BLACKS HIT HARD IN DRUG SENTENCING, STUDY FINDS

African-Americans in Cook County were imprisoned for drug offenses at
58 times the rate of white people--the seventh-worst racial disparity
among large counties nationwide, according to a new report.

The Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank advocating
alternatives to prison for social problems, was set to release a study
Tuesday detailing the different treatment white and black drug
offenders receive under the criminal justice system. The institute
found that nationwide, African-Americans are imprisoned for drugs at
10 times the rate of white people.

Cook County also ranked high for its overall rate of drug
imprisonment, the authors said. In 2002, the year selected for study,
more than 166 out of every 100,000 people went to prison for a drug
offense in Cook County, the ninth highest rate in the nation.

A Tribune investigation last summer also found a high disparity
between the treatment of black and white drug offenders, and detailed
how new drug laws -- such as those targeting dealers arrested near
churches, schools, parks and public housing -- disproportionately
affect predominantly black neighborhoods.

The new paper, titled "The Vortex: The Concentrated Racial Impact of
Drug Imprisonment and the Characteristics of Punitive Counties," argues
that there is little relationship between a county's drug imprisonment
rate and the rate of illegal drug use in the county.

Instead, high rates of imprisonment typically indicate counties with
larger proportions of African-Americans, higher unemployment and
poverty rates, and larger judicial system budgets.

Part of this is due to increased police attention in urban areas,
where drugs are bought and sold in open-air drug markets. In suburbs,
where overall crime rates are lower and drug sales and usage more
often take place behind closed doors, police are less likely to notice
or take action.