[Professor of sociology Becky] Pettit realised that many surveys conducted by government agencies exclude people in the prison population from their research and findings. When Pettit added them in, she found that it dramatically altered the picture of the status of black America, as the number of black Americans in jail is disproportionately high. About half of the 2.3 million people in US prisons are black.[...] When prisoners are included, the employment rate for young black men who have dropped out of school sinks from an already low 42% to 26%.[...] "We have developed a distorted view of how black Americans are faring in our society," Pettit said. The reason given for this in Pettit's work is the high rate of incarceration of black Americans. The rate is so steep that government estimates suggest that eventually one in three of all black male adults will spend some time in prison if current trends continue.
In the 1930s, blacks were three times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, but the figure now is seven times more likely. Some experts put this down to the "war on drugs", which has affected black communities far more than others, seeing increased arrests of blacks, often for non-violent offences. "There is no evidence that drug use is dramatically different by race or ethnicity, but the pattern of arrests is very different," said Ernest Drucker, author of a recent book, A Plague of Prisons.
By Paul Harris
October 13, 2012 | Observer
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