Why are , are prisons overpopulated by African Americans?

I had to pick one, and it's not a matter of being "unlucky" or "they don't know any better".
Luck means taking advantage of the opportunities that come our way. Everyone is "lucky" every once in a while, but the fact is that the happiest and most successful people may not have the best of everything, but they do make the MOST of everything!
Valuing an edcuation, respecting yourself & others, taking responsibilities for your actions & not placing blame on others for what happens to self, being satisfied with what you have, living within your means, & and avoiding other people's drama, are the key ingredients to avoiding prison to begin with, and every single one of us has the ability to do so...Hard work, perserverance, and determination are what it takes to become "successful", and it has nothing to do with the color of our skin we happen to be born.
And the old excuse of people not knowing better, is just that, an excuse. Excuses are like buttholes. Everyone has one and they all STINK! I know plenty of people, including myself, who came up in poverty, people of all colors, who managed to grow up to be productive memebers of this society. We work hard, pay our taxes, and have lovely families of our own, by managing NOT to repeat the cycle we grew up in. Poverty doesn't mean a person automatically lacks morals or is ethically bankrupt. While people living in poverty aren't very much able to provide much attention both finacially, and emotionally to their kids, it doesn't mean you should teach your kids to be losers and users, who commit crimes, and blame their actions on others. And most of us don't, but it's those, who justify what they do, like sell drugs, or living off the government because they feel unfairly treated or entitled to do so, who mess it up for the rest of us.
Why should the government invest in good paying jobs and education when they can throw some money at prisons, and kill two birds with one stone. No need to create jobs, and let the poor hurt & kill each other (decreasing the population), and then stick them in a cell. It's cheaper to 'keep" them than to actually have to follow through with that whole "job creation and education plans" and promises they preach about while campaigning for the job that got them into office in the first place!

The fact is that minority on minority crime has, and continues to be, the number one cause of incarseration. From drug dealing, to gang banging, and everything in betwteen, minorities are comminting these crimes against people of their own color. Black on black, brown on brown, and even white on white crime, are the reasons prisons are overcrowded, and since prisons are like any other business, what incentive/motive does a business owner have to discourage his money-makers from commiting more crimes? They are getting paid to provide a service. A service that wouldn't be necessary in the first place, if folks weren't out there committing crimes. So for a minority to blame "the white man" for the jail cell they find themselves is, is inexcuseable.

Some folks want to live large, but don't want to do the work necssary to make living large possible. Selling drugs and committing crimes is the easy way out. But as we all know, nothing worth having in this life, is ever EASY getting. Try telling that to some people though.