New York USA — The notion that African American youths, including Jamaicans, are generally “more likely to be incarcerated” because of the way the American justice works, was a worrying factor for participants at a forum here Saturday.

Panelists at the forum, organised by the Ex-Correctional Officers Association of Jamaica, a non-profit group, and the North Bronx Seventh-day Adventist Church were worried about the proportion of black men who have been incarcerated or are likely to be incarcerated, compared to those of other races.

Dr David Newton, a New Jersey-based medical practitioner, told the forum that “young black men with a high school diploma are more likely to go to jail than to find a job”.

He pointed to research which shows that while black males make up 13 per cent of the US population, they represent 40 per cent of the prison population. He listed five states —New Jersey, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Vermont — which he said were notorious for the incarceration of black men.

According to Dr Newton, Oklahoma, which has a 7.7 per cent black population, has the highest rate of blacks incarcerated, accounting for 2,625 per 100,000 of its residents.

Another panellist, Carmeta Albarus-Lindo of Family Unification Resettlement Initiative — another non-profit entity which assists with the resettlement of Jamaicans deported from the United States — pointed to what she describes as “the poor treatment of some inmates incarcerated in private prisons”.

She said that these prisons only existed to make money, and that “our youths need to be educated about the consequences of their actions” which could lead to incarceration and serious complications for their future.

In his presentation, the president of the Ex-Correctional Officers Association of Jamaica, Ronnnie Hammick urged parents who were having problems rearing their children to seek help.

“Too many of our young men are being incarcerated, and we need to find a way to halt the trend.”

He also sought to highlight the many challenges inmates had to encounter, and the emotional, financial and physiological strains incarceration brought to all concerned.

Saturday’s forum was the fourth such staging of the event which is designed to raise awareness about the consequences of incarceration.