RACIALLY BIASED JUSTICE NEEDS EXAMINING

Roger Owens, president of Save Our Sons, was right on target in his July 26
article calling for an in-depth study of the startling difference in white
and minority incarceration rates. In Greenville County, minority men make
up about 10 percent of the general population, but 58 percent of our prison
population (1997 figures from South Carolina Commission for Minority
Affairs). If we understood and addressed the problems indicated by this
statistic, we would provide needed services, save a lot of broken lives and
reduce tax dollars spent on prisons.

A crucial question which Owens raises is the extent to which the factors
are not social but result from unfairness in the justice system. The recent
case of a white driver who hit a black pedestrian in Clemson does not add
to one's confidence in colorblind justice.

It is encouraging that nationally, the Police Executive Research Forum
recognizes the problem at the police level, calls it "racially biased
policing" and, in a report, makes nearly 50 recommendations to help police
departments to address it. Police departments which pretend that the
problem does not exist now lose credibility daily.

The Sentencing Project reports: African-Americans make up 13 percent of
drug users, 35 percent of those arrested for possession, 55 percent of
those convicted for possession and 74 percent of those imprisoned for
possession. The problem does not stop with the police. It is past time to
start addressing "racially biased" prosecution and sentencing.

Ethel W. Piper,
Landrum