JUSTICE IS BIASED

Facts, Mr. Ross (letter, "Curry is wrong," March 1)? Every study
shows that drug use is equal among races, yet twice as many blacks as
whites are in prison where drug crimes are the highest. Considering
blacks' proportion of the population, it is clear that the drug war
is being waged against blacks more than 10 times as hard as it is
against whites.

Perhaps if drug dogs were run through college dorms, or proportional
numbers of whites were searched for drugs, the numbers would equal
out. You would also have to fix a court system that shows a greater
propensity to jail blacks for the same drug offenses as whites.

Proof? According to the Department of Justice, 68 percent of
arrestees are white, yet whites make up 37 percent of the prison
population. Blacks are 22 percent of arrestees yet make up 47 percent
of the prison population.

Clearly, one group is getting a better deal from justice than the
other group is.

There are more than 300,000 blacks in the prison system for drug
crimes. When we jail 1.7 million whites for drugs (instead of
150,000), then I'll agree that the system isn't biased. And when that
happens, just like Prohibition, you'll see white violent crime
skyrocket as well.

CRAIG BROWN

Crestview