RACIAL PROFILING PUTS MORE BLACKS IN PRISON

Regarding the story "Black prisoners increase while population stays
steady" (Aug. 12):

Racial profiling is by no means limited to North Carolina. U.S. government
statistics reveal that the drug war is being waged in a racist manner
throughout the nation. Although only 15 percent of the nation's drug users
are black, blacks account for 37 percent of those arrested for drug
violations, more than 42 percent of those in federal prisons for drug
violations, and almost 60 percent of those in state prisons for drug felonies.

Support for the drug war would end overnight if whites were incarcerated
for drugs at the same rate as minorities.

Racially disproportionate incarceration rates are not the only cause for
alarm. Putting nonviolent drug offenders behind bars with violent criminals
transmits violent values rather than reducing them.

Instead of wasting resources to turn potentially productive members of
society who use recreational drugs (other than alcohol and tobacco) into
hardened criminals, we should fund cost-effective treatment.

Robert Sharpe, Washington

The writer works with The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation.