01 February 2007

PBS does Generation Next

And it's not good news for everyone.
Generation Next -- those young adults born in the 1980s -- are by and large healthier than their recent predecessors. Compared to the late 1980s when Generation X came of age, drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy and teen suicide are all down.
Unfortunately there's a huge anomaly in the statistics...
One out of three black men in this generation will go to jail or prison by the time he is 35 years old, according to Harry Holzer, co-author of "Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men."

From 1979 to 1999, the risk of imprisonment for black high school dropouts by the age of 30-34 rose from 17 percent to nearly 59 percent, according Western's calculations. That rate is more than five times what it is for white high school dropouts.
It's being characterized as a "lost generation."

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