The incarceration rate for black men may be lower than what people, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), claim. The June 21 Fact Checker column gave two Pinocchios to the claim that 1 in 3 black males will be incarcerated in his lifetime. The rate, the Fact Checker admitted, is probably still high.
But Mr. Sanders’s important point is that the rate of incarceration is much higher for black men than other men. Would it make any real difference if the rate was 1 in 4 or 1 in 5? The bottom line is that as a society we have failed our black men. That’s a fact not open to question by the Fact Checker or anyone else.
John DesMarteau, Washington