Iowa’s High Black Prisoner Rate a “Scandal”

Iowa’s shame.

A slow genocide.

A scandal.

That’s how some people at a forum Thursday night described the disproportionate incarceration rate of African-Americans in Iowa prisons.

Nearly 100 people gathered at Corinthian Baptist Church in Des Moines to discuss the racial disparities plaguing Iowa’s criminal justice system and brainstorm solutions.

A sparse panel of experts faced a crowd hungry for answers. A crowd hungry to talk about its anger, fears and hopes.

“The laws in this country have been systematically designed and enforced to our detriment as black people,” said Terrance Walker, a single father and business owner.

Walker said he’s tired of hearing that blacks shoulder all the responsibility for fixing the problems.

“If the farmers of Iowa come to the government for solutions, they don’t get told by the government `oh that’s your problem,” he said. “I don’t think that black people should have to hear that it’s our problem.”

Policy-makers and Iowa Legislators need to tell the public how they’re going to address the problems, he said.

Iowa tops the nation for imprisoning blacks, at a rate that is 13.6 times that of whites, according to the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group. Similar disparities exist in the juvenile system.

Last month, a committee organized by Gov. Chet Culver proposed spending $9.7 million on early childhood education; offender re-entry programs; community-based correctional programs, and substance abuse and mental health programs.

The panel included John Baldwin, director of the Iowa Department of Corrections; Robert Rigg, director of the Criminal Defense Program at Drake University; Polk County District Court Judge Odell McGhee, Mildred Coplen of Urban Dreams and David Goodson, founder of Social Action Inc., a Waterloo agency.

Goodson said he disagreed with parts of that plan. Goodson said spending money on early education delays results. Expanding community-based correctional programs will keep black non-violent offenders from crowding prisons now, he said. 

“We’re talking about impacting it now. Impacting it today. Impacting it overnight,” he said. “That’s the solution we want to see.”

Emotions ran high during the nearly three hour meeting. Residents and officials clashed in their views on why the disparities exist and what can be done about it. After a 30-minute panel discussion, residents got a chance to voice their opinions on the serious problems plaguing blacks in the state. They most often cited racism as the reason for the disparities.

McGhee bashed blacks for failing to teach, discipline and encourage their children. He said churches and black social organizations have failed to help the community.

“We have lost control of our families,” he said.

Eric Johnson, assistant professor and director of the Urban Education Program at Drake University, said the disparities must not be ignored. 

“Black children, white children and Latino children serve different sentences for the exact same crime,” he said. “If all we’re going to do is talk about black families, then we’re missing the point.”

Johnson said having a high school education, a positive relationship with adults and a spiritual foundation could help keep more blacks out of prison.

Even Courtney Greene, press secretary for Culver, told the panel about her recent experience with racial disparities while serving as the only African-American on a Polk County jury.

She was struck by how differently a black and white youth were treated by law enforcement in a case involving marijuana possession, she said. Both young men told police that the marijuana the police found under the white driver’s seat did not belong to either of them, she said. The white driver who admitted to police that he had been drinking received only a speeding ticket and was released, she said, but the black man was arrested and charged.

“It took all of six minutes to find him not guilty,” she said.

Greene told the audience they have an “advocate” in Culver, who is working to understand the issues. 

McGhee told the crowd he doesn’t think race is the issue. He said he doesn’t believe his colleagues in the court system discriminate. The defendants’ prior criminal histories and the nature of their crimes are what matter most, he said.

A disproportionate number of blacks go to prison because they tend to live in neighborhoods that have more crime and a higher police presence, he said. Poor people tend to have more contact with the criminal justice system, he said.

“There’s no doubt  that in certain areas that the police if you’re out at certain times and you look like you might be involved in crime, they’re going to bother you or see if you’ve committed crimes,” McGhee said. 

Some residents took offense to McGhee’s remark and one man asked “Who in the room looks like a criminal?”

A man who stood up and criticized public education and the justice system said he wanted to know how blacks could avoid the criminal justice system in the first place. McGhee replied “look within” and “educate your families.”

The man responded that many families are preoccupied with financial and other obstacles.

“I don’t like excuses,” McGhee said. “You have a responsibility to your family and to your children. You can’t say `I can’t do this, and I can’t do this, and I can’t do this.’ Or you’ll do nothing.”

The man said that McGhee had “misrepresented” black people because most take care of their families.

“Well, come down to my court tomorrow,” McGhee responded.

Tina Muhammad, a Des Moines mother and member of the Nation of Islam, told McGhee that his expectations for families are unrealistic.

“Now, you have three generations of mothers getting pregnant at 16 who were never taught so they never taught their children,” she said.

Wallace Kipper asked the panel about his son who is in prison in Rockwell City.

“Why is it that black kids have to go to work-release and white kids get parole?” he said.

Goodson, who held a similar forum last month in Waterloo with more than 250 participants, told Kipper there is a “double standard” throughout all facets of the criminal justice system.

“The system is saturated with racism,” Goodson said.

Curtis Jenkins, a member of the Iowa Parole Board wasn’t sitting on the panel, but was among the audience. He told Kipper that the release decisions are based on the charges and whether the individual has a home and a job waiting for him.

“If you parole someone and they have nowhere to go and no job and you turn them loose with $100, they’re coming back,” Jenkins said.

Baldwin, of the Iowa Department of Corrections, said there are differences in how minorities are treated by the system depending on the types of crimes they commit.

Rigg, a white panelist, told a 10-minute anecdote about growing up during the Civil Rights Movement. He said ignorance is at the root of racism. He spoke little of the program he directs at the Drake Law School Legal Clinic.

Linda R. Crawford said she disliked Rigg’s story.

“I don’t want to sit up here and listen to somebody talk about how the little black kids were afraid of him because of the color of his skin. . . I don’t want to hear that stuff,” she said.

“I want action,” she said.

Crawford criticized the forum and black elected leadership who she said either sat silently in the audience or failed to attend.

“It insulted my intelligence. I have a hard time understanding how (some on the panel) feel that everybody has failed their children.”

Genie Bundy organized both recent forums held in Des Moines. Next month, she plans to hold another forum that will include prosecutors, law enforcement and parole officials. She said the format will contain a longer question and answer session.

“Almost 100 people showed up,” she said. “Next time, it will be 100 more.”

Meeting-goers had varying opinions about the issues, among them:

Robert Trumbo, an ex-offender, said:  “It’s not up to the system to protect you.”

David Burkett, a father, said:  “It’s a struggle everyday within me to say `I love the state of Iowa’ when you hate us so much. And, it’s evident. It’s evident everyday as a black person.”

Judge Odell McGhee, said: “We can say racism, racism, racism, racism. But if we don’t send our kids to school, if we don’t teach them morals, if we don’t teach them or tell them that they have to learn something, if we don’t do something about our own, then, yes, people are going to exclude us