The jail rate for black men has hit a record level in US prisons: an estimated 12 per cent of African-American men aged 20 to 34 are in jail, a US Justice Department report shows. Only 1.6 per cent of white men in the same age group are incarcerated... The Bureau of Justice Statistics has calculated that 28 per cent of black men will be sent to jail in their lifetime. Fox Butterfield

Education and poverty....The most underrepresented group of Americans at the nation's top colleges and universities are students from low-income families, according to a report released last week...Only 3 percent of the first-year students at the 146 most selective colleges and universities come from families in the bottom quarter of Americans ranked by income. Boston Globe