American Notes PRISON

Civil rights activists and social scientists have long warned that poor education, drug abuse, high crime rates and widespread violence have made young black men an endangered species. Last week a report issued by the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based organization that promotes research on criminal justice, found that approximately 609,000 African-American males between the ages of 20 and 29 -- almost 1 of every 4 -- are either in prison, on probation or on parole. Comparable figures for whites are 1 in 16 and for Hispanics 1 in 10.

Only 436,000 black males in the same age group are enrolled in college or any other form of higher education. Warns Marc Mauer, the study's author: "We now risk the possibility of writing off an entire generation of black men from leading productive lives."