Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9410130004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A19 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
For those who don't know, Broad Street, once the premier shopping district in Virginia, is a shadow of its former glory. While many reasons could be given, I suspect the lack of candor the gentleman was talking about related to crime - specifically black crime.
To show you how perceptions - often grossly exaggerated - affect our behavior, I recently had cause to park for some time in downtown Richmond and was very concerned lest darkness find me still there. And these are streets I walked at all hours of the night during 16 years in the legislature with never any real cause for alarm save once. Late one night, I was running down Ninth Street from the state Capitol in a bowler hat when a policeman demanding to know my business reached for his holster as I fished in my overcoat pocket intending to produce a hotel key.
It would be difficult to convince a young black male today that in times far less nervous than these, a white legislator was hassled within sight of the Capitol as a suspicious character. It would also be interesting to know the last time a man wearing a bowler committed a crime in Richmond.
A lack of candor also may apply to our recent decision to make crime the nation's No. 1 political issue despite FBI statistics showing that problem to be no worse than it has been and probably a bit improved. We can't bring ourselves to say that our real purpose is to convey a message to unemployed or unemployable black males that society is prepared to pay a high price trying to keep them in line.
The population of Virginia is about 20 percent black. But two-thirds of state prisoners are black. And 97 percent of all prisoners are male. If this division of the races and the sexes holds, and if state experts are correct in predicting as many as 55,000 prisoners in 2005, then 35,000 black males will be incarcerated 10 years from now. And this doesn't count local jails, which now hold almost 16,000 prisoners. Clearly, we speak here of a social disaster of vast size and cost.
A chief problem in columnizing is the necessity of relying upon data developed by others which may be flawed. What follows is derived from studies published by John Dilulio, professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. One of his conclusions is that crime in this country is almost as segregated as the churches: 84 percent of crimes of violence committed by blacks are committed against blacks; 73 percent of such crimes committed by whites are against whites. But the arrest rate for crimes of violence is five times higher for young blacks than young whites.
The trial of O.J. Simpson has become an extension of the sports/entertainment culture of which he was so long a fixture. In the mass of conjecture swirling around the case, one large fact is often forgotten: He fled or at least contemplated flight, which is not exactly the behavior you would expect of an innocent man who also happens to be rich and famous. But the card you knew would be played has been played. That is, the detective who found the famous bloody glove behind Simpson's guest cottage is a racist capable of thinking sufficiently ahead to plant it there to make sure Simpson would be found guilty.
If polls are gospel, most blacks think Simpson is innocent. If asked whether black defendants get a fair shake in criminal trials generally, that same majority probably would say no. For what it's worth to them, Professor Dilulio concluded that "the best available evidence indicates race is not a significant variable in determining whether a criminal is arrested ... or given a long or a short term."
On the question of the cost to taxpayers of incarceration vs. what's gained by it, Dilulio says that various government and academic studies support a conclusion that it costs society about twice as much to let a criminal roam the streets as it does to keep him behind bars, not counting non-monetary distress caused victims.
If the past is prologue, the future isn't encouraging. In 1984, there were 10,667 state prisoners. As of July 31, 1994, it was 19,552. At the same time, there were at least 1,900 prisoners in local jails overdue for transfer into the state system. In those 10 years, Virginia's population increased about 18 percent while its prison population increased 100 percent. If predictions undergirding Gov. George Allen's proposals are true, the next 10 years will be truly horrendous: The prison population will grow seven times faster than the state as a whole.
There are a few hopeful signs, such as the program the Virginia National Guard is launching at Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach to take 200 high-school dropouts a year. It won't be a boot camp, but students will wear uniforms and be subject to military-style discipline. But the news seems to have spread faster among potential staff than among potential students. As of last week, 1,700 people had applied for 40 staff slots while only 25 to 30 applications for enrollment had been received.
If federal equal-opportunity zealots can be appeased, why not let the large cities experiment with high schools for boys only, where uniforms might inspire discipline? It is interesting that Richmond's city manager has been one of the most outspoken defenders of single-sex education at VMI on the very grounds that this concept should be available for troubled, inner-city schools. We might also experiment with private companies running such schools under pay-for-performance contracts, as Portsmouth seemed on the verge of doing before protests by teachers and black leaders caused it to drop the idea.
In dealing with so vast a problem, it is the small, practical step that is likely to count for more than grand visions.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
by CNB