"Incarceration Inc."

According to the Justice Policy Institute, Philadelphia is ranked as having the highest incarceration rate of any U.S. city. What's even more startling is 12 percent of those incarcerated are residents from Juniata Park and Feltonville.

Philadelphia’s prisons hold a percentage of citizens, many of whom are from Juniata Park, Kensington, Feltonville, Torresdale and Frankford, which is more than three times higher than New York City. Not only does Philadelphia have some “hauntingly” incarceration figures, African American and Latino American men from Juniata Park, Kensington Feltonville, Torresdale and Frankford make up a large number of those that are incarcerated.

In addition, Philadelphia is the nation’s most important penal system that generates and has exhausted a great deal of revenue earmarked to the prison system. For example, more than 25% of the city’s budget goes to the criminal justice system, while nearly one-billion dollars are spent on cops, courts and prisons from the state budget, while funding for Philadelphia Public Schools continue to decline.

The inmates are a byproduct of a lucrative business opportunity for private ventures such as phone card companies, specialized police training, food distributors, furniture distributors, etc. Suffice to say; if there was ever a business that is recession-proof--its incarceration.

Philadelphia has a plethora of ethnic diversity, and yet, it also has a very high rate of African American and Latino American men incarceration percentage with more than 70%. While the jail business is booming, in Philadelphia, African American and Latino American are likely to continue to contribute to the industry by committing an array of crimes that range from extortion, distribution of illegal drugs, to murder.

Consequently, while the prison business continues to boom, African American and Latino American men from Juniata Park, Kensington, Feltonville, Torresdale and Frankford are more likely to contribute to the industry than any other ethnicity and where imprisoning its citizens is occurring at such an alarming rate--Charles Darwin would be astonished.

Let me be candid. I believe that people KNOW the difference between right and wrong. Most children grow up in families that teach morals and values. They attend churches, mosques, and synagogues that teach them about loving and kindness. Throughout the formative years in school, children are given the tools how to succeed rather than fail. But unfortunately, there are those who consciously make the choice to do wrong.

Even if you are poor, it does not give you the right to commit crimes against innocent victims and to take what is theirs for yourself. If you so choose to do so--and I am speaking directly to drug dealers, thieves, violent people, rapists, perpetrators of domestic violence, and murderers--you need to be removed from society so that law-abiding people don't have to worry about their sons, daughters, family members, and the elderly ending up in a drive-by shooting by people who are looking to inspire fear and lawlessness in our community and our city.




Best Regards,


Anthony P. Johnson, Candidate for State Representative for 42nd Ward & 180th District
647 East Raymond Street
Philadelphia, PA 19120
215-744-1773
215-715-0355
antho@earthlink.net