STUDY SHOWS STRONG RACIAL PATTERN IN STATE JAILS

OLYMPIA -- Prison and jail populations in Washington state doubled over the
past decade, according to census figures released Wednesday, and black men
and women were incarcerated at a disproportionately high rate.

Black men in Washington make up only 3 percent of the male population, but
18 percent of the male population behind bars.

"The overwhelming majority of those are fathers," said Shirl Gilbert,
president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Tacoma. "You
build, then, the continuing cyclical nature of poverty. ... The impact on
the minority community is enormous."

The 2000 Census counted 28,871 people in state and federal prisons, local
jails, military jails and correctional halfway houses in Washington. The
incarcerated population increased 98 percent, while total state population
grew 21 percent over the same decade.

Census data show that 4.6 percent of all black men in Washington are
imprisoned. The figure falls to 2.2 percent for American Indians, 1.3
percent for Pacific Islanders and Hispanics, 0.7 percent for whites and 0.4
percent for Asians.

Experts say drug policies explain the racial disparities. In Washington
state prisons, 22 percent of inmates were convicted of drug crimes. Law
enforcement usually targets urban, black neighborhoods for drug busts,
despite equal amounts of drug use across racial lines.

Rep. John Lovick of Mill Creek, a Washington State Patrol sergeant and one
of two black legislators in Washington, said that in his experience black
defendants often don't get as good a defense as whites, for economic reasons.

"Money, at times, buys justice," he said.

Lovick believes the state should offer more alternative sentencing and
treatment of nonviolent, low-level drug offenders, as well as do more with
prevention.

"Unfortunately, a lot of violent criminals are not in jail, because we have
to make room for drug offenders," Lovick said. "The war on drugs is just
simply not working."

The effect of the high incarceration rates for blacks is devastating,
especially to black children, Lovick said: "This is what they see and hear,
and sometimes they start to believe it. I try to be a positive role model,
to let them know that, frankly, there is hope."

Courts, attorneys and law enforcement agencies know this. A study of 3,000
drug arrests, released in May by Harvard University's Kennedy School of
Government, found that while blacks constitute only 6 percent to 7 percent
of drug users in King County, they account for 57 percent of adult drug
arrests. Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said he was not surprised by
the findings, and that police tend to target open-air drug markets.

Drug policies discriminate in other ways, too. For example, possessing 5
grams of crack, a drug prevalent in black neighborhoods, will get you the
same federal sentence as being caught with 500 grams of powder cocaine, a
drug more popular with whites.

Washington's figures follow a national trend -- in fact, the prison
population is more racially proportionate in Washington than in many other
states. For example in Connecticut, black men are 3 percent of the
population but 47 percent of the prisoners. In Alabama, blacks are 26
percent of the population and 62.5 percent of the prison inmates.

"Police officers make arrests where they're easiest. That's usually in
low-income neighborhoods in inner-city communities," said Hubert Locke,
professor emeritus at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School
of Public Affairs. "It's a lot easier to target the kid on the street
corner peddling crack than the people who supply attorneys downtown or
provide cocaine for suburban parties."