BLACK MEN NEED DIPLOMAS, NOT INCARCERATION

PHILADELPHIA - I was disturbed, but not surprised, to hear that there are
more black men in prison than are enrolled in college. According to a
recent report, the number of incarcerated black men has grown fivefold over
the past two decades. Black men, while less than 7 percent of the U.S.
population, are half of the nation's prisoners.

The study, prepared by the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute, found
that in 2000, there were 791,600 black men behind bars and 603,032 enrolled
in colleges and universities. But this was not always the case. Twenty
years earlier, there were three times as many men enrolled in higher
education (463,700) as there were in prisons and jails (143,000). The shift
began with the prison construction boom of the 1980s. Many states increased
spending for prisons and cut spending for education. The new prisons helped
to revitalize economically depressed white communities, using men of color
as the primary human raw materials to fuel that growth, according to law
professor and civil-rights advocate Lani Guinier, as well as my own research.

While urban schools are crumbling, prisons are big business and are
thriving. In states such as California, prison guards with high-school
diplomas can earn more than teachers with college degrees. The California
Correctional Peace Officer's Association is one of the state's most
powerful lobbies and aggressively advocates for "get tough on crime" policies.

Meanwhile, the failed war on drugs has targeted people of color and
resulted in outrageously lengthy sentences for nonviolent offenders. Many
have fallen prey to public-policy disasters such as California's "three
strikes" law, which mandates life in prison even for nonviolent offenses
such as petty theft, forgery or credit-card fraud, if these are the third
offense.

"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,"
says Hilary O. Shelton, director of the Washington bureau of the NAACP.

As a black man who will soon become a lawyer, this is an issue that hits
close to home for me. This past summer, I visited black and Latino male
inmates in two New York state correctional facilities. New York is typical
of the problem of men of color in the prison system. In New York state,
where whites are 63 percent of the population, the prison population is 51
percent black and 32 percent Hispanic. Most of these inmates come from a
handful of poor communities in New York City. Meanwhile, the state ranks
48th in growth in per-capita spending for higher education.

Surely, some of the individuals I met were imprisoned for violent crimes, a
result of a misguided youth and bad personal choices. Some were caught up
in the drug trade. Many have spent their entire adult life behind bars and
have had time to reflect upon the ways in which they can improve their
lives and become productive citizens.

Ironically, many of the inmates I met had received their GED in prison. A
few had received their bachelor's degree, and one man had even earned a
master's degree. It took a prison sentence for these men to receive the
proper education they deserved.

Meanwhile, as I walk the halls of the University of Pennsylvania Law
School, I note with dismay that only four of the 340 first-year students
are black men. It is shameful that in the so-called land of opportunity,
society has placed black men on a fast-track career path to the
penitentiary. This country must shift its misplaced priorities and reverse
this disturbing trend of incarcerating black men.

David A. Love is president of the Black Law Students Association at the
University of Pennsylvania Law School.