THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050422
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
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 this were basically white youth in this dilemma or sentenced at this level, we would assume something is wrong with the system, not something wrong with the children,'' said civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.
The report was released by The Sentencing Project, a research group that advocates drug treatment and alternatives to prison. It 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. They are 74 percent of prisoners serving time on drug charges, the report said.
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 author and radio host Armstrong Williams said it's obvious that police target black youths more aggressively than whites - and that blacks are responsible for a disproportionate share of crime.
The only hope is to teach young black men religion and morality and to ``change this racist system,'' he said.
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 of black men.
``The figures in our report are evidence of that crisis,'' said Marc Mauer, co-author of the study.
KEYWORDS: STATISTICS CRIME AFRICAN-AMERICANS by CNB