ABSTRACT
The thrust of this book is that modern American penal philosophy is facing a profound moral challenge when it comes to dispensing penal justice to a large segment of the offending population. This segment is by and large poorly educated, socially and economically underprivileged residing in large inner city ghettoes, barrios and slums. Its offending pattern is mostly of a non-violent nature centered on the commission of petty theft, gambling, prostitution, or illicit drugpossession/distribution. When involved in predatory crime, it is mostly of an intrarather than inter-racial nature. This book is mostly concerned with the plight of inner-city African-American offenders. In particular, the book addresses what is known as the disproportionate incarceration paradigm which has been developed by critical criminologists. It maintains that the present rate of incarceration of minority offenders in general, and, that of the African-Americans in particular, is disproportionate to their total number in the general population. This chapter discusses the operational functions of the American penal philosophy as a prelude to a more systematic exploration of the disproportionate incarceration paradigm. It is within this frame work that Black Islam’s challenge to modern American penology will be laid out.
