Portland Observer May 8.1980 Page 9
America’s prisons are Black,
Hispanic and Tense
CAN YOU BEAT THEM 7 Come to the 4-H Junior Olympics and find
Out.JHrst through eight graders will compete for trophies and ribbons
on May 9th at Jefferson High School, from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Rowdie goalie trips Timbers
By David O ’Toole
Not since 1977 have the Timbers
defeated the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Much to the dismay o f the 13,615
fans, this fact remained after Satur
day’ s 0-1 North American Soccer
League loss.
“ P ortland should’ ve had this
one,” it could be heard Saturday
night and rightly so, for Portland
dominated every important statistic
except for one, the score.
The Timbers remained scoreless
after a seemingly endless, but
evidently in su fficie n t number o f
opportunities. This is attributed to
Rowdies goalkeeper, W instron
Oubose, who came up with 12 saves.
One o f those saves was John
Bain’s penalty kick with 4:38 to go
in the game, Portland’ s big chance
to tie. The kick was a result o f
Dubose’s interference with Bain in
side the box.
The w inning goal came 11
minutes into the second half when
Peter Anderson, after an assist by
Mike Connell, kicked the ball over
goal keeper Mick Poole.
The loss brings the Portland Tim
bers to an undeserving standing o f
1-4, the poorest start in the team’s
six year history.
The Timbers go on a three game
road trip to Washington, Minnesota
and Edmonton.
Howard honors
Howard University w ill confer
an honorary degree on Sen. Mark
O. H a tfie ld at its 112th annual
commencement exercises May 10 at
10 a.m. in the Howard University
Stadium . A p p ro xim a te ly 2,500
graduates w ill participate in the
ceremonies, and A. Leon Higgin
botham, judge for the Third Circuit
o f the United States Court o f Ap
peals in Philadelphia, will give the
commencement address. Sen. Hat
field will receive the doctor of laws
degree.
Other honorary degree recipients
at the cermonies w ill be W. Mon-
Hatfield
•Continued from page 1 col 6)
commit street crimes. The oppor
tunity for Blacks in crime is more
limited and they commit ones for
which they are more likely to be
prosecuted, convicted, and sent to
ja il.”
“ There’ s a greater likelihood that
you’ ll go to prison i f you have a
juvenile record,” adds Michigan
State Appellate Defender Jim
Newhard. “ And thanks to the
economic and social problems
which causes their fam ilies to
deteriorate around them, many
young Blacks get into trouble when
they are kids. Later on they simply
graduate into the felony system.
When they become adults, they are
apt to be w ritte n o f f as un
s a le a b le , given harsh sentences,
and put on the shelf in prison.”
Many studies support Newhard’ s
charge. In Georgia, the number o f
Blacks serving more than 30 years is
more than double the number o f
whites. An analysis o f sentence
lengths in M ich ija n last year
showed that in most categories o f
offenses. Black consistently received
longer sentences. A survey o f six
southern states turned up evidence
o f similar sentencing differences.
M oreover,
reports
D etroit
criminal attorney Neil Bush - whose
firm fought cases related to the A t
tica prison revolt all the way to the
U.S. Supreme Court - judges in
rural districts often send felons to
county ja il, rather than to state
prisons. "T h e y know the state
penitentiary is full ot Black inmates,
and they are afraid to send whites
there.”
H alf o f the defendants convicted
o f felonies in New York City wind
up in prison — almost twice as many
as those convicted o f similar crimes
in upstate, rural or suburban areas.
As a result, the prison population
remains urban -- which means
Black, Hispanic and poor.
According to Newhard, the same
problems which means s tiff sen
tences for non-whites reduce their
chances for early release. "Parole
boards ask whether or not an ap
plicant was raised in a fatherless
home, it he had a jo b , a stable
marriage or a m arketable s k ill.
From beginning to end, the criminal
justice system favors articulate,
well-educated, well-groomed -- and
white defendants.”
Other factors in the growth o f the
non-white prison population include
the effects o f the Omnibus Crime
Control Act ot 1968, and new man
datory or determinate sentencing
laws, which have been passed in 41
states. A ll o f these measures have
been aimed at street crimes which
more frequently involve non-white
Americans.
The combined weight o f im
prisonment and the inequitable
conditions which brings non-whites
into it, and keep them there longer,
serves to highlight their differences
with white America. For the quarter
of all Black men who taste life in a
penitentiary, for instance, the ex
perience o f being shut away in a
cage which appears to be m ain
tained especially for Blacks will be
part o f a common education.
the lesson it otters is reinforced
by signs o f unfair treatment outside
ol the prison walls: segregated
residential housing patterns, 65 per
cent unemployment among Black
youth in cities, schools which track
non-white Americans into guaran
teed failure.
CITY CO U N C IL PO SITION #1
“ M any government agencies that begin lean,
mad and hungry, grow u n til they are f a t and
lazy. We must reverse this trend. ” Jim Gates
The lesson, ultimately, is that the
non-white world is a separate and
unequal world, and it is most in
structive in the picture o f a white-
dominated legal structure creating a
p rim a rily Third W orld prison
population.
We don t do it to our own
people, we do it to other people,”
observes Frank Dunbaugh, a white,
M aryland c iv il rights attorney.
Prison isn’ t there to rehabilitate, it’ s
there to hold in check the tensions
which society finds threatening.
COPYRIGHT PNS 1980
Jim Gates as executive director of the City-
County Commission on Aging has pioneered
nearly every program now serving the elderly
in this com m unity. Loaves and Fishes, low
cost transportation to r seniors during n on
rush hours, the RSVP Program and the
Senior Citizen Employment Program.
T h i* In fo rm a tio n fu rn ish ed by the c o m m itte e to e le c t
Gates, Dana W inga cam p aign coordinator.
(ague Cobb, distinguished professor
emeritus o f anatomy at Howard;
Marva N. Collins, director o f the
n a tio n a lly acclaimed Westside
Preparatory School in Chicago; and
Howard Hamilton Mackey, former
professor and head o f the School o f
A rchitecture and Planning at
Howard.
H ow ard
U niversity
is
a
predom inantly Black university
located in Washington D.C. with 17
schools and colleges and more than
75 undergraduate, graduate and
professional program s. Annual
enrollment is approximately 11,000
students.
BOB
DÜNCAN
SAYS:
“ Seniors — like any other segment of
society — simply want the means, and the
opportunity, to be active and healthy. Any
thing less is unacceptable. ’
DÜNCAN
DOES:
■ Duncan has been an outspoken
proponent of Multnomah County's Project
Health, an innovative system of health care
delivery, now being considered as a model
form of health insurance.
■ Duncan — a leader for programs
like Loaves and Fishes and Meals on
Wheels — stopped cold a plan that would
have dismantled those proven, volunteer
programs.
■ With Rep Claude Pepper, activist
for senior citizens, Duncan has co
sponsored more than 50 amendments to
the Older Americans Act — each of them a
direct concern to Oregon's seniors.
■ Duncan has supported door-to-door
transportation service for the elderly and
handicapped.
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