NO. 1 RANKING IS A SIGN SOMETHING'S ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF WISCONSIN

We're Number One! We're Number One!

Congratulations, Wisconsin! You've grabbed the top rung on the ladder,
bringing a well-deserved championship title to all of us here in Dairyland.

Too bad it's for incarcerating black people.

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics told us the depressing news last
week. The incarceration rate for African-American offenders in Wisconsin is
more than 10 times what it is for whites.

Here in Dairyland, we incarcerate 4,058 black prison and jail inmates for
every 100,000 black residents.

That's a "winning" percentage that sets us far ahead of the closest
competitors, Iowa and even a tough law-and-order state like Texas.

It's not really a surprise. We've been contending for this particular title
for years.

Maybe it has something to do with our hypersegregated communities here,
vast stretches of geography where many blacks are congested in seemingly
monolithic communities, some overrun by drugs, violence and poverty.

Perhaps it's the prison-building mentality of a certain former governor,
whose motto seemed to be: "If you build it, they will come."

A 10-to-1 ratio in the incarceration of blacks vs. whites may seem like a
reasonable statistic to some of you.

But in a state where African-Americans account for barely 6 percent of the
population, it is a dire situation that demands explanation.

For many African-Americans, something seems fishy.

Particularly if you happen to be an African-American who lives in one of
those communities where black men of a certain age seem to consider prison
or jail time a necessary rite of passage.

Or, if you are a law-abiding African-American with good values who realizes
publicizing these types of numbers only reinforces the all-too-common
perception that equates "blacks" and "criminals."

Most significantly, if you're a black parent with a child near adulthood.

You read these numbers and soberly understand your child's chances of
ending up behind bars after an encounter with what many regard as the
criminal "just us" system.

Because when blacks look at the numbers in prison, they see "just us."

My perspective on black incarceration rates comes through frequent
communication with men behind bars.

Just about every week, I get phone calls or letters from inmates in the
prison system or doing jail time in Milwaukee County.

(It happened three times last week).

These are black men calling with a tale of woe, or to complain about unfair
treatment behind bars. They are reaching out to a black newspaper columnist
to spread their story to the world.

Most times, there's nothing I can do except listen or read the letter.

One of the most memorable conversations was with a young black man serving
a seven-year sentence because he was caught with a crack pipe.

Another inmate was doing five years because of a parole violation. He
wasn't living at the correct residence, so his parole was revoked.

Some of these men are bad people caught doing wrong who are now trying to
rationalize their illegal behavior with claims of mistreatment and racism.

Others have made serious mistakes in their lives only to discover prison
life is a lot tougher than expected. Most are not killers or rapists or
robbers. They are prisoners, wondering why everybody in the pen looks just
like them.

Who's to blame? Judging by my mailbag, the most popular choice: Poor morals
and low self-esteem in the black community. Many seem to believe blacks are
naturally more criminally inclined than other races - a racist assumption
on its face. Read that sentence again and see why.

What makes more sense is to dive into the numbers in search of answers.

Then you discover many blacks incarcerated in Wisconsin are there for
largely non-violent drug offenses, often the same type of drug offenses
that get a slap on the wrist for white offenders.

Now we're getting warmer.

Many experts point to disproportionate sentencing of blacks for non-violent
drug crimes as a major explanation for the high rate of black incarceration.

Others see that as just another case of "playing the race card."

But what they can never explain away is this fact: In a society where it's
acknowledged 70% of the people who use illegal drugs are white, why are so
many blacks and Hispanics in prison and jail for drug offenses?

Blaming black people for the high rate of incarceration in Wisconsin is an
attractive position.

It places the onus on blacks - who many whites feel complain and whine too
much about being victims of racism - to clean up their own communities.

Good premise, but it ignores the reality that blacks in poor communities
don't have the resources to counteract decades of poverty, drugs and
violence by themselves.

I get tired of talking to white readers who want answers about black crime.
These are people seemingly convinced about the level of criminality that
exists in black neighborhoods simply because they read a newspaper headline
or zoom past the area on their way to somewhere else.

What they need to consider: Black people who live in these neighborhoods
are victims of crime much more than most whites.

These black residents are the ones who understand the difference between a
criminal who needs to be behind bars and a young person who made a mistake
and would be better served by not being locked up.

If even blacks living in high-crime neighborhoods are concerned about what
the black incarceration rate is doing to their communities, everyone else
should pay heed, too.

Locking up black offenders is an easy way to fool white residents into
feeling safer. As long as blacks are the ones being placed behind bars most
often, nobody steps back to question whether this particular "title" is a
good thing for Wisconsin.

If somebody decides to hold a championship parade, count me out.