EDITORIAL: VEXING PRISON TRENDS

The Governor's Crime Commission has formed a committee to study the issue
of the exploding number of African-American males in the state's prisons.
The pattern is in need of an explanation.

The near-doubling of North Carolina's prison and jail population over a
10-year period has a range of causes and consequences. A parallel surge in
total population has brought about some of the increase, of course. And
police and prosecutors have taken seriously the public demand that they get
tough on crime, especially crime that's drug-related. They also have
delivered the goods, that is to say the convicted, in ever-growing numbers.

Yet a rapidly growing rate of incarceration has brought a different set of
problems. For example, besides overcrowding in jails and state prisons, the
increase makes it less likely that rehabilitation will take place or that
repeat criminal activity will be deterred. And there is this unsettling
fact: the number of African-American males locked up in North Carolina has
doubled in the space of a decade, according to a study of census figures by
The N&O's Ned Glascock. At the end of last year, that group totaled almost
27,000.

A recent Charlotte Observer study found similarly that, while only 3
percent of black males in North Carolina are behind bars, they are there in
disproportionate numbers -- amounting to about 63 percent of inmates in 78
prisons. Ten years ago, 19 of every 1,000 black males in the state were
locked up. The number grew to 33 of 1,000 last year, even as overall crime
rates were going down.

Meanwhile, The N&O article noted that blacks make up 76 percent of inmates
serving time for drug offenses (and a startling 92 percent of those jailed
for sale or possessing with intent to sell Schedule II drugs, the two most
common categories of drug charges). The trend in all its dimensions as it
relates to black residents has led the Gov-ernor's Crime Commission to form
a special committee to study it.

In the eyes of some North Carolinians, the explanation is as simple as, "Do
the crime, do the time." They point out that a high percentage of crimes
today are drug-related; that black communities have complained strongly
about drug-dealing in their neighborhoods; and that police have responded
in force. They add, too, that it's generally easier to nab drug dealers on
inner-city street corners than in largely white outlying neighborhoods.
Penalties for violations involving crack cocaine, a drug that's a
particular plague in black communities, are notoriously harsh, and
structured sentencing laws have eliminated the chance of parole.

But even more factors come into play. For example, state Department of
Correction Secretary Theodis Beck blames the arrest trend on alcoholism and
drug addiction, high school dropouts and the breakup of families. He says
it will take a determined community effort -- the home, the school, and the
church -- to change the picture.

The state, too, bears some of the blame, in that inadequate drug treatment,
in and outside of prison, feeds a system where more and more prison cells
are needed. Whenever young people are allowed to slip away into
lawbreaking, because of poor education, lack of opportunity or other such
adverse influences, the cost to society and to taxpayers just goes up.

Both the overall prisoner figures and the one for African-American males
show, in any event, that North Carolina has a sentencing and incarceration
problem of considerable dimensions. A searching look by the Governor's
Crime Commission may be a good place to start in coming to grips with how
to respond.