1 in 5 young black city men in jail 52 percent are in prison or on parole or probation
With one-fifth of Baltimore's black men
in their 20s incarcerated, one research group advocating alternatives
to prison is questioning the efficacy of imprisonment for lowering
crime. More than half of Baltimore's black men in their 20s are in the
criminal justice system, according to a study released Tuesday by the
Washington-based Justice Policy Institute. Statewide, about one third
are in prison or jail or on parole or probation, according to "Tipping
Point: Maryland's Overuse of Incarceration and the Impact on Public
Safety." The report combines Maryland incarceration statistics with
conclusions from selected sociological studies and asks if much of the
money spent on incarceration would be better spent on drug treatment
and community redevelopment. "The basic idea is there are too many
people locked up," said Eric Lotke, co-author of the report and
research director for the Justice Policy Institute. "We basically said,
'We've got to tell people about this. We've got to connect these
dots."' More than half the city's 25,000 black men between 20 and 30
are under the supervision of the justice system. Almost 10 percent of
black men in their 20s statewide are in jail or prison, but in the city
of about 650,000 people the percentage is nearly 20 percent, the study
found. [more] and [more]
Arizona Governor Works to Reduce the Number of Minorites in Juvenile Jail An effort to reduce the number of
minorities in the Pima County Juvenile Detention Center has begun with
the backing of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. Napolitano was in Tucson
yesterday to praise the Juvenile Court's reform programs and call for
more adult volunteers to help children through the court system. The
court's effort is aimed at black, American Indian and Hispanic youths
because the percentages of those minorities in detention exceed their
percentages of the youth population as a whole. Blacks are the most
over-represented minority in juvenile detention here, court officials
said. The reform effort includes seeking community-based alternatives
to detention, such as after-school programs and Boys & Girls Clubs.
The court was awarded a three-year, $150,000 renewable grant from the
Annie E. Casey Foundation in May to begin reform and hired a social
worker last month who led an effort in Santa Cruz County to develop
community-based alternatives to detention for young people. Tucson Citizen March 16, 2005
