The gap between Democrats and Republicans on the budget may be growing by the hour, but elsewhere in D.C. today, conservatives and progressives offered showy agreement on one fiscal matter: We spend too much money to lock people up.

A bevy of big name conservatives, including Newt Gingrich, lined up alongside the NAACP today to promote the organization’s latest report, highlighting racial disparities in incarceration rates and the imbalance between prison funding and education spending around the country.

“We’ve all been working to build left-right coalitions for the better part of the decade, and it’s all really come to a head in this moment,” NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said in a phone interview. Jealous is credited with emphasizing criminal justice reform in the organization’s work since taking over as its youngest-ever president. “This is the most ambitious effort in this space yet, a whole scale review and reform of the nation’s criminal justice policies.”

Jealous appeared at a press conference in Washington, D.C., this afternoon with several conservative supporters, including former President Bush’s Secretary of Education Rod Paige, conservative movement celebrity Grover Norquist, and Mike Jiminez of the executive committee of Corrections USA, which represents corrections officers nationwide.

“For a long time conservatives have been hard on every government bureaucracy, and were frankly turning a blind eye to prisons and defense,” said Pat Nolan, a conservative politician and vice president of the Prison Fellowship. “For every dollar we spend we should get an increase in public safety. But the fact is we’ve locked up a lot of non-dangerous people, who are coming out of our dangerous prison system more dangerous than they came in.”

When asked if he expected to receive criticism from other conservatives for siding with the NAACP, Nolan said, “Yes, but they’re right on this issue, and we’ll stand with anybody whose right on this issue.”

Nolan cited the Second Chance Act as another example of left-right coalitions working well together on issues that really matter.

But Nolan wasn’t alone at the NAACP’s side. Potential 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich sent a letter of support to be read at the press conference.

“If our prison policies are failing half of the time, and we know that there are more humane alternatives–especially alternatives that do not involve spending billions more on more prisons–it is time to fundamentally rethink how we treat and rehabilitate our prisoners,” Gingrich wrote. “Conservatives, such as myself, should not consider criminal justice reform off-limits, and I am pleased that our movement has begun to tackle these issues head-on.”

The NAACP’s report tracks the shift of state funds away from education towards the criminal justice system, profiling six major cities and several states in-depth. NAACP’s main findings are at this point well-known–the disproportionate jailing of poor and minority people, huge disparities in state spending on jail systems versus education systems. Here’s one of the more eye-grabbing stats: In 20 years, nationwide spending on higher education increased by 21 percent, while corrections funding increased by 127 percent. Even during the recession, education budgets plummeted, while a majority of states increased the the amount they spent on prisons.

The report is part of NAACP’s “Smart and Safe Campaign”, a nationwide effort to influence state budgets and reform the nation’s criminal justice system by moving prison spending to education. NAACP is also launching a multi-city billboard campaign that will feature telling statistics, such as the fact that the U.S. accounts for 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of its prisoners.

The NAACP apologized yesterday to black community newspapers around the country for a perceived advertising snub at the recent Image Awards. Black publishers had expressed outrage that they’d been passed over on a symbolically important ad buy, but the NAACP says the papers were excluded accidentally due to a contractor’s mistake.

The dustup began when the NAACP neglected to place its 42nd NAACP Image Awards Magazine in several prominent black papers. The Philadelphia Tribune, America’s oldest and largest daily newspaper serving the African-American community, reported that it didn’t get the insert. The Los Angeles Sentinel, another one of the nation’s oldest and largest black newspapers, also didn’t carry it, along with other key markets, including Atlanta, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Chicago. The National Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents more than 200 members of the black press, began surveying members to see how many others missed out on the important ad buy. 

Community newspapers have been among the hardest hit by both the recession and dramatic changes to the news publishing business that make their age-old business models difficult to sustain. A snub from the NAACP was salt in the proverbial wound. 

“At the end of the day, this is not just about communication, this is about economics,” said NNPA Chair Danny Bakewell, also publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel, in a statement. “The fact that they are buying the message from the white papers and they want us to convey the message free in black papers is insult to injury.”

But NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous says nothing of the sort happened. Jealous explained that the organization has for the past five years contracted out the production and sales of the Image Award circular:

The advertising company originally conceived the guide and presented it as a fundraisier to the NAACP. It is solely responsible for selling the ads and handling the distribution. It pays the NAACP a licensing royalty which is used to support our ongoing diversity efforts in Hollywood. No advertising dollars are actually spent by the NAACP. 

[snip] 

The NAACP does not condone the agency’s decision to exclude Black community newspapers.  It is contrary to our explicit instruction, and we were not aware of the agency’s decision until after the guides hit the papers.  Nonetheless, it was made for a publication that bears our name, and as CEO I take ultimately responsibility for it.

Jealous stressed his own history with the black press: He began his career as an investigative reporter for the Jackson Advocate and served as executive director of NNPA for several years.

But advertising is a particularly sensitive subject in today’s black press. While the publishing industry as a whole has been struggling, black papers have found it particularly hard to stay afloat.  According to a National Association of Black Journalists report, the number of black publishers have declined from 14 in 2004 to nine in 2010, Hakim Hasan of NewsOne reported last year.

Even well-known magazines such as Ebony and Jet, two of the oldest and most reputable black magazines, are suffering from diminishing numbers of subscribers. In an interview with Public Radio International back in 2009, Colorlines.com editor Kai Wright expressed more concern with the plight of local black publishers than national black media. He said:

…the local newspapers that have an equally vibrant history, but have been troubled for some time now… and I believe they have an even more vital role in terms of the actual substantive thing that journalism has to offer to the world. They are the sorts of publications that are in the position to talk about things that don’t rise to the… national news, but are deeply relevant to the lives of black communities.

In Jealous’ statement, he said, “I have apologized to the NNPA and promised their leadership this will not happen again.” 

There’s an uproar brewing in Detroit. And this one isn’t related to school test scores. Some supporters of the NAACP’s Detroit branch are boycotting its annual fundraiser on May 1. Why? Because Kid Rock is set to receive the branch’s Great Expectations award for his work in with young folks in and around Detroit.

Kid Rock is known to sport a confederate flag in some of his performers, a fact that doesn’t sit well with many of the branch’s supporters.

“It’s a slap in the face for anyone who fought for civil rights in this country,” Adolph Mongo, political consultant and head of Detroiters for Progress, told the Detroit News. “It’s a symbol of hatred and bigotry.”

Rock defended his use of the flag in an interview with the Guardian back in 2008. “Sure, it’s definitely got some scars, but I’ve never had an issue with it,” he told the Guardian back in 2008. “To me it just represents pride in southern rock’ n’ roll, plus it just looks cool.”

The ‘it just looks cool’ argument obviously isn’t sitting well with the NAACP’s faithful. Rock, who was born Robert James “Bob” Ritchie in Romeo, Michigan, began his career as a rapper and eventually linked up with producer D-Nice from the legendary Boogie Down Productions in the early 90s. Though the passion was there, the money apparently wasn’t. The rapper turned to rock at the urging of studio executives, and became a hit sensation later in the decades with his album Devil Without a Cause. His popularity was especially high in the South.

The branch’s NAACP has sidestepped the controversy and insisted that the singer deserves the award. “Kid Rock … has consistently lifted up the Great Expectations of many persons … concerning the future of the city,” Donnell R. White, interim executive director of the Detroit Branch NAACP,” said in a statement, reports the Detroit News.

The 42nd annual NAACP Image Awards are just hours away, and we thought we’d expand a bit on our initial excitement about this year’s nominees. So what better way to do it than with fantasy picks? We took a look at just a few of the categories and picked our favorites. Some might be shoe-in’s, others might be stretches. But an editorial team can dream, can’t it? Have others? Leave them in the comments.

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series: Vanessa Williams on Desperate Housewives. Because who isn’t still having Wilhelmina Slater withdrawals?

Outstanding Comedy Series: 30 Rock. Tracy Jordan’s bid for “serious actor” legitimacy is hilarious.

Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Regina King in Southland. Her performance is so measured and smart. She’s the most underrated actress in Hollywood.

Outstanding Variety: Black Girls Rock! For the “Four Women” tribute and bcs…Black girls rock.

Outstanding Reality Series: Um, where’s Real Housewives of Atlanta?

Outstanding New Artist: Willow Smith. Because child labor laws notwithstanding, that Smith family’s really going places.

Outstanding Male Artist: Cee Lo Green. We generally dig everything he does. And apparently, we’re not alone.

Outstanding Female Artist: Sade. It’s Sade!

Outstanding Duo: John Legend and The Roots. John Legend may have some questionable positions on education reform, but this collabortion was pretty hot. And available to listen to free.

Outstanding Song: Un-thinkable (I’m Ready) Alicia Keys

Outstanding Music Video: Willow, Whip My Hair. We, too, whip our hair on occasion. And even if we don’t have any, we make it work.

Outstanding Literary Work (Non-Fiction): The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. by Michelle Alexander. Puts our wretched criminal justice system into political perspective.

Outstanding Literary Work (Debut Author): The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson. Beautifully written. Exhaustively researched. Probably one of, if not the most, important books of the year.

Outstanding Motion Picture: For us, the jury’s still out on Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls.

Outstanding Independent Motion Picture: La Mission. As Julianne Hing wrote back in January, it’s a beautiful film, heartbreaking and honest. And it’s based in San Francisco, which is only the greatest place on earth.

The NAACP Image Award nominations are out and even though I’m rarely moved by and have often found reason to criticize the awards, they are a celebration of people of color’s contributions to culture this year. A questionably skewed and somewhat silly celebration, yes, but a worthwhile celebration just the same.

We picked out a handful of selections. You can check out the full list here.

The Silly:
Willow Smith, who goes by the artist name of simply Willow, is an pint-sized phenom with a hit song under her belt, and now she’s a NAACP Image Awards nominee for Outstanding New Artist. And she’s 10 years old.* Willow is up against B.o.B., Bruno Mars, Jason Derulo and Nicki Minaj. It’s a family affair too. Willow’s brother Jaden has been nominated for his role in the The Karate Kid and is up against Common, Anthony Mackie, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman.

The Serious:
Ohio State University law professor Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” was a thorough evisceration of the criminal justice system and the war on drugs that’s resulted in the mass incarceration of black men. And it’s been nominated as an Outstanding Literary Work of Nonfiction. There are actually a plenty more Colorlines favorites in the literature section, including Isabel Wilkerson‘s “The Warmth of Other Suns.”

The Colorlines favorites: “La Mission” was nominated in the Best Independent Film category alongside movies Night Catches Us, Mother and Child, Conviction and Frankie & Alice. While they’re all worthy, we at Colorlines have a soft spot in our hearts for the film about a San Francisco Latino gay teen’s relationship with his father. It’s a beautiful film, heartbreaking and honest.

Wanna share your favorites? If you’ve got more to say on a nominee, or something that should have been nominated, leave it in the comments.

* A previous version of this article incorrectly started that Willow Smith was 8 years old.