1 ZIP code home to highest rate of Black male incarceration in country
America's Black Holocaust Museum will officially reopen next week. One exhibit highlights mass incarceration in Wisconsin.
America's Black Holocaust Museum will officially reopen next week. One exhibit highlights mass incarceration in Wisconsin.
America's Black Holocaust Museum will officially reopen next week. One exhibit highlights mass incarceration in Wisconsin.
America's Black Holocaust Museum will officially reopen next week.
WISN 12 got a first look at one exhibit highlighting mass incarceration in Wisconsin.
There's one Milwaukee ZIP code that leads the nation.
"Wisconsin has the dubious distinction of having the highest Black male incarceration rate of any state in this country and when you look at the incarceration of women, we have the second-highest incarceration rate for Black women as well," head museum griot Reggie Jackson told WISN 12.
The 53206 ZIP code has the highest incarceration rate of Black men in the country at 62%.
"People came to Milwaukee for those high-paying, high-quality manufacturing jobs, family-supporting wage jobs, but 53206 is an example of what happens when those jobs are no longer available. When manufacturing rates are exceptionally high, you see what you see in 53206, unfortunately," Jackson said. "We're one of only a handful of states who spends more money on our department of corrections than we do on higher education system in the state of Wisconsin."
"What do you think that says about the issue of recidivism and making sure that there are things put in place to make sure that people are not sent back to prison?" WISN 12's Gerron Jordan asked Jackson.
"It's really helped destabilize the Black community, many children growing up without their fathers because they're incarcerated and it's something that's not really driven by crime," he said.
America's Black Holocaust Museum officially reopens on Feb. 25 with an opening ceremony at 9 a.m.