Reading should be fundamental in Prison

Recently ran into an article about censorship in prisons. I can understand people wanting people to have the harshest punishment for prisoners i.e. bread and water, because we float the facade of corrections being rehabilitation. I think we need to rethink some of the policies.

I know politician like to talk about how hard they are on crime. The public eats it up and it sounds good till you think about. In California an inmate's annual housing, costs tax payers $50,000. Once inmates reach the age of 55, tax payers can count on spending $150,000 annually. And yet, this same public/politicians will often quietly cut funding for afterschool care, early educational programs and the like. Most of of these programs when implemented have been shown to significantly reduce the prison pipeline. I for one don't think persons on the wrong side of the law should have a $150,000 retirement package in the name of "getting tough on crime." This sentiment is especially doubled when studies and people in law enforcement are able to connect the dots between afterschool programs/preschool and reduction in prison populations.

This leads me to the topic of question, prisons refusing to allow prisoners read books or censorship. This feels similar to the tough on crime adage. It should go without saying that a prisoner reading would be beneficial to the public outside of obvious materials that would be a threat, i.e.books on bomb making, escaping, survey of land surrounding prison, etc. It would be cheaper in many cases to put these individuals through college than to have them "rot" in prison. The more literate these prisoners are the less likely they maybe to return or to cause mischief within the prison. This is AfroTapp and that's my Angle

Talk to me. What do you think, do you think prisoners should be banned from reading Shakespeare, Harry Potter, August Wilson, Langston Hughes etc.?

Decline of Black Films?

A new initiative calling on Black consumers to sign petitions, purchase items and engage in dialogue for. . .movies? Apparently, a new endeavor of Film Life,Inc. called "Black Movie Month"(BMM) has been created to combat their expressed "alarm" in the reduction of films made by or about persons of African descent(only 4 major releases in 2011 thus far).

According to REEL FACTS: A Movie Goer Consumption , a report by BET(Black Entertaiment) Networks, African Americans spend $513 million on movies annually, frequent movies more than the general public(13.4 times a year vs. 11 times a year), yet "81% of the movies seen by African Americans do not prominently feature an African American cast, storyline or lead black star."

Film Life, Inc. partnership with Black Enterprise Magazine through BMM wants to connect the $6.3 billion in African American buying power with supporting existing Black cinema and lobbying for the making of future Black Cinema. On their website, www.blackmoviemonth.com, they have a call to action and various events that eventually connect to the American Black Film Festival.

My angle is that African American actors and actresses have long shared that far too few movies are "greenlight" with prominent Black leads. A few actors have managed to break through, but many are getting old and others are concentrating on family. That being the case there seems to be a vacuum right now in addition to the already limited roles offered to black actors. This vacuum however, is not indicative of the Black Indie Film market which some believe is expanding.

Overall, it was great to see this sociological study of buying/user trends of African Americans and stumble on this website connecting black cinematography. My angle is great initiative!

What do you think? Is there a shortage of Black cinema? The Black Community is very diverse. Is Indie media the medium for the various subsection of African American life to be displayed? Is the market big enough for another Tyler Perry(mogul with film own major film studio)?