CENSUS: WAR ON DRUGS HIT BLACKS

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- When an epidemic of crack and gang violence
erupted in cities like New Haven in the 1990s, police and lawmakers
struck back hard.

The war on drugs yielded dozens of new laws, including mandatory
sentences for drug dealers and heavier penalties for dealing crack
rather than powdered cocaine.

But those laws also had unintended consequences in minority communities.

Black men make up less than 3 percent of Connecticut's population but
account for 47 percent of inmates in prisons, jails and halfway
houses, 2000 census figures show.

Overall in Connecticut, one in 11 black men between the ages of 18
and 64 is behind bars, the census found. In 1990, that figure was
about one in 25.

Similar disparities can be seen across the country. In Louisiana, one
of the few states to receive updated race statistics from the census,
black inmates outnumber whites 3-to-1; blacks account for only a
third of the state's population.

Nationwide, the Justice Department reported that 12 percent of all
black men between the ages of 20 and 34 were locked up last year.

''I don't think anyone intended it to be this way, but if you were
trying to design a system to incarcerate as many African-American and
Latino men as possible, I don't think you could have designed a
better system,'' said state Rep. Michael Lawlor, co-chairman of the
Connecticut Legislature's Judiciary Committee.

The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates state
governments spend $20 billion a year fighting drugs.

Some states now are trying to ease the drug laws of the 1990s,
putting more money toward prevention and treatment instead of
incarceration.

''You can't put every drug user in jail, because if you do and they
don't get any help, they're going to be right back in again,'' said
Chief State's Attorney Jack Bailey, Connecticut's top prosecutor for
10 years.

This year, the Legislature voted to give judges more leeway in
sentencing drug dealers who operated near schools, day care centers
and public housing projects.

The old law set a three-year mandatory minimum sentence for dealing
within 1,500 feet of those places. In densely populated New Haven,
that meant virtually everywhere except the Yale University golf
course and the Tweed-New Haven airport runway.

While drugs also are prevalent in Connecticut's mostly white suburbs,
the preference there for powdered cocaine over crack and sprawling
development meant that few suburban dealers faced the same penalties.

In California this year, a ballot proposition takes effect that will
mean treatment instead of prison for many first- and second-time drug
offenders. Offenders' records are cleared if they complete treatment.

A similar 4-year-old program in Arizona has saved money because
treatment is cheaper than prison, a state analysis found.

Similar programs are being considered in Ohio, Florida and Michigan.

Some politicians, however, believe a hard line on drugs is
appropriate, or do not wish to be seen as soft on crime.

''I think it sends out a very negative message to the public at
large,'' said Connecticut state Rep. Ronald San Angelo, a Republican
who opposed changing mandatory minimum sentences.

People who lived through the gang and drug wars also offer caution.
While they are angry that a generation of young black men are in
prison, they do not want to return to the past.

Lorraine Stanley, a resident of a New Haven housing project for 13
years, recalled how a drug gang called the Jungle Brothers terrorized
her neighborhood. Police eventually busted up the gang, and now a
police substation in the neighborhood keeps crime down.

''Things have gotten a whole lot better,'' Stanley said.

Despite changes in the laws, other experts said racial bias in the
courts and poverty in the cities will continue to lead to more prison
time for minorities.

Frank Mandanici, a public defender in New Haven, said that bias among
juries affects verdicts and sentences for black defendants.

''Racism permeates our society. It's a cancer no one is willing to
address,'' he said. ''There is no test on how to detect it and what
to do with it.''

Yale political science Professor Donald Green said the density and
poverty of cities combined with law enforcement tactics have put more
blacks in prison.

''Drug use is similar in white and nonwhite populations, but the
level of enforcement is very different among the two groups,'' he
said. ''Violent crime is more associated with gang activity,
associated with drug abuse in minorities, and enforcement is aimed
overwhelmingly in that direction.''

Also, Green said, poor people of all races turn to crime when there
are no other opportunities.