You can't compare the number of black men in College than in Prison.. don't debate me

Let's finally put to rest the notion that more black men are in prison than in College. If you wanted to compare, this statement still wouldn't be true in 2013. I'll explain why a lot of Black men aren't seen in College and why others aren't accounted for. The majority of African Americans from low-income communities have the want and need for higher education, but aren't properly educated on the steps to College Admission and Enrollment. The process for going to College doesn't start when you Graduate High School, it starts the 1st day of High School, but expectation is never established. The road to college is mapped out in a series of major steps. Each step encompasses certain processes including deadlines, exams, forms and applications, time management, and research and personal insight. The 1st step, which is to simply think about going to College is the most important step because it creates confusion and ambiguity. Critical questions arise, that in-turn lead to steps 2,3,4 and so forth. The main reason black men don't go to college is financial. There are those who get full scholarships and grants, but left are those who take out loans. Students coming straight out of High School who  have little or no Credit History will not be approved for the amount an Institution of Higher Education is requesting. A Co-signer will be required, the issue is that people living in low-income communities, don't trust other people living in low-income communities and feel someone's financial future is there own responsibility, even if they're family. A person's socioeconomic status will reveal inequities in access to resources, which leaves black men pretty much in dark.

To go to prison, no need to apply, they recruit. The notion that there is more black men in prison is irrelevant to the amount of black men in College. When you account for the amount of black men in prison, factors such as age and length of sentence should be taken into consideration, because College life can range from 2-10 years. Who exactly is being counted when you compare, because more black men Graduate College than are sentenced to prison.

According to the America Survey Group:

• A black male born in 1991 has a 29% chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life.
• Nearly one in three African American males aged 20–29 are under some form of criminal justice supervision whether imprisoned, jailed, on parole or probation.
• One out of nine African American men will be incarcerated between the ages of 20 and 34.
• Black males ages 30 to 34 have the highest incarceration rate of any race/ethnicity.

The American Council on Education states that; For nearly a decade, the statement: more black men are in prison than in College has been popular with those attempting to illustrate the plight of African-American males. It's a compelling statement. It's also untrue. The origin of this statement is a 2000 report from the Justice Policy Institute titled 'Cellblocks or Classrooms? The Funding of Higher Education and Corrections and Its Impact on African American Men'. The report found that more African-American males were under the jurisdiction of a federal, state, or local penal system (791,600) than were enrolled in higher education (603,032). The report attributed this sobering finding to increased state investment in corrections and decreased support for higher education throughout the 1980s and 90s.

Making the Difference by Ivory A. Toldson and Janks Morton;

First, it is time to retire the line, “There are more black men in jail than in college.” Not only is this statement untrue today, it undermines strategies to prepare, recruit, and retain black men in college. Most evidence suggests that the percent of black men in college, or college educated, and those in prison are so far apart socially, that to juxtapose one on the other is inherently absurd. In reality, college bound black males and black males at risk for incarceration typically have completely different emotional, social, and educational needs, and black community leaders should not confuse one with the other.

Efforts to increase black males’ participation in college involve: (1) improve counseling and advisement in predominately black grade schools; (2) mentorship and internships for first generation college students; (3) ensuring every high school has a college bound curriculum; (4) sponsor college tours; (5) support black male initiatives in college; and (6) advocate for funding for Pell Grants and needs-based scholarships, and universal access to public institutions of higher education and historically black colleges and universities. Efforts to reduce the number of black males in prison involve: (1) eliminate zero tolerance and excessive punitive measures in predominately black grade schools; (2) provide resources, such as mentoring and tutoring, for students with learning and behavioral disorders; (3) shift the focus of law enforcement toward violent crimes and away from nonviolent offenses; (4) eliminate racial inequities in charges, convictions and sentences; (5) reintroduce and strengthen prison-based educational and job training programs; and (6) advocate for sentencing reform, elimination of mandatory minimums, stopping the expansion of private, for-profit prisons, and eliminating excessive public expenditures on prison.

http://beyondthebricksproject.com/cellblock-vs-college-million-reasons-there-are-more-black-men-college-prison-and-why-more-work-needs