Prison Rate For Black Men by: Becky Pettits

A university of Washington reseacher taking a different approach in the exploration of a familar pattern, has focused found that african american are more likely end up in prison then enter the military or gain a bachelor degree. The Research also quantified the commonly held impression that black men incarcerated at much higher rate then whites.

A study by UW sociologist Becky Pettit determined that african american men who reached their 30s by 1999 went to prison at a much higher rate then black men 20 years earlier. There also was a much stronger correlation between inprisonment and a lack of education for black men than white men, Pettit's research found. Research found that not only were black mens who reached their early 30s by 1999 almost seven times more likely to have been in prison than white men, but that 60 percent of black men who dropped out of high school ended up in prison.

For Blackmen with some college education, the incarceration rate remained about constant, following from 6 percent in 1979 to 5 percent in 1999, the study found.

While young african american men in general have attained less education than whites, the study suggests that other factors are also at play in their incarceration.

The war on drugs and other changes in the penal code, coupled with the fact that education is far more important economically today than it was 20 years ago, may have led to the huge diparity, she said. We are locking up0 men who are already disadvantaged at higher rates than 30 years ago, Pettit said.