American Gangsta - Gangsta Land

Gangsta Land

Aimee Potter

CJC 1450

Media Paper 2

Potter

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,

but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

-Albert Einstein -

Arresting gang members is like anointing them. It showers them with respect from other gang members, almost as much as does serving time in prison. While in prison, there is much gang members learn and there will be other gang members with whom they will associate. Upon being released into the community, they may become more of a danger to the community than they were before they were arrested (i.e., they are angrier, nearly unemployable as ex-convicts, new gang alliances may have been fostered in prison, they have increased status on the street as ex-cons).

What many folks don't seem to realize is that most criminals in prison will eventually be released and more important than the question of how long they stayed is how long will they behave when they get out?

When a man is released from prison, he is placed on probation and he has to pay a fee. How is he to do this when he does not have a job?

Finding housing and employment are crucial to an ex-offender's successful reintegration into society. However, after serving their time, many ex-offenders find that

they cannot get a job without a home address and cannot find a place to live without the money to pay rent. So they may end up roaming the streets.

Potter

There are people out there who are trying to get their feet back under them, but their housing options are limited. Good intentions aside, if they can't, who will be surprised when, in desperation, they eventually return to crime?

The issue for landlords and property owners is not money, but liability. Landlords who rent to ex-offenders, whatever the crime, increase the likelihood that they will be sued if that person commits another crime that harms a tenant.

For many ex-convicts who are freshly released from prison, bills and fees accumulate. Probation officers, court appointed attorneys and child support fees are the most common. Failure to pay usually ends in re-incarceration.

The majority of those imprisoned will come back-so very shortly

"weeded" gangsters will be "seeded" on parole back to their neighborhood, not improved by their prison experience,