Thirty Percent Of Black Men In Us Will Go To Jail

"Black men born in the United States in 2001 will have a one in
three chance of going to prison during their lifetime if current
trends continue, according to a report by the US Justice
Department."

Thirty Percent Of Black Men In Us Will Go To Jail

by Gary Younge in New York - August 19, 2003 - The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1021430,00.html

Black men born in the United States in 2001 will have a one in three
chance of going to prison during their lifetime if current trends
continue, according to a report by the US Justice Department.
More than 5.6 million Americans are either in prison or have served
time there - and that number will continue to rise, the report
shows.

By the end of 2001 one in every 37 Americans had some experience of
prison, compared with one in 53 in 1974. Continuing at that rate,
the proportion will increase to one in every 15 of those born in
2001.

In 2001 a sixth of African-American men were current or former
prisoners, compared with one in 13 Latinos and one in 38 whites. The
incarceration of women remains lower than of men but has increased
at twice the rate since 1980 and shows similar racial disparities.
"Prison had become the social policy of choice for low income people
of colour," says Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing
Project, a group which promotes reduced reliance on imprisonment.
"Nobody’s stated it that way but we have inner-city areas starved of
investment but no shortage of funds to build and fill prisons."

Those incarcerated for the first time accounted for two-thirds of
the growth in prison population between 1974 and 2001. This is
largely the result of the war on drugs and mandatory minimum
sentencing: one in four inmates in federal and state prisons is in
for drug-related offences, most non-violent. "Every dollar spent on
drug treatment is better employed reducing crime than one spent
building prisons," said Mr Mauer.

The effect of high imprisonment rates goes beyond crime to
employment and enfranchisement. More than 4 million prisoners or
former prisoners are denied the right to vote, and in 12 states that
ban remains for life.

The prison system also ill prepares people for release, making
recidivism more likely. Only about 13% of prisoners take part in a
pre-release programme.

"Our contemporary prisons basically replicate the social order that
produced the offenders to begin with," Mark Kleiman, a professor of
public policy at the University of California at Los Angeles, told
the Atlantic Monthly.