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Photograph: Ric Francis/AP

On MLK day, one set of data to remember: Almost one in 10 young black men are behind bars.

California spends $47,102 per inmate per year. It is a national disgrace. The mass incarceration of African-Americans is the civil rights issue of the day. The statistics are horrific.

One in three African-American boys born in 2001 stands a lifetime risk of going to jail, according to the American Leadership Forum.

In 2007, one in every 15 black children had a parent in prison. According to Ohio State University law professor and author Michelle Alexander, there are more African-American men in prison, on probation or on parole in the US now than there were enslaved in 1850.

More here.