AFRICAN AMERICANS OVER-REPRESENTED IN IOWA PRISONS

According to a report from the Task Force on Overrepresentation of
African Americans in Prison, 24 percent of the state's prison
population in 1999 was African-American even though blacks comprised
just over 2 percent of Iowa's population. Another key finding was that
in 1999, 3 percent of the state's African-American population was in
prison and 7 percent was under some form of criminal-justice
supervision (such as probation or parole). In contrast, 0.2 percent of
the white population was serving a prison sentence in 1999. The
solution, according to the task force, includes increasing support for
early education; addressing the unemployment rate for African-American
youth; and increasing access to substance-abuse and mental-health care.