President Obama bans solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons, prohibits it for adults confined for low-level infractions, and reduces confinement from 365 to 60 days for a first offense.....People of color make up 60 percent of prison inmates, and are disproportionately Black males....By www.clevelandurbannews.com Editor-in-Chief Kathy Wray Coleman

 President Obama speaks with inmates at the El Reno Federal Penitentiary in Oklahoma on July 16, 2015, the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. On Monday, the president issued executive actions to curb solitary confinement for juveniles and adults, among other initiatives.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 23-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio.  (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). CLICK HERE TO GO TO KATHY WRAY COLEMAN AT GOOGLE PLUS WHERE SHE HAS SOME 2.5 MILLION INTERNET VIEWS alone. 

Black Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman interviewed now President Barack Obama one-on-one when he was running for president. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-WASHINGTON, D.C.- President Barack Obama, on Monday, issued a ban on solitary confinement for juvenile offenders in the federal prison system as part of a series of executive actions that also prohibit solitary confinement for low-level infractions for adults, and reduces the number of days a prisoner can be in 
confinement for a first offense from 365 to 60 days.

Roughly 10,000 federal prisoners are serving time in solitary confinement, though only a handful are juveniles.

The reforms, which include a host of other initiatives, come six months after a study by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on solitary confinement and other unconstitutional infractions in the nation's' federal prisons.

The U.S.has the largest prison population in the world.

And while people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States population, they account for roughly 60 percent of those imprisoned in state and federal facilities across the country, and are disproportionately Black males, according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics 

America's first Black president and the first sitting president to visit a federal prison, Obama said that the public policy changes on solitary confinement are necessary to address the psychological impact of unnecessary and excessive solitary confinement.

“How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people?” the president wrote in an op-ed ad published Tuesday in the Washington Post. 

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick

Last summer the president visited the El Reno Federal Penitentiary in Oklahoma where he met with inmates. Also housed there is former Democratic Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is serving a 28-year sentence for crimes in office when he was mayor, a sentence that Blacks traditionally view as malicious, partisan bound, and racially motivated. 

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).