DECK STACKED RACIALLY

MORE and more West Virginians are focusing on a cruel fact of life: that
West Virginia's criminal justice system treats blacks far more harshly than
whites.

Last week, Kanawha Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman outlined the imbalance in a
lecture at the local Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. He summarized:

"While African-American youth represented 4 percent of West Virginia's
juvenile population in 1998, they represented 9 percent of juvenile court
referrals, 18 percent of juveniles placed in detention ... and in 1999,
they were 52 percent of juveniles waived to adult criminal court.

"West Virginia's overrepresentation of African-American youth ... exceeds
the national rates in all but one state."

Judge Kaufman recommended that West Virginia develop "a collaborative plan"
to cure the unfair treatment of blacks. He urged more public awareness of
the imbalance, and more alternative sentences to keep teens out of cells.

The figures he cited were from a recent study by several West Virginia
church groups. It followed a national study showing that blacks draw
harsher punishment at every step of America's justice process, even when
they commit exactly the same offenses as whites and have exactly the same
police records.

These reports caused several lawyers to ask the state Supreme Court to
reform West Virginia's justice procedures, to guarantee equal treatment.

Meanwhile, new figures from the 2000 Census paint an even worse picture.
They say that blacks are only about 3 percent of West Virginia's
population, but constitute more than one-third of jail and prison inmates.
One of every 16 West Virginia blacks is incarcerated, compared to one of
every 255 whites.

A major cause of this inequality, we think, is selective prosecution. We
remember the "dry" days of the 1950s, when selling drinks was a crime.
Police endlessly raided bootleg joints in Charleston's black ghetto - but
they rarely touched affluent white clubs that sold cocktails.

Today the "war on drugs" follows the same pattern - with much more severe
sentences. After the Census figures were released, black Charleston lawyer
Nelson Bickley told Gazette reporter Rachelle Bott:

"Most of the crimes anymore have something to do with drugs. How many times
have you seen a drug bust in South Hills? It just doesn't happen."

Exactly. It's much easier - and less controversial - for undercover "narcs"
to nab young blacks selling dope on street corners.

We're glad that so many public voices are focusing on this racial
imbalance. We hope the state Supreme Court action produces new rules
strengthening the great motto carved across the U.S. Supreme Court in
Washington: "Equal Justice Under Law."