MORE BLACK MEN IN PRISON THAN COLLEGE, STUDY SAYS

Some Cite Prison-Building Boom Since '80

The number of black men in jail or prison has grown fivefold in the past 20
years, to the point where more black men are behind bars than are enrolled
in colleges or universities, according to a study released Tuesday.

The increase coincides with the prison construction boom that began 1980.
Then, black men enrolled in institutions of higher learning outnumbered men
behind bars by a 3-1 ratio, the study said.

The report was prepared by the Justice Policy Institute, which supports
alternatives to incarceration.

The study found that in 2000 there were 791,600 black men in jail or
prison, and 603,032 were enrolled in colleges or universities. By contrast,
the study said that in 1980, 143,000 African-American men were in jail or
prison while 463,700 were enrolled in colleges or universities.

Policy criticized

Some criminal-justice experts cautioned that it was somewhat misleading to
compare the number of black men in jail and prison with the number in
colleges and universities, because the number in jail and prison included
all adult black men ranging upward from 17 years old, while the number in
institutions of higher learning was confined to a smaller age range.

But Todd Clear, a professor of criminal justice at John Jay College in New
York, said the study's findings were still significant, suggesting "a
public policy far overemphasizing investment in criminal justice instead of
in education for this population of black men."

Incarcerations rise

The study did not directly address why the number of black men in jail and
prison climbed so quickly. Some experts suggested as one explanation a rise
in the number of black men serving time for drug offenses. But Justice
Department figures show that from 1990 to 2000, 50 percent of the growth in
inmate populations at state prisons was for violent crimes, and that only
20 percent was for drug crimes.

During the prison building boom of the past two decades, the number of
Americans of all races in jail or prison quadrupled, from 502,000 in 1980
to 2.1 million in 2000, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In
that same period, the number of Americans of all races attending colleges
and universities rose from 12.1 million to 14.8 million, according to the
National Center for Education Statistics.