Baltimore Report Calls For Alternatives To Prison For Black Men

• 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