on
Afric n Americans do not
stand lone in' their fi ht for
justice for the years of slavery.
African will pre ent their
dem nd for reparations to the
United ation folio in
eetin of the Or a ization of
African U ity che uled for
Niaeria hi June.
·We have more th n
legitimate cl im for d m ge
for the crime committed
ag in t Africa. It's going to be
a big i ue in the I t dec de of
the millennium. We are going
to pu h for It," Jide 0 untokun,
a Nigerian offici 1, i quoted
aying in Reuter new report
Sedrlc Swyer: Reaching
back whll pu hlng on
by DERRlC C. LEWIS
StII// Writer
Finishing up on one show
featuring big Hoi wood
names and
then going
on to another
project,
wbile at the
ame time
forming an
organtzation
to help
Blacks
films
���¥!��f�����¥rI. __ �I2���fi.!!�!���;��DetrO:l�,��c�ij��t��:;o:��{;,�!'�!���!�r����g�.:�:iJ""""""_.'_ reated, for
Advi ory Commis ion held a More than 50 pc troubled Blac in tf tutlons.
hearing on The Plight of the government, civic n(f bu inc Re ource can be obt ined from
African American Male' last group were cheduled to te tify p rtner hips between corpora-
Friday. during the hearing. e • tion nd community group,
"African American males in Gri m tati tic tared 58.2 per- said Edward .
today' ociety i in di�e cent of the Michigan pri on He emph sized gettlng ome-
traights, that's why we are here population is compri ed of Black one to call the churches together,
today ... Without young Black males, about quarter of their and aid he saw a problem with
men our entire race has no fu- population in the state, with more the church having the vision to
ture," said Hill, at the. tart of the Black m le under the re pon- look out.
ibilityof tate corrections agen­
cie than there are in college. .
In Detroit, Black males have a
45 percent rate of graduation
compared to 60 percent for
female. When the ability to
hold or find a job after graduation
is considered, the system is a
failure for almost 75 percent of
male student .
lze in ori inal mu ic com­
position for TV and radio
commercials, and nonbroad­
cast fillp and video com­
municatioDJ for businesse .
Sawyer says entertainer
are basical­
ly audio
people, and
sometimes
do not
focu on
putting the
right mu ic
witb a
video.
y
comes in to
prevent
entertaine
rs from putting "cbeap
music into slick produc­
tions."
See SA WYER, �age 8
written 1
Obadi .
The que tio of rep r tio
h g ined 0 entu i t
United St tes over the I st fe
ye r. De cendants of I ve
re i for jut co pen -
tion for the Imo t 00 ye rs of
forced labor supplied in the
buildin of Americ .
In the U.S., the pu h for
re par tion ha re ulted in
re olution of support pa ed
. by variou city governments in­
cluding Detroit.
In ddition, la t year U.S.
Rep. John Conyer (D-MI) in­
troduced re elution in Con­
gre s calling for the ere tion of
a committee to tudy the ef­
fects of lavery. The informa­
tion g thered by thi commit­
tee would be used to deter­
mine the need and mount of
possible reparations to be p id
by the federal lovernment to
African Americans.
ric
Sawyer
seem to
enjoy keeping busy.
Sawyer is an account ex­
ecutive' for PM Productions,
a music bouse whicb p.ecial-
TH A leANS also w nt
com pens tion for centuries of
ee REPARATIONS, Pa e 3
StGDWrUer
DETROIT - Prompted by the
fact th t more tban half of
Michigan's prison population is
comprised of Black male and
that the leading cause of death
among Afri'can American male
is homicide, Detroit City Council
President Pro- Te� Gil Hill and
Boot camps seen as ans
I 0
by. HEATHER L. BARRIS
CG,-u.l N.w$ Service
LANSJNG.-Tucked away in
the .small town of Freesoil in
nortbwestern �icbigan is the'
tate's only operating boot
camp for non-violent offenders,
Camp Sauble.
At Camp Sauble, 120 resi­
dents at time. go through a 90-
dalY program ratber than
spending time' behind bars. It
was developed as a way to
lighten the load on Michigan's
overcrowded prison system. As
the state cuts funds for correc­
tion , more of these camps may
come into being since it i much
cheaper than incarceration.
One of the facets of House
Speaker Lewis Dodak's, D­
Birch Run, budget proposal is
funding for thes community­
based punishments that- are
more cost-effective than plac­
ing more inmates into
Micbigan's alread y over­
crowded facHi ties.
House Minority Leader Paul
Hillegonds, R-Holland, said he
would support more funding for
the community-ba ed punish­
ment programs. "I'm for j t," he
aid, "even though there is a
pri on in my district which may
be closed."
Hi l l e gonds said he would
support more programs like the
boot camps, which costs hal f
er to prison crowdlnq
the amount of incarceration.
CAMP SAUBLE is a Special
Alternative Incarceration (SAl)
project.
From 0 March, 1989 to last
July, 1,397 people in Michigan
were sentenced to the especial
projects.
Al though the idea of boot
camps has been quite popular in
the last decade, there have been
no studies to determine whether
the programs' are effective as a
deterrent or as rehabilitation.
"The re is very Iittte bard
evidence to cite, tt s.aid Timothy
Bynum, a professor of criminal.
justice at Michigan State
University.
At the end of 1988, eight
s ta te had opera ting boo t
camp ,three tates were plan­
ning camps nd nine other states
were considerin tbe option.
Detroit was al 0 constdertng
boot camps for its large number
of youthful offenders rather
than sending them to prison. In
the summer of 1989, the House
Subcommi nee chairman advo­
cared boot camp as a potential
national strategy for treating
drug abusers.
"The boot camp model i un­
likely to provide a panacea for
the needs of rehabili tation or
for the pressures arising from
tbe problems of both pri on
See BOOT CAMP, Page 6
DETROIT'S BLACK males
have an 18.3 percent unemploy- .
merit rate, compared to the state
'average of 7.1 percent ..
The homicide 0 rate for
Detroi r's Black males grew from.
54 per 100,000 in 1980 to 292 per
100,000 in 1987.
Ins ead of j ust offering statis­
tics, some presented ideas for
olutions during the hearing. 0
Eddie Edwards of the Raven­
dale Project, said surrogate com-
THE THEME of the morn­
ings hearing focused on mentor­
ing, early intervention, and
church participation.
. Councilman Keith Butler
asked if New Detroit Inc. wa
tryi ng to bri ng the churche
together. Alan Tumpkin, director
of New Detroit's Project Mr, said
he contacted Detroit churche for
the purpose of forming a coali-
-tion, but most did not respond,
including Butler'S church. "We
need to get active," Tumpkin
said.
Vice ·President of the Detroit
School Board Frank Hayden said,
o "There is no need to talk about
the problem, untiL tqe country
puts in we can't save the �frican
American male." He aid it' a
disgrace that for the past four
S�e BLACK MALE, Page 2
j
I
I
I
I
.1
I
"
,
I'
. I
SHAWN GIBSON: "It
would have a negative ef­
fect, e pecially on the Black
race. I'm not going if it
came down to j t. I would di -
courage young brother from
going."
ALFRED TYRUS JR.:
"It would put a financial
strain on my family. I don't
oppo e it, I'll fight, but I see
a lot of financial problem .
ltd leave if I went over-
e ."
"It
would have a big effect on
my personal. and love life. It
would et me back a lot on
my job:"
JIM
"Being 22-years-old, I gu�
not much initially. If I h p­
pen to be drafted I wouldn't
run away from it. I agree
with what' going on."
"It would make me 10 e a lot
of thing I have here. I don't
think my job would offer any
good benefit if I went."
