PROGRAM GIVES HOPE TO BLACK INMATES.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: CHRISTOPHER RINGWALD Staff writer

TROY -- In the Rensselaer County Jail during a black-awareness class, Jeffrey Jackson articulates a crucial insight.

``I'm looking at the real problem, which is me,'' said Jackson, a 30-year-old inmate from Catskill. ``The essence of the problem is that I committed a crime.''

The sort of insight that may be obvious to outsiders is at the heart of a new program begun by two African-Americans, an inmate and a guard, who are eager to stop the rotation of fellow blacks through the prison system.

``For eight years I've seen some of the same guys coming and going and coming back,'' said Andy Washington, a husky man with a ready smile. He is one of two blacks among the jail's 79 guards and was ready when …