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Activists Seek Parity for Blacks in Criminal Justice System

By Dana Boone 12/1/07

Khalid Abdar-Rashid tried to keep quiet.

He told the 10 people who met to brainstorm ways to reduce the number of African-Americans in Iowa prisons that he didn’t want to share his views because they were conservative.

But, then he really got to talking. The state has long studied the disproportionate number of blacks in prison, but [...]

Iowa’s High Black Prisoner Rate a “Scandal”

By Dana Boone 10/12/07

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 [...]

What Will It Take to End Racial Disparities? More than 250 Seek Answers at Session

By Dana Boone 9/14/07

No one has the solution.

Not the judges who hand down sentences. Not the law-enforcement and prison officials who work in the trenches. Not the community activists who are fighting to keep Iowa’s African-Americans out of prison.

No one seems to know exactly what it will take to end the complex factors involved in blacks being imprisoned [...]

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