National media attention greeted the findings of the Sentencing Project's report, "Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System: Five Years Later." On any given day, the shocking report discovered, one in three black males in their twenties is behind bars, on parole or on probation.

This stunningly high rate has risen precipitously over the past five years. In 1990, when the Sentencing Project first published a figure, the proportion was "only" one in four. In just five years, the rate has increased by one-third.

DPF members should be proud that membership dollars supported this report — and should also be very disappointed that no one joined us. We awarded a $20,000 grant (half the project's cost) to the non-profit Sentencing Project in April 1995 to research and write the report. Unfortunately, no other foundations agreed to provide the other half, forcing the Sentencing Project to dip into its general operating support from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and the Public Welfare Foundation.

The philanthropic community should pay closer attention to the pioneering work done by the Sentencing Project and other organizations working on criminal justice policy. Concrete needs for the future include an ongoing monitoring project on incarceration rates.

This is especially critical in light of the 1994 federal crime bill's requirement that states adopt truth-in-sentencing laws to ensure that 85 percent of most sentences be served. How long will it be before one in two young blackAmerican males is in the criminal justice system? A monitoring project can alert us to these trends — and suggest pragmatic alternatives — before they become statistical realities.

Another worthy project would be a study of the lifetime incarceration profile of young black and Latino Americans. What are the consequences of our nation's reliance on the criminal justice system within families and communities?

DPF was pleased to make this report possible, but we have limited resources. Other foundations need to get on board and help open the debate on drug policy reform. For too long, mainstream philanthropy has been timid and half-hearted in this field. The harms of prohibition need to be understood across the spectrum of criminal justice, health and social policy.

Projects like this new report produce results that may be disturbing and challenging to the status quo. That's exactly why we must support them.

— David C. Condliffe