Post by drok9 on Feb 5, 2007 20:43:24 GMT -5
Risks higher on the outside
Local observers cite social ills after study finds blacks less likely to die in prison than in own communities
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, January 28, 2007
Black Americans are significantly more likely to survive in prison than in their own neighborhoods, according to a new study released earlier this month.
The difference, researchers say, is murder.
Disproportionately high murder rates within black communities have long fueled debates over basic social, economic and educational inadequacies in many minority neighborhoods. But in prison, studies show blacks are the least likely to be killed.
"That's really the story about why blacks have lower death rates in prisons," said Christopher Mumola, a policy analyst for the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the report's author. "It's very much driven by homicide."
While white and Hispanic inmates were slightly more likely to die from disease or violence behind bars, the mortality rate among black state prison inmates was 57 percent lower than their counterparts of similar age on the outside, the study found.
The report was the first truly detailed analysis of death in U.S. prisons.
"It's a sobering statistic," Mumola said.
This latest finding refocuses a debate that has traditionally centered on the pace at which blacks are jailed in America to the neighborhoods these inmates are born into and return to when they get out.
"It doesn't say anything good about prison. It says everything bad about the neighborhoods," said Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Bond, who visited Siena College last week, said the numbers reflect a myriad of other disadvantages blacks face in society -- barren inner-city neighborhoods filled with failing schools and devoid of jobs or other opportunities.
With drug policies that target minor players, prison is a common path for urban poor who turn to drugs in desperation, observers say. Add to that, they say, laws not strong enough to keep guns off the streets and many lives also end in violence.
"It's also about the fact these guys have access to health care in prison that they don't have at home," Bond said.
On the streets of Albany, Michael Robinson said he sees the same vacant buildings and sparse opportunities that steered his Green Street childhood astray 40 years ago.
Robinson, 59, of Menands, has spent his life in and out of New York prisons and rejects the idea that they are safe or a positive force in the lives of the young men sent there. The study examined the deaths of 12,129 inmates over four years, but did not include data from federal prisons or local jails.
Robinson said violence from both guards and other inmates is common and, he suspects, underreported.
He said he saw a man killed over a quarter on a prison basketball court in Sing Sing, the notoriously rowdy maximum security prison in Westchester County. Robinson's image of prison life differs from that of state officials who report assaults on inmates and guards have plummeted since the late 1990s. State prison officials reported only one homicide in the last three years.
"Every day of your life you have to be on your p's and q's," Robinson said of prison's rigid order. He now volunteers for the Institute of Empowerment, a coalition of grass-roots groups that encourages people to improve their own communities.
The group has recently focused its energy on the federal charges against more than two dozen reputed members and associates of an Albany street gang -- most of whom are young black men in their teens and early 20s. All of them face decades in federal prison if convicted.
"When these guys come out, they've been so misguided, they've been so mistreated," he said. "Each and every one of them come out more wounded than when they went in, with less chance for the American Dream."
The idea that prison damages inmates in ways less easily measured than mortality is a powerful one, said Alice Green, executive director of Albany's Center for Law and Justice.
Green said mass incarceration destroys families and can psychologically harm inmates, leaving them ill-prepared for life outside. Imprisonment also does nothing to address the root social problems that led someone there.
"I think it's more of an indictment than a cause for celebration that people are safer in prison," Green said. "Those statistics only show that we're taking people from a very dangerous environment.
"You might not be killed while you're in prison, but the other damage that prison does to you makes you much more likely to be a victim when you come back into your community."
Prison murders are statistically rare, accounting for only 2 percent of deaths, the study found. Mumola said prison murder rates have dropped nationally since the 1980s.
Murder may be the yardstick, but much of the high-risk behavior that leads some in minority neighborhoods to prison and violent deaths can be traced to poverty, said Frankie Y. Bailey, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University at Albany. Bailey specializes in issues of race.
Statistics offer only a window into a much more complex situation, she said.
"We know that higher rates of education are linked to longer lives, so just having schools and providing education and providing jobs, that in itself would reduce the rate of drug use and drug abuse and drug sales," Bailey said.
"The larger question is why do black males outside of prison have a high rate of mortality," she said. "Going to prison is not the best way to protect them from death."
Writer Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com.
ABOUT THE REPORT
Federal researchers studied the deaths of more than 12,000 state prison inmates reported over four years. The 12-page report -- "Medical Causes of Deaths in State Prisons, 2001 - 2004" -- marks the first time detailed data was available about the race and age of the inmates who died and the exact causes of their deaths. Before now, the information on prison mortality was limited to broad categories, such as illness, murder, suicide and special category for AIDS. When comparing mortality rates to the general U.S. population, the study focused on people between the ages of 15 and 64, which account for 99 percent of state prison populations. Among its findings were:
- Cancer and heart disease caused half of the deaths
- Lung cancer was by far the leading form of deadly cancer
- White inmates had a 67 percent higher mortality rate than blacks and Hispanics
- Most inmates who died were older than 45
- The homicide rate dropped by half between 1991 and 2004
- New York's average mortality rate was 240 inmates per 100,000, slightly above the national average of 223
- The total number of inmate deaths in New York during the study period was 712
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
Local observers cite social ills after study finds blacks less likely to die in prison than in own communities
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, January 28, 2007
Black Americans are significantly more likely to survive in prison than in their own neighborhoods, according to a new study released earlier this month.
The difference, researchers say, is murder.
Disproportionately high murder rates within black communities have long fueled debates over basic social, economic and educational inadequacies in many minority neighborhoods. But in prison, studies show blacks are the least likely to be killed.
"That's really the story about why blacks have lower death rates in prisons," said Christopher Mumola, a policy analyst for the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the report's author. "It's very much driven by homicide."
While white and Hispanic inmates were slightly more likely to die from disease or violence behind bars, the mortality rate among black state prison inmates was 57 percent lower than their counterparts of similar age on the outside, the study found.
The report was the first truly detailed analysis of death in U.S. prisons.
"It's a sobering statistic," Mumola said.
This latest finding refocuses a debate that has traditionally centered on the pace at which blacks are jailed in America to the neighborhoods these inmates are born into and return to when they get out.
"It doesn't say anything good about prison. It says everything bad about the neighborhoods," said Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Bond, who visited Siena College last week, said the numbers reflect a myriad of other disadvantages blacks face in society -- barren inner-city neighborhoods filled with failing schools and devoid of jobs or other opportunities.
With drug policies that target minor players, prison is a common path for urban poor who turn to drugs in desperation, observers say. Add to that, they say, laws not strong enough to keep guns off the streets and many lives also end in violence.
"It's also about the fact these guys have access to health care in prison that they don't have at home," Bond said.
On the streets of Albany, Michael Robinson said he sees the same vacant buildings and sparse opportunities that steered his Green Street childhood astray 40 years ago.
Robinson, 59, of Menands, has spent his life in and out of New York prisons and rejects the idea that they are safe or a positive force in the lives of the young men sent there. The study examined the deaths of 12,129 inmates over four years, but did not include data from federal prisons or local jails.
Robinson said violence from both guards and other inmates is common and, he suspects, underreported.
He said he saw a man killed over a quarter on a prison basketball court in Sing Sing, the notoriously rowdy maximum security prison in Westchester County. Robinson's image of prison life differs from that of state officials who report assaults on inmates and guards have plummeted since the late 1990s. State prison officials reported only one homicide in the last three years.
"Every day of your life you have to be on your p's and q's," Robinson said of prison's rigid order. He now volunteers for the Institute of Empowerment, a coalition of grass-roots groups that encourages people to improve their own communities.
The group has recently focused its energy on the federal charges against more than two dozen reputed members and associates of an Albany street gang -- most of whom are young black men in their teens and early 20s. All of them face decades in federal prison if convicted.
"When these guys come out, they've been so misguided, they've been so mistreated," he said. "Each and every one of them come out more wounded than when they went in, with less chance for the American Dream."
The idea that prison damages inmates in ways less easily measured than mortality is a powerful one, said Alice Green, executive director of Albany's Center for Law and Justice.
Green said mass incarceration destroys families and can psychologically harm inmates, leaving them ill-prepared for life outside. Imprisonment also does nothing to address the root social problems that led someone there.
"I think it's more of an indictment than a cause for celebration that people are safer in prison," Green said. "Those statistics only show that we're taking people from a very dangerous environment.
"You might not be killed while you're in prison, but the other damage that prison does to you makes you much more likely to be a victim when you come back into your community."
Prison murders are statistically rare, accounting for only 2 percent of deaths, the study found. Mumola said prison murder rates have dropped nationally since the 1980s.
Murder may be the yardstick, but much of the high-risk behavior that leads some in minority neighborhoods to prison and violent deaths can be traced to poverty, said Frankie Y. Bailey, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University at Albany. Bailey specializes in issues of race.
Statistics offer only a window into a much more complex situation, she said.
"We know that higher rates of education are linked to longer lives, so just having schools and providing education and providing jobs, that in itself would reduce the rate of drug use and drug abuse and drug sales," Bailey said.
"The larger question is why do black males outside of prison have a high rate of mortality," she said. "Going to prison is not the best way to protect them from death."
Writer Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com.
ABOUT THE REPORT
Federal researchers studied the deaths of more than 12,000 state prison inmates reported over four years. The 12-page report -- "Medical Causes of Deaths in State Prisons, 2001 - 2004" -- marks the first time detailed data was available about the race and age of the inmates who died and the exact causes of their deaths. Before now, the information on prison mortality was limited to broad categories, such as illness, murder, suicide and special category for AIDS. When comparing mortality rates to the general U.S. population, the study focused on people between the ages of 15 and 64, which account for 99 percent of state prison populations. Among its findings were:
- Cancer and heart disease caused half of the deaths
- Lung cancer was by far the leading form of deadly cancer
- White inmates had a 67 percent higher mortality rate than blacks and Hispanics
- Most inmates who died were older than 45
- The homicide rate dropped by half between 1991 and 2004
- New York's average mortality rate was 240 inmates per 100,000, slightly above the national average of 223
- The total number of inmate deaths in New York during the study period was 712
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics