“John”:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/08/how_prisons_make_bad_citizens.html has the keys to Ezra’s place and is having fun.
bq. [[Weaver and Lerman’s paper] shows the apparent effect of contact with the criminal justice system on whether people are registered to vote, actually vote or participate in at least one civic organization. People are far less likely to do any of these things as their contact with police and prisons ranges from no contact to being questioned, arrested, convicted, serving time in prison or serving at least one year in prison (“serious time”).
But it’s only fair to point out that _the very same hypothesis_ was “advanced by Public Enemy”:http://www.lyricsdepot.com/public-enemy/black-steel-in-the-hour-of-chaos.html a couple of decades ago (John, who is a classic rock guy through and through, is likely unaware of this).
I got a letter from the government
The other day
I opened and read it
It said they were suckers
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me given’ a damn I said never
Here is a land that never gave a damn
About a brother like me and myself
Because they never did
I wasn’t wit’ it but just that very minute…
It occurred to me
The suckers had authority
Cold sweatin’ as I dwell in my cell
How long has it been?
They got me sittin’ in the state pen
I gotta get out – but that thought was thought before
I contemplated a plan on the cell floor
I’m not a fugitive on the run
But a brother like me begun – to be another one
Public enemy servin’ time – they drew the line y’all
To criticize me some crime – never the less
They could not understand that I’m a Black man
And I could never be a veteran
On the strength, the situation’s unreal
I got a raw deal, so I’m goin’ for the steel
The citation is _It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back_ (Def Jam 1988) should Weaver and Lerman want to add it to their biblio.