« UNICOR: Report: Texas prisoners working in unsafe conditions | Main | CA: DOC to transfer 2,260 prisoners to private out of state prisons »
October 20, 2006
OK: More than 38 percent of black adult men have been convicted of a felony
October 20, 2006
Study shows high rate of black felony convictions
SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY ‹ More than 38 percent of black adult men in Oklahoma have been convicted of a felony, according to a study released Thursday by the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission.
The study by the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center analyzed data from Oklahoma's prison system dating to before statehood, combined with census data and mortality rates, said commission analyst Bill Chown, who compiled the study.
The study also shows in Oklahoma in 2006, the percentage of black men in Oklahoma who had been incarcerated in a state prison was 26.9 percent, an estimated 62 percent higher than the national estimate.
Chown said there are no national studies to compare to his analysis showing 38.4 percent of black men in Oklahoma have been convicted of a felony.
K.C. Moon, director of the commission, said Oklahoma's stiff penalties for drug and property crimes compared to other states is why Oklahoma's incarceration rate is higher than the national average.
He also said poverty contributes to the high conviction percentage.
"Most of the research in this area has shown it not to be racial, but more socio-economic," Moon said. "When you take poor white people and compare their conviction rate to poor black people, the rate is much more similar. It's just that more blacks are poor."
More than 8 percent of all adults in Oklahoma have been convicted.
http://ap.ardmoreite.com/pstories/state/ok/20061019/112263437.shtml
Posted by lois at October 20, 2006 09:21 PM