BLACK PRISONERS INCREASE WHILE POPULATION STAYS STEADY

Ellery Payton had it all growing up. Darius Rutledge did not.

Payton was born the son of a pastor, two well-off parents, in Norfolk, Va.
Rutledge grew up poor and fatherless in southeast Greensboro.

What they have in common is both are black and both have landed in the same
spot: the Guilford Correctional Center. That makes them part of a troubling
trend.

North Carolina's black population has remained steady for three decades;
the percentage of black people who are locked up has tripled.

The 2000 Census found 16 of every 1,000 black people in North Carolina
behind bars. In 1970, it was five of every 1,000.

In both 1970 and 2000, blacks made up 22 percent of the state's population.
But the percentage of all N.C. prisoners -- federal, state and local -- who
are black rose from 53 to 61.

Those numbers follow a national trend. Inmates, African American leaders,
law enforcement and legal experts suggest several causes:

- - Blacks commit a disproportionate number of serious crimes.

- - The war on drugs means more black arrests.

- - Racist police and courts single out blacks.

- - Black children are more likely to come from poor, single-parent families.
"It's a very complex issue," said William Marshall, who was High Point's
first black magistrate and repeatedly saw black suspects during his 26
years on the bench.

Marshall said he believes politics has prevented progress on the issue.

"It's just a mess," said Marshall, now retired. "It's not getting enough
attention."

David Dansby, an attorney and president of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People in Greensboro, said organizations such as his
should pay more attention to it.

"Some of it is economic, some of it is education, some of it is
environmental, and I guess some of it may involve some level of inequity in
the courts," Dansby said.

Whatever the reason, whites just are not as likely to go to jail, said Ron
Wright, a former federal prosecutor now teaching law at Wake Forest University.

"They just slip out of the system at every step of the way, while blacks
get into the system," said Wright, who is white.

Indeed, nearly twice as many blacks entered North Carolina prisons as
whites between 1995 and 2000.

Another way to look at state court rulings during that time: 76 percent of
whites received probation, and 24 percent served time; 65 percent of blacks
received probation, and 35 percent went to jail.

Although the causes are complicated, the numbers and their effects are clear.

More blacks, mostly men, in prison means more black children without
fathers and more children in poverty. Each additional prisoner of any race
means higher costs -- $23,000 annually -- to taxpayers.

And a rap sheet makes it harder to find work. That may mean a return to crime.

"If he deals drugs, he's likely to do it again because he can't find a
job," said Payton, 52, who is serving 30 years for kidnapping and robbery.

He may be paroled next year and has been looking for a work-release job as
a welder but can't find one.

"Poor minority communities cannot prosper when so many of their young men
are prevented from settling into long-term personal relationships, getting
or keeping jobs and living conventional lives," Michael Tonry concludes in
his 1995 book, "Malign Neglect -- Race, Crime and Punishment in America."

"The numbers are, or ought to be, shocking to every American," wrote Tonry,
a white University of Minnesota professor.

Others share Tonry's and the NAACP's concern.

The N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission is reviewing sentencing
patterns during the past seven years, not necessarily for racial
disparities but to check whether changes made in 1994 to deal with prison
crowding are working.

The review, expected to be completed in January, will include sentencing by
race, said John Madler, the commission's deputy director.

The proportion of blacks in jail is higher because poverty drives them to
crime, and blacks tend to commit an inordinate number of serious crimes
that put them away longer, Tonry concluded.

In North Carolina between 1995 and 2000, 64 percent of those imprisoned for
first-or second-degree murder, robbery, assault or sex crimes were black.

At the same time, Tonry and other court observers contend, too many blacks
are locked up for drug crimes.

Arresting blacks for drugs is easier because they sell drugs outdoors more
than whites, they say. Plus, drug laws focus on cocaine and crack cocaine,
common in black neighborhoods.

"The law is made for minorities," said Rutledge, 25, who is serving 28
years for murder and robbery. "So who commits the crime? Minorities."

Law officers agree the crackdown on drugs means jailing more blacks. From
1995 to 2000, 82 percent of all drug suspects sent to North Carolina
prisons were black.

"It's primarily an artifact of the drug war," said David Jones, executive
director of the N.C. Crime Commission.

But that doesn't mean cops are racist, said Jones, who is white. "A lot of
this is law enforcement responding to citizens," he said, which means
patrolling where people ask them to.

Some blacks call that racial profiling.

"It's like they're picking us out," said inmate Charlie Blackwell, 47, of
Yanceyville, also doing time at Guilford Correctional Center near McLeansville.

Tonry and others suggest there may be racism, blatant or veiled, on the
streets or in the courtroom. They say it can occur through police
practices, overworked public defenders and courtroom rules.

For example, rules permit attorneys to dismiss some potential jurors
without stating why, and some suspect prosecutors remove black jurors who
may be sympathetic to black defendants.

But they say there is no proof the system is weighted against African
Americans -- with the exception of drug laws.

Instead, the experts point to other causes, such as laws allowing
prosecutors to seek tougher sentences against repeat offenders, even if
their current charges are not among the most serious.

Blackwell is serving eight years under the habitual-felon law for forgery
and breaking and entering.

"A lot of us black inmates are in the system for petty crimes," Blackwell said.

At the same time, North Carolina's new sentencing laws have done away with
parole for the newest prisoners.

The underlying cause of disparities between black and white prisoners may
be green, Wright said.

Many blacks are poor and may be driven to crime. Then they cannot pay
lawyers and psychiatric experts to get them off.

"Money matters," Wright said.

Others blame the high rates of single-parent families and poverty and lower
educational levels among African Americans.

"Most of these kids, they don't get started off right," said Marshall, the
former magistrate who at times has opened his home to young black men,
hoping to be a role model. "It just seems every one of them, there was no
father there, their future was dim."

Rutledge, the inmate serving time for murder, said nothing will change
unless black families become stronger.

"The community itself is messed up," he said.

That may be true, Payton said. But being brought up in a bad environment is
no excuse to go bad.

"We can't really put it on upbringing, because I had an excellent
upbringing," Payton said. "A man has got to make a choice."