More black men in prison than slaves in 1850?

It's a heartbreaking, but often understated, reality that America's criminal justice system imprisons black folks at astonishingly high rates.

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By Oretha Winston
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It’s a heartbreaking, but often understated, reality that America’s criminal justice system imprisons black folks at astonishingly high rates. The U.S. Bureau of Justice estimated that as of 2008, there were over 846,000 black men in prison, making up 40.2 percent of all inmates in the system. But in a recent talk, noted author Michelle Alexander put those numbers in grave historical perspective.

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