The uproar at this summer’s raucous town hall meetings, Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst in Congress and the endless debate over whether some opposition to health care reform is racially-tinged are a major disservice to the millions of Americans who need health care reform.
Rep. Wilson doesn’t worry about costs if a member of his family falls ill; he is covered.  The majority of the people screaming and waving signs at town hall meetings don’t worry either.  They are covered.

The goal of America’s correctional facilities is supposed to be punishing criminals for wrongdoing, and preparing them to reenter our society.  But the successful transition of inmates back to their communities is severely hampered by many factors, including the poor quality of mental health treatment in jails and prisons and the inability of ex-convicts to obtain mental health counseling and medication once they are released. Some experts argue that the root cause of this problem was a public policy decision several decades ago to deinstitutionalize mental health services, a process that has closed many institutions across the country that had housed and treated people for mental illnesses. 

ATLANTA– In communities across America, citizens, public officials and civic leaders fight against the criminal justice cycle. It’s the maddening sequence in which people are incarcerated for drug-related crimes, returned to their neighborhoods without counseling, treatment or healthcare, and then swiftly sent back to prison for resuming old habits. Since our nation adopted the mass incarceration strategy four decades ago, this public policy has devastated communities of color. But now, there is hope.  


Americans spend $60 billion a year to imprison 2.2 million
people — exceeding any other nation — but receive a dismal
return on the investment.     

President Obama

I applaud your recent creation of the White House Council on Women and Girls to help ensure we are treated equally in public policies, by employers and in every other aspect of American society.  I must also urge, however, that you place a similar emphasis on men and boys, particularly young men of color, who face some of the steepest hurdles in American society. The reasons cited in forming the new council are just—throughout our nation’s history women have often been treated as second-class citizens when it comes to earning a livelihood, climbing the corporate ladder and even exercising the delayed right to vote.
Let us not forget th

The nation’s appetite for mass incarceration appears to be waning, as many states confront the financial challenges of maintaining large prison populations and as public support grows for more services that better prepare prisoners to come home to their communities.

Although President Barack Obama is faced with a variety of economic, domestic and foreign policy issues, it is crucial that he remembers his promises to address flaws in the U.S. Healthcare System.

President Barack Obama has a variety of economic, domestic and foreign policy issues to confront since he took office in January, but it is crucial that he follow through on his promises to address the flaws in the nation’s healthcare system. The healthcare issue is frequently discussed in terms of the 46 million uninsured Americans, but in communities of color there is another crisis raging:  Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans experience daily the devastating impact of health disparities that prematurely disable and kill men, women and children.