PRISON REPORT SHOWS STATE'S CRISIS OF VISION

In a sense, it's old, stale news.

The nonprofit Grassroots Leadership group on Monday told us something we
already knew - that in Mississippi, like many other Southern states, we
spend millions of tax dollars to lock people in cages, money we could spend
to educate them to become productive citizens.

In a report titled "Education versus Incarceration: A Mississippi Case
Study," the Charlotte, N.C.-based organization also observed that:

a.. Mississippi's appropriations for corrections rose 115 percent from 1989
to 1998, while its higher education appropriations increased less that 1
percent over the same period. b.. The state built 16 new correctional
facilities in the 1990s, including six private prisons. c.. There are
nearly twice as many African-American men in state prisons as there are
enrolled in the state's institutions of higher learning.

Again, we already knew most of this, but the dichotomies are only growing.
If there was ever a time to call "time out" and develop a fresh approach -
especially on diversity and our business plan for private prisons - that
time is now. State's cupboard bare

It's no secret that the state has broken all the piggy banks in its quest
to address its current budget woes.

The state Division of Medicaid is projecting a budget deficit of $120
million for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The state Department of Human Services has said it will cut employees and
reduce services if it doesn't receive an additional $19.8 million for the
next budget year.

The state College Board last week hiked tuition 8 percent for the 2002-2003
school year, as its budget has been slashed more than $98 million since
2000. And the Legislature cut $60 million from the public schools' budget.

But lawmakers included in the Department of Corrections' budget language
that guaranteed that private prisons be paid in full while other agencies,
including state-run prisons, be underfunded.

This type of public policy is criminal.

Those who own private prisons - and apparently those charged with paying
their bills - have a vested interest in the fate of citizens who become
involved in criminal activity.

That's one explanation why, according to the study, 67 percent of
Mississippi prisoners are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses - which
suggests that viable, less expensive alternatives to incarceration are
available.

Demographics tell tale

But one of the most disturbing elements of the study's findings deals with
prison demographics.

More than 72 percent of those in Mississippi prisons are African-Americans,
while only 33 percent of those enrolled in college are African-American.

That fact suggests that mentoring programs like Big Brothers and Big
Sisters and similar initiatives designed to keep those at risk headed in
the right direction must get even busier.

Those statistics also suggest something else. Nationwide research has long
illustrated that while people of color are more likely to be imprisoned for
a drug offense, they are not the majority among perpetrators of drug crimes.

"African Americans constitute only 13 percent of all monthly illegal drug
users, but they account for 35 percent of all arrests for the possession of
the drugs, 55 percent of all drug convictions and 74 percent of all those
receiving drug-related prison sentences," according to the report, which
cited the work of author Joel Dyer.

Again, most of this is old news. But to continue a public policy that
favors an unbalanced system that sends more of us to cages than to college
is simply insane.