Citizens Twice as Likely to Land in New Jersey Prisons as Legal, Illegal Immigrants

This is not a rebuke of the terrible criminal justice system, but rather a rebuke of folks like that moron who ran for President from Colorado, Tom Tancredo.

U.S. citizens are twice as likely to land in New Jersey's prisons as legal and illegal immigrants, according to new data that counter some of the most widely perceived notions about the link between immigration and crime.

Non-U.S. citizens make up 10 percent of the state's overall population, but just 5 percent of the 22,623 inmates in prison as of July 2007, according to an analysis of New Jersey Department of Corrections and U.S. Census data by The Star-Ledger.

Immigration officials have been "scouring" the prison rolls to find illegal immigrants in prison. This find did not occur. The statistics fall directly in line with several other new studies by sociologists that consistently have found the immigrant incarceration rates equal or lower to that of U.S. citizens. The findings contradict one long-held conception about immigrants and crime.

"I first got into this because I heard all these terrible complaints that immigrants were a big part of the crime problem," said Anne Morrison Piehl, an economics professor at Rutgers University who has researched incarceration rates among immigrants in California.

"When you look at incarceration rates, you find immigrants much less likely than the native born to be incarcerated," Piehl added. "Once you control for the fact that immigrants are generally younger and less educated, then the data you find is even more surprising."

Let's get one thing straight, however, New Jersey as well as other states imprison its citizens at rates that are astronomical. But, the myth that occurred as a result of the Newark slayings is untrue. Undocumented citizens and legal immigrants are not the crime problem that has been protrayed in the press. It is actually despicable what has occurred in the press. Read the rest of the article here.

coffee & chocolate & junot diaz

it's cold and rainy. i'm trying to wean off my caffeine intake lately. i usually drink one eli special a day (banana mocha or cappuccino, locally roasted beans) but after reading about some espresso places in the city, i am jonesing for something new: cafe grumpy. check out their 2 locations in chelsea & greenpoint. besides the very cool name, i like their business goals:


above, grumpkin the pumpkin.

Quality fresh coffee and tea without the attitude.
Coffee beans with roast dates not expiration dates.
Stop by for espresso that will make you happy.

another perk caught my eye in their recent newsletter... chocolate!

Taza Chocolates-- "Stone ground, organic, old style, single origin (Juan del Rosario farm, Dominican Republic)... plus, great packaging makes them the perfect gift."

which brings me to my other current fascination: junot diaz. he's a contemporary dominican-american writer, who moved to new jersey with his family at age 6. he waxes poetic on the rutgers experience and towns in jersey like paterson and wildwood, one of the many reasons i love his work. his writing is a mix of spanish, english, obscure cultural references, jersey quirks, comics, immigration and alienation. he wrote his first book of short stories, drown, published in 1996. but i'd go straight for his second fiction work, the brief wondrous life of oscar wao, just published last month. i'm mesmerized on every page. (i had read an excerpt this summer in the new yorker.) this book shoots right up to my top 3.

i read an interview with junot on bookslut. read & get hooked. here's one question that stuck with me:

Q: Oscar's life on College Ave seems so real, I guess more so for me also since it's around where I grew up. Have you spent much time at Rutgers?

JD: Oh, I'm a Rutgers grad. I'm a Rutgers boy. I went to Rutgers from 1988 to 1992, a long time ago, but that was before colleges turned into corporations. It was madness. They hadn't figured out yet to lock us down, and I swear to God that things were as crazy as they are now, but I was like, "Kids, man, you have no fucking idea how over-patrolled you guys are." They didn't even notice us, dude. College was like some empty space. I was always obsessed with Rutgers, and I'm kind of like the Dominican version of Sonny Werblin, you know? Any chance I get, I fucking talk about Rutgers. It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, I will not lie. From the neighborhood I came from, I was literally intellectually starving. I was an incredibly bright kid outside of Perth Amboy, and going to Rutgers was sort of like someone who never had vitamin C their whole life. They're dying from fucking intellectual scurvy and rickets, and somebody gives them a fucking orange. It changed my life. There was a lot of me wondering what can I pillage from my memory just so I can give Oscar a stage to work on? As much as you ask how much this was real, I feel like I was the set designer in a way. My real life designed the set, but the fiction wrote the script and hired the actors.

Hightstown, NJ "bring us your weak and weary"

In Hightstown, New Jersey a different experience for immigrants is unfolding. Much of the press in New Jersey regarding immigration policy has been angry superficial rhetoric directed at immigrants, mainly of persons of spanish speaking backgrounds.

But, in Hightstown, lead by its Mayor the town has embraced the mostly spanish speaking newcomers. Because of an unexpected raid on immigrants two years ago by federal agents the 1,300 immigrants in a town of 4,000 residents shied away from reporting crimes and asking for municipal services. The Mayor along with the city council approved a resolution that local officials were forbidden from inquiring into the immigration status of anyone not suspected of a major crime.

The mayor began taking spanish lessons inquiring into the concerns of the spanish speaking residents and has lead to a vibrant community. The community is not without its problems of course, but the decision to embrace the community is an enlightened response compared to other towns, not the least of which is Morristown.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/opinion/nyregionopinions/NJhightstown.html