Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CONNIE CASS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Almost one in every three young black men is serving a criminal sentence - either prison, probation or parole - according to a study by an advocacy group. That's a dramatic increase from five years earlier, when the proportion was one in four.
The statistics released Wednesday are sure to fuel arguments about whether blacks are treated fairly by the criminal justice system - a theme that permeated the O.J. Simpson trial. It also is an issue cited by organizers of a national black men's march for unity and atonement.
``If one in three young white men were under criminal justice supervision, the nation would declare a national emergency,'' said Marc Mauer, co-author of the study by The Sentencing Project, a research group that supports alternatives to prison.
The report argues that the mandatory minimum sentences and stepped-up enforcement that began with the 1980s ``war on drugs'' have fallen disproportionately on blacks and women.
The report says that explains why blacks accounted for 24 percent of all drug arrests in 1980, but the figure climbed to 39 percent in 1993.
Blacks make up 12 percent of the U.S. population.
A Justice Department spokesman, John Russell, said the department ``has no quarrel'' with the report's numbers.
But he disputed the suggestion that blacks are more likely to be prosecuted under federal drug laws than whites accused of the same offense.
The numbers, said Russell, probably ``reflect the social and economic factors that have a disproportionate effect on the African-American community.''
Black leaders supporting the Oct. 16 march planned by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and those who oppose it, have been united in declaring a crisis for black men.
``The figures in our report are evidence of that crisis,'' Mauer said.
Using Justice Department statistics, the report estimates that on any given day this year, 32 percent of black men ages 20 to 29 are serving a criminal sentence.
That's 827,400 young black men in jail or prison, or on probation or parole. It doesn't include those who are awaiting trial or younger than 20.
The estimate was based on 1994 figures, which show 30.2 percent of young black men serving criminal sentences last year, compared with 6.7 percent of young white men.
Among black women, the figure was 4.8 percent, and among white women, 1.4 percent.
Although the women's convictions remain much less frequent than men's, they have been growing at a faster rate since the 1989 report.
The number of young black women under criminal justice supervision increased 78 percent by 1994; 40 percent more white women are serving sentences. Black men doing time increased 31 percent; white men, 8 percent.
by CNB