PRISON RATES AMONG BLACKS REACH A PEAK, REPORT FINDS

An estimated 12 percent of African-American men ages 20 to 34 are in
jail or prison, according to a report released yesterday by the
Justice Department.

The proportion of young black men who are incarcerated has been rising
in recent years, and this is the highest rate ever measured, said
Allen J. Beck, the chief prison demographer for the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, the statistical arm of the Justice Department.

By comparison, 1.6 percent of white men in the same age group are
incarcerated.

The report found that the number of people in United States jails and
prisons exceeded 2 million for the first time last year, rising to
2,019,234.

That represented an increase of 0.3 percent in the number of people
behind bars, in keeping with a slowdown in the prison boom since the
late 1990's, Mr. Beck said. But the number of inmates is still four
times what it was before the enormous increase in the prison
population began in the mid-1970's.

The small growth in the overall prison population last year included
larger changes in some states, the report found.

California, which has the largest state prison system, with 160,315
inmates, had a 2.2 percent decrease in its number of prisoners in 2002.

Texas, which has the second-largest state prison system, with 158,131
inmates, had a drop of 3.9 percent, the report said.

New York, with the fourth-largest state prison system, had a decline
of 2.9 percent.

In California, much of the decline stemmed from a ballot referendum
two years ago that mandated treatment rather than prison time for
nonviolent drug crimes.

The drop in Texas was the result of efforts by state prison officials
to save money by finding alternatives to imprisoning parole violators,
Mr. Beck saidy