NAACP Report Ties Lower Educational Spending To Mass Incarceration

(Washington, DC) – David Keene, former Chairman of the American Conservative Union, and Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform and a board member at the National Rifle Association, will join a group of bipartisan leaders April 7th to speak about the NAACP’s upcoming report, “Misplaced Priorities: Under Educate, Over Incarcerate”. The report examines escalating levels of prison spending and its impact on state budgets and our nation’s children. It uncovers a disturbing connection between high incarceration rates and poorly performing schools.


Misplaced Priorities tracks the steady shift of state funds away from education and toward the criminal justice system. For instance, in Houston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, more than 65 percent of the lowest-performing schools are in neighborhoods with the highest rates of incarceration. Researchers found that over-incarceration most impacts vulnerable, often minority populations, and that it destabilizes communities. The report offers recommendations that would help policymakers downsize prison populations and shift the savings to education budgets.

The effort is part of the NAACP’s “Smart and Safe Campaign,” an initiative designed to reform the nation’s criminal justice system.


The press conference will be held at the National Press Club at 1:30 pm on April 7th. It will feature representatives of law enforcement and a growing bipartisan coalition calling on state lawmakers to rethink decades-old criminal justice policies. In addition to NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, Keene and Norquist, speakers will include: Rod Paige, former Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush; Mike Jimenez, a member of the executive committee of Corrections USA, which represents 80,000 corrections officers nationwide, as well as president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association; Mitchell Kapor, philanthropist and founder of Lotus 1-2-3; Lindsay McCluskey, President of the United States Student Association; and Pat Nolan, Vice President of the Prison Fellowship, who worked with former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich to establish the conservative Right On Crime coalition.


“We need to be ‘smart on crime’ rather than ‘tough on crime’ and address soaring incarceration rates in this country,” stated Jealous. “Failing schools, college tuition hikes and shrinking state education budgets are narrowing the promise of education for young people all across the country. Meanwhile, allocations for our incarceration system continue to increase, sending our youth the wrong message about their future.”


A billboard campaign will accompany the report’s release. It will be displayed in airports around the United States, including Washington DC, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. The ads will feature jarring statistics about our nation’s criminal justice system. One message will read: “Welcome to America, home to 5% of the world’s people and 25% of the world’s prisoners. There is a better way.”