BLACKS ARE SENT TO PRISON AT HIGHER RATES THAN WHITES AFTER
CONVICTIONS IN DRUG CASES

National Drug-Case Statistics Are Mirrored In Central Florida Counties.

A report by a criminal-justice think tank shows that blacks are more
likely than whites to be imprisoned for a drug offense in 97 percent
of the nation's largest counties.

Central Florida is no exception, according to the report, which was
released today by the Justice Policy Institute. These disparities
exist despite the fact that whites and blacks use, sell and transport
illegal drugs at roughly the same rate, the report said.

According to the report, the largest racial disparity in Central
Florida is in Volusia, where blacks are 22 times more likely to be
imprisoned than whites. But the two counties with the highest
percentage of black residents -- Polk and Orange -- had the lowest
disparity in incarceration rates. In Polk County, blacks were just
four times more likely than whites to be imprisoned on drug charges,
and in Orange, they were 10 times more likely to be locked up.

The report does not accuse law-enforcement agencies of targeting
blacks but says that the disparity should pressure policymakers to
reconsider how drug policy and policing affect communities.

"This report speaks to, what do we want to look for? Drugs all the
time or violent crime?" said Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of
the Washington, D.C.-based group, whose goal is to reduce the
country's dependence on incarceration.

But drawing a distinction between policing against violent crime and
drug violations is easier said than done, especially in Orlando and
unincorporated Orange County, which both broke murder records in
2006, law-enforcement officials said.

Drugs linked to crimes

Open-air drug sales spawn violence, as drug dealers use guns to
settle disputes over unpaid bills and the quality of their goods,
experts said. Drug addicts commit robberies to fund their lifestyles.
Neighborhoods bearing the brunt of the violence are often poor, and
many are predominantly black.

Arrests for drug offenses can keep those kinds of neighborhoods
safer, said Gary Hester, chief of staff for the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

"My belief is -- especially in drug cases -- if you allow drug crimes
and you don't enforce drug laws, your neighborhood deteriorates," Hester said.

It's well-accepted in criminal-justice circles that blacks have been
disproportionately affected by tougher drug laws and enforcement
efforts, said Elizabeth E. Mustaine, an associate professor at the
University of Central Florida.

Sentences doled out to blacks tend to be longer, even if blacks are
convicted of the same crime as a white person, Mustaine said. But
addressing this problem is difficult in a political climate where
voters like candidates who are tough on crime.

"There doesn't seem to be a lot of effort to do anything about it,"
Mustaine said.

The report did not include arrest comparisons by race, but Ziedenberg
said arrest data shows similar disparities.

The Justice Policy Institute began its research after policymakers
began looking for more cost-effective ways of handling the drug
problem, Ziedenberg said. The study looks at counties across the
United States with populations above 250,000.

San Francisco tops scale

The counties with the greatest racial disparities are outside Central
Florida. San Francisco has the highest imprisonment rate for blacks,
with 1,013.9 per 100,000 in the population being incarcerated for
drug offenses. In Orange County, the rate is 173.3 per 100,000.

Nationwide, more than twice as many blacks as whites were sent to
prison for drug offenses in the counties studied, even though white
drug users outnumber black users, the study states.

The institute recommends that local agencies collect data to assess
whether they're imprisoning a representative cross-section of drug
users. It also advocates for making more drug-treatment services
available to minorities.

Local officials stress that the reasons behind the disparities are complex.

"Certainly our policy is, there is no profiling," said Sgt. Barbara
Jones, an Orlando police spokeswoman. "We look at crime stats; we
look at trends."

What law-enforcement agencies do focus on is crime hot spots. Agency
crime statisticians identify areas where robberies, murders or other
crimes are taking place regularly so officers on patrol can focus on them.

Easy arrests in the street

In many of those neighborhoods, enclaves often isolated by race and
poverty, drugs are sold on the street -- and it's far easier to
arrest someone dealing drugs openly than a person selling inside
their home, said Randy Means, executive director of the
Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors decide to charge arrestees based solely upon whether they
have enough evidence, Means said. After that, the suspect's criminal
history often determines what happens next, said John Tanner, state
attorney for the 7th Judicial Circuit, which includes Volusia,
Flagler, Putnam and St. Johns counties. First-time offenders can
qualify for a program that diverts them to treatment.

"Our first approach is to try to help them stop," Tanner said. "Just
putting drug users in jail doesn't work. It's not good for the
community, and it doesn't stop the behavior."

Repeat offenders punished

Wayne Holmes, chief assistant state attorney in Brevard County, where
blacks are sent to prison at 21 times the rate of whites, said his
office doesn't prosecute black drug offenders more harshly than white
drug offenders, but it does punish repeat criminals more harshly than
first-timers.

The thought of so many blacks being caught up in the criminal-justice
system for drug offenses is upsetting, he said.

"Do I wish it was not a situation where many black kids are getting
tied up in the criminal-justice system and before they know it,
they're so involved in repeated crimes that they're . . . throwing
away their lives? I hate that," he said.

"I hate to see any kid not have opportunity. I hate to see any kid
throw his life away."