PANEL URGES STEPS TO CUT MINORITY PRISON RATE

Vilsack Says More Should Be Done To Improve The Chances Of Minorities In
The State.

Gov. Tom Vilsack said Monday he was disturbed by the findings of a state
task force that studied reasons for the disproportionate imprisonment of
African-Americans in Iowa.

Vilsack said Iowa must do a better job of improving educational
opportunities and living conditions for minorities.

"Raising children is the job of parents, not government. But Iowa must do
more to help at-risk youth succeed," he said. "If we're going to break this
vicious cycle, it's got to start with the young people in our neighborhoods
and cities."

The task force noted that while Iowa went on a prison-building spree during
the past decade, not enough has been done about underlying societal
problems that lead people to commit crimes.

"For many African-Americans, this message is undeniable. In 1999, the state
of Iowa spent $5,997 to educate each student in public primary and
secondary schools. That same year, the state spent $18,500 to house each
inmate in a state correctional facility," the group's 30- page report said.

Its far-ranging recommendations include: increased support for early
childhood education, a statewide review of school districts' disciplinary
policies, a job internship program for young African- Americans, more money
for drug-abuse treatment and changes in sentencing policies for drug offenses.

The task force also wants the state to collect information about traffic
stops to help determine whether minorities are subjected to racial
profiling by police.

The two-year study, which Vilsack ordered, was led by Rep. Wayne Ford, a
Democrat from Des Moines, and Diane Wilder-Tomlinson, warden of the women's
prison at Mitchellville.

"This has been an effort that's long overdue," Wilder-Tomlinson said.

African-Americans make up just more than 2 percent of the state's
population and one-fourth of its prison population.

Three percent of the state's African-Americans were in prison in 1999, and
7 percent were under some form of judicial supervision. Two-tenths of 1
percent of the white population was serving a prison sentence.

Vilsack, a Democrat, said he was consulting with the Iowa State Bar
Association about proposed sentencing changes.

"Does it make sense that (for) relatively the same substance, crack cocaine
versus cocaine . . . that you would have disproportionately higher
sentences for one as opposed to the other? Is that fair? Does that make
sense? I think these are questions we've got to ask ourselves," Vilsack said.

Ford said it was time to review school district disciplinary policies and
focus more on training teachers to relate to minority students and their
families.

While 3.6 percent of all public students in Iowa are African-American,
blacks constitute nearly 15 percent of all students suspended from school
for misbehaving, the task force's report said.

Study Findings

A state task force has completed its study of factors contributing to the
disproportionate imprisonment of African-Americans in Iowa. Here are a few
of the group's findings:

* African-American students on average fall into the highest number of
"at-risk" categories, which affect performance in school. These negative
factors include weakened family structures, poverty, learning disorders,
behavioral problems and disorders, gang involvement, teen- age sex and
pregnancy, drug abuse, violence and crime.

* In 1999, African-American children in Iowa were more likely to experience
low or very low birth weights than white children. The mortality rate for
black infants was four times greater than that of white babies.

* In 2000, the overall Iowa jobless rate was 2.6 percent, but for
African-Americans it was 10.5 percent. The unemployment rate for
African-Americans ages 16 to 19 was 39.9 percent.