More black men in jail than at college in US

More black men in the United States are behind bars than are in higher education, according to a new study by a Washington DC thinktank.

Following a boom in prison construction and an increase in the numbers of people being incarcerated for non-violent crimes, there were 791,600 black men in American prisons and county jails in 2000, and only 603,032 enrolled in colleges and universities, according to the Justice Policy Institute, which favours alternatives to imprisonment.

"If we were saying that more white, middle-class men were being sent to prison than to college, the president would have to declare a state of emergency," said Vincent Schiraldi, the organisation's president.

The study shows a five-fold increase in the number of incarcerated black men over the past 20 years. In 1980, 143,000 were in jail and 463,700 in higher education.

Mr Schiraldi rejected the criticism that the comparison was invalid because universities generally accept younger adults, while any adult can be imprisoned.

"Crime is a young person's game, and college is a young person's game," he told the Guardian. "People who go to prison are typically young and poor. What has happened to college for the young and poor?"

Spending on prisons has increased from 2.1% of the national budget to 6.3% in the past 20 years, while higher education spending has fallen from 8% to 4.3%, the study shows. The total number of people in jail during the same period rose from 502,000 to 2.1 million, while numbers in college increased from 12.1 million to 14.8 million.

"It is sad that our states are finding it easier to contribute more to incarcerating our men and women and creating a downward spiral of poverty and destitution rather than investing through our educational system to create an upward spiral of accomplishment and achievement," said Hilary Shelton, of the Washington branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

Professor Todd Clear, of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told the New York Times that the study "tells us there has been a public policy for over-emphasising investment in criminal justice instead of in education for this population".

He went on: "It tells you that the life chances of a black male going to prison are greater today than the chances of a black male going to college, and it wasn't always this way."

Mr Schiraldi said: "When Americans set public policy around prisons, it's usually 10 minutes after some really horrible crime has occurred, and it behoves us, in times of relative calm, to remind them 'hey, folks, this actually costs you something'."

According to US government figures released this week, 46% of prisoners are black and 36% white, while one in 32 Americans is under the control of the correctional system, whether in prison, on probation or on parole.