Young Blacks Entangled in Legal System
Report Puts D.C. Rate At 50% of Men 18 to 35

By Cheryl W. Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer

Nearly half of the black men 18 to 35 years old in the District were
incarcerated, on parole or probation, awaiting trial or being sought on an
arrest warrant on any given day in the first quarter of 1997, according to a
report to be released today by an organization that supports alternatives to
incarceration.

The report by the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives said
24,377 black men 18 to 35 or nearly 50 percent of the city's black male
population in that age range were in the District's criminal justice
system from January through April. Based on U.S. Census Bureau data, the
center estimated that 48,856 black males of that age live in Washington.

The study by the nonprofit Alexandriabased organization is titled "Hobbling
a Generation: Young African American Males in Washington, D.C.'s Criminal
Justice System." It comes five years after the group released a similar
report that said 42 percent of the District's young black men were in the
criminal justice system.

City officials criticized the earlier study, saying that the numbers were too
high and that researchers did not scientifically account for men who could be
in more than one category.

There was no such outcry from D.C. officials and inmate advocates yesterday
about the new study. The report's author, Eric Lotke, suggested that there
was no reason to account for people who might, for example, have outstanding
warrants while also awaiting trial or being incarcerated or on parole because
city agencies provided him with the numbers. Lotke said he was confident the
numbers did not include individuals counted in more than one category.

D.C. Mayor Marion Barry said the group's research produced an "alarming and
disappointing" report.

"It certainly saddens me as an African American man that we have such a large
proportion of men that are in the criminal justice system," he said. "This
kind of news eats at the heart of the community because it affects the
stability of the family, and its negative impact trickles down to the
children, who suffer the most."

Jonathan Smith, executive director of the D.C. Prisoners' Legal Services
Project, called the report "shocking."

"What [the numbers] reflect is a devastation on a component of our
community," he said. "There's a great deal of hopelessness and not enough
opportunity."

On any given day in January, 5,081 black men from the District ages 18 to 35
were in the custody of the D.C. Department of Corrections, including the D.C.
jail, the Lorton Correctional Complex in Fairfax County or halfway houses,
the report said.

The report also said that 6,965 of the District's black men in the targeted
age group 14.3 percent were on probation and that 3,388 6.9 percent
were on parole. Additionally, the report said, 4,427 were on bond awaiting
trial and 4,516 had warrants out for their arrest.

Margaret A. Moore, acting director of the D.C. Corrections Department, said
the numbers reinforce the notion that governments are willing to spend more
on incarcerating people than on prevention and intervention programs.

"In order to address the problem, we have got to begin to focus more on
increasing the community's capacity to respond to the needs of the
population," Moore said. "We either invest at the front end . . . or pay at
the back end."

The center has lobbied for two decades to get more inmates sent to
communitybased rehabilitation programs instead of keeping them in prison.
Lotke said that nonviolent offenders, especially those charged with drug
possession, should be dealt with outside the justice system. He said about 29
percent of the District's inmates incarcerated on drug charges should be in
treatment programs.

D.C. Council member Jack Evans (DWard 2) blamed the lack of educational and
job opportunities for the rising number of young black men in the D.C.
criminal justice system.

"It's a statistic that is intolerable," said Evans, chairman of the council's
Judiciary Committee. "You're probably finding a large group coming through
our prison system without the proper education and facing a job market that
is not receptive to them.

Smith said racial disparity is to blame for the escalating numbers.

"We've criminalized young African American men," he said. "If you're in the
white community and you engage in drugs, nothing happens. If you're poor and
black, they come after you."

Smith said he wants D.C. officials and residents to address the problems.

"I hope that people will get angry," he said. "But I'd like to see us deal
with the problems through treatment or education. We need to keep from
perpetuating this awful, awful cycle."

_ Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company