Dear Future President,

I am a junior in high school in Cincinnati, Ohio. I am a teenager. I love to play basketball and I am on the high school team. I have perfect attendance. I like to be at school. But When I walk down the street, just hanging out, I tend to be stopped by a police officer and asked what I am doing. It usually happens in the evening. They stop me and questioning me for one reason and one reason only, I am a black teenager. My family history starts with my dad in jail for drug dealing, my uncle got 20 years for being part of a robbery, and my mom and stepdad do everything they can to keep me in a good school district and doing things that will better my future. I am writing you today because jail time given to people for little crimes is too long. Black men are being taxed on jail time and it's taking black people away from the black communities.

The judicial system is rigged. It starts on the streets in our neighborhoods. I am just a teenager hanging out. My white friends do not get stopped or questioned to why they are walking around. Black men get large amounts of jail time for stupid crimes due to what i believe racism is discrimination. My uncle when he was 15 years old was riding in a car with his older cousins. My uncle was picked up by his older cousins to hang out. He was not aware that they had just robbed someone at gunpoint. The police pulled them over and my Uncle Dontae had no clue why. My uncle was arrested and was given 20 years of prison time. He was only 15 and he wasn’t part of the robbery. I believe no one would listen to his side of the story because he’s black.

Too many black men are in jail for petty crimes. They need to be free and spending time with their families. There was a speaker at our school that said that "there are only 17% of black men living in the family home"). There is so much poverty because the black man can’t provide for their family because a lot of them are in prison and their home is broken. Then their children try to help their mom by getting into the drug system and selling illegal drugs. It is hard for young black men to break out of the cycle.

Future President I think everyone should get an equal chance at life. And begins with the system as it today needs to change. Create jobs where a black man can make a living wage and support himself and his family. Bring the discrimination down to zero. A black person’s Jail time should be the same time as white people get for the same crimes. Make a change.

Some people may say that everything is how it should be and everything is equal and jail time is the same. But that’s a lie because look at the neighborhoods and the resources black people have look at their homes it’s horrible the poverty is crazy and look at the jail race population there is a very big difference 800,000 black men are in jail. If you don’t address this or do something about it chaos could happen or bad things will happen.

Sincerely, 

Dayshawn 

Citations:

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, By. "Children in Single-parent Families by Race | KIDS COUNT Data Center." Children in Single-parent Families by Race | KIDS COUNT Data Center. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.