| U.S. Dream Academy |
| Thursday, February 28, 2008 |
I recently came across an awesome organization, the U.S. Dream Academy, Inc. It was founded back in 1998 by Wintley Phipps who witnessed firsthand in his work with prison inmates the destructive influence of incarceration on children, families and communities.
The organization works to empower children who are at risk of incarceration by providing them with academic, social and values enrichment.
Since its inception, U.S. Dream Academy has served over 1,500 students in neighborhoods where incarceration is a major problem.
Somethings you may not know -
- In 2006, over 7.2 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend 2006 -- 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults.
- State and Federal prison authorities had jurisdiction over 1,570,861 inmates at yearend 2006: 1,377,815 in State jurisdiction and 193,046 in Federal jurisdiction.
- Local jails held 766,010 persons awaiting trial or serving a sentence at yearend 2006. An additional 60,222 persons under jail supervision were serving their sentence in the community.
- More than 95,000 juveniles are also in custody
A 14-year old girl spending time in one of our countries Juvenile Detention Centers said, "This place just teaches us to be better criminals. It's like a criminal training school."
We can do better than this. We have to.
Tags: Incarceration, Children, Teens, At-Risk Teens, Hope, |
posted by Matt @ 10:59 AM   |
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| 2 Comments: |
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Such an important post, Matt! I'm looking forward to learning more about the Dream Academy. K.
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Karen, it is a wonderful organization, thanks for your comment. :)
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Such an important post, Matt! I'm looking forward to learning more about the Dream Academy. K.