Posted on 08/29/2002 4:17:36 PM PDT by blam
More black men behind bars in US than in college
By Sam Leith in New York
(Filed: 29/08/2002)
There are now more black men behind bars in America than in its colleges or universities, according to a study by a Washington-based think tank.
The Justice Policy Institute, a "research and advocacy" centre that opposes expansion in the penal system, said there had been a fivefold increase in the black prison population in the past two decades. It coincided with a boom in prison construction that started in 1980.
In 1980, there were 463,700 black men in university, three times as many as the 143,000 in custody. By 2000 there were 791,600 black men behind bars and only 603,032 enrolled in higher education, the institute reports.
While the numbers in custody came from across the adult population, and those in higher education were mostly from a much smaller age range, Todd Clear, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said the figures were still highly significant.
"The raw figures speak for themselves," he said. "There has been around a 40 per cent increase in the college population over a period when there has been a 500 per cent increase in the prison and jail population.
"There has been a public policy far overemphasising investment in criminal justice instead of in education for this population. It tells you that the life chance of a black male going to prison is greater today than the chance of a black male going to college."
Mr Clear said that the last year that saw a fall in the overall prison population in America was 1971. Then, there were around 350,000 people, of all races, behind bars. Now there are 2.1 million. The crime rate, he added, was around the same today as it was in 1972.
The huge increase was brought about by a succession of state and federal policies under different legislations. For example, a number of states in the early 1990s introduced "three strikes and you're out" rules, incarcerating three-time felons for life.
The previous Bush administration increased the chances of prison time for drug offences from around 15 per cent to more than 50 per cent. The Clinton administration's "truth in sentencing" drive provided financial incentives for states to make sure that violent criminals served not less than 85 per cent of the sentence imposed.
According to figures from the Justice Department, around 50 per cent of the increase in the overall prison population since 1990 related to violent crime. "This is because policies that are 'tough on crime' are politically risk free," Prof Clear said.
"They are made by politicians seeking election on the basis of what sounds good at the time, and paid for by people not yet voting. Their effects on the prison population do not come into play until 10 or 15 years down the line."
A spokesman for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People told the New York Times: "It is indeed a sad statement about our nation that it appears to be easier for governments to invest precious public dollars into the incarceration of African-American men than it is for them to invest in higher education."
Whites,hispanics and indians and folks from Pluto are all not college bound either I say call a Waaaaaaaaaaaambulance.
Then again, I never stuck up a 7/11.
The solution is obvious: relocate our leading universities inside prisons. Columbia goes to Attica, Berkeley goes to Folsom, SF State goes to San Quentin, etc. That way, the deprived cons get a college education, and the professors and coeds get to spend quality time with their favorite people, the oppressed victims of the racist patriarchy. Everybody wins.
And yet they continue to piss and moan about being stereotyped as criminals.
Save it! You're gonna need it to pay for all those kids these men left behind.
I read an article in the Houston Chronicle just before I left there in 1994 about a 21 year old black guy who was sentenced to life in prison w/o parole for multiple homocides. At 21 years old, this lover boy had six kids by five different women, all on welfare. ...and you know where these kids will likely end up!!!
Where does this cycle stop????
The Telegraph indeed ...
Puke. Federal loans are already available. Money ain't the problem.
Of course, the NAACP already knows that. But they don't care about the truth.
...is totally within his control.
I don't believe they arrest and incarcerate black bank managers, computer programmers, salesmen, college instructors, or PGE workers.
Possibly because black men take TV sets more often than they take SAT tests.
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