97 BLACKS JAILED FOR EVERY WHITE OFFENDER IN DANE, REPORT SAYS

A new report says Dane County imprisons 97 black drug offenders for
every white offender. Critics say the report does not consider
criminal history enough in its findings

Dane County imprisons 97 black drug offenders for every white
offender, the third highest racial disparity in the nation, according
to a report issued Tuesday.

The Justice Policy Institute, an advocacy group for alternatives to
prison, issued the report.

The report states a disproportionate number of blacks are sent to
prison for drug offenses. However, according to UW-Madison Law
Professor John Pray, the amount of drug use by black people is
comparable to that of white people.

"I know that as a national average, black people do not use drugs
more than white people," Pray said. "It's an astounding statistic
that requires a lot of attention as to how that happens."

According to the report, the incarceration gap is related to social
and economic factors such as poverty, percentage of blacks in the
community and the amount of money spent on the local criminal justice system.

The incarceration rates in Dane County are generally low, except for
drug offenders, in which the racial gap is "extreme," according to
Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard.

He said the amount of imprisoned drug offenders widens the racial gap
in prisons for all types of crimes.

"That's going to exacerbate the disparity if there already is some
disparity between drug [cases] and other cases," Blanchard said.

An important aspect of the sentencing process that requires more
careful attention, according to Blanchard, is the criminal history of
a defendant.

"Somebody who is caught dealing drugs for the first time with no
criminal history stands in extremely different shoes from someone who
persistently continues to deal in drugs after being caught. It's the
same across all crimes," Blanchard said.

A report from the Wisconsin Sentencing Commission showed that even
after criminal histories were accounted for during a trial, racial
disparity persisted, according to the Capital Times.

Blanchard said the Sentencing Commission report may be flawed, but
the issues it raises deserve consideration.

"Certainly the idea that somebody is in worse shape in front of a
sentencing judge because of the color of their skin is intolerable,"
Blanchard said. "The question is, how do we figure out the degree to
which that might be true and what we can do about it?"