The USA Imprisons More People

Than Any Country In The World!

The Number Of Women Incarcerated

Increased 800% In The Past Three Decades

& 80% Of Women Jailed Are Mothers

The Prison Population Grew 700% In The

Past Three Decades, But Crime Did Not Grow

43% of Male Children in Juvenile

Facilities are African Americans

While People of Color Make Up

Only 30% Of The USA Population,

They Make Up 60% Of Those Imprisoned

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The Initiative

Changing Mass Incarceration

Title

The Legal Defense Initiative has multiple goals:

The primary purpose is to represent under-represented defendants in criminal and civil courts throughout America. This includes, but is not limited to, innocence projects, bail assistance, challenging wrongful convictions, crime prevention measures and judicial recalls.

Saguaro Prison Outreach – New Hope – January 2009 from Chad Brownstein on Vimeo.

The Legal Defense Initiative has multiple goals:

The primary purpose is to represent under-represented defendants in criminal and civil courts throughout America. This includes, but is not limited to, innocence projects, bail assistance, challenging wrongful convictions, crime prevention measures and judicial recalls.

ABOUT LDI

The Legal Defense Initiative conceptualizes an American society void of incarceration based on race and poverty. The US prison system is vast and it is the number one source of punishment for illegal offenses. Unfortunately, this system imprisons more people than any country in the world at more than 2 million people. There are too many incarcerated people in the USA and the irony is the number of crimes is actually reducing. If crimes committed is going down, then incarcerations over time should reduce as well, but this is not the case. This social injustice is a travesty and should be stopped.

In addition, the American criminal justice system is mostly state and municipality centered. Most people in the USA that are incarcerated are actually non-violent offenders that become our neighbors. There are more than 1700 State prisons, 902 state-controlled juvenile correctional facilities, 3163 local jails and 102 Federal prisons. As a result, LDI focuses on state, county and municipal level violations to engineer the most effective reform by representing those that need bail, legal counsel and a fair trial.

The disparate statistics are real and have real implications in American lives.

African Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate that is 5.1 times the imprisonment of whites. In five states (Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin), the disparity is more than 10 to 1.

In twelve states, more than half of the prison population is black: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Maryland, whose prison population is 72% African American, tops the nation.

In eleven states, at least 1 in 20 adult black males is in prison.

In Oklahoma, the state with the highest overall black incarceration rate, 1 in 15 black males ages 18 and older is in prison.

Latinos are imprisoned at a rate that is 1.4 times the rate of whites. Hispanic/white ethnic disparities are particularly high in states such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York.

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” Philosopher – Fyodor Dostoevsky