)
program are at the heart of
the AGs’ concerns. G.I. Bill
benefits, funded by Title IV
which also include Pell Grants
— are combined with VR&E
benefits, taxpayers are almost
completely funding for-profit
enterprises.
“Millions of Americans look
to higher education for train-
ing that will lead to mean-
ingful employment and good
pay,” said FTC Chairwoman
Edith Ramirez. “Education-
al institutions like DeVry
owe prospective students the
truth about their graduates’
success finding employment
in their field of study and the
income they can earn.”
According to New York
Attorney General Eric T.
Schneiderman, between 2005
vised the enterprise of its
state law violation. The enter-
prise’s name was not changed
until 2010.
Last fall the Center for Re-
sponsible Lending (CRL) re-
leased research that found
how high-cost, for-profit col-
leges make millions each year
by targeting students of color.
As students of color enroll
more often at for-profit col-
leges, they are disproportion-
ately harmed.
Charlene Crowell is a com-
munications manager with
the Center for Responsible
Lending. She can be reached
at Charlene.crowell@responsi-
blelending.org.