BAY AREA COUNTIES TOUGHEST ON BLACK DRUG OFFENDERS

San Francisco imprisons African Americans for drug offenses at a much
higher rate than whites, according to a report to be released today
by a nonprofit research institute.

In a study of nearly 200 counties nationwide, the Justice Policy
Institute found that 97 percent of large-population counties have
racial disparities between the number of black people and white
people sent to prison on drug convictions.

The institute, which is based in Washington, D.C., and researches
public policy and promotes alternatives to incarceration, says whites
and African Americans use illicit drugs at similar rates. But black
people account for more than 50 percent of sentenced drug offenders,
though they make up only 13 percent of the nation's population.

San Francisco locks up a higher percentage of members of the African
American community in drug cases than any other county in the study.
In the county, 123 people out of every 100,000 are sent to state
prison each year for drug offenses. Of those, whites are incarcerated
at a rate of 35 per 100,000 white people, while blacks are
incarcerated at a rate of 1,013 per 100,000 black people.

"It is not that San Francisco is sending a lot of people to prison
for drug offenses, it is that the people they are sending are black,"
said Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the institute. "An
average citizen who uses drugs in San Francisco has a pretty low
chance of going to prison, but if you are African American, the
chances are fairly high."

Over the past 35 years, the rate at which the United States imprisons
citizens has risen dramatically, and the increase has been driven in
large part by drug offenses, according to the report. Between 1996
and 2002, the number of people in jail for drug offenses increased by
about 47 percent.

San Francisco has a small population of African Americans - 6.7
percent of the total, according to the Census Bureau's 2006 American
Community Survey - but Ziedenberg said the numbers have a
concentrated impact within that community. African Americans are
going to prison for drug offenses at a rate that is 28 times higher
than the rate for whites.

"If you go to any courtroom in the Hall of Justice, you will see that
the majority arrested are African American," said San Francisco
Public Defender Jeff Adachi. "At every stage of the criminal process
- - arrest, conviction and those who are sent to prison - there is a
disproportionate impact on blacks.

"It is a tradition in San Francisco to focus sting operations in
communities where there are larger populations of African Americans,
and there are state and federal grants that support those stings."

Alameda and San Mateo counties also have disproportionately high
rates of incarcerating African Americans for drug offenses, according
to the report. In Alameda County, 159 per 100,000 people are admitted
to prison each year for drug offenses. Of those, whites are
imprisoned at a rate of 23 per 100,000 white people, while blacks are
incarcerated at a rate of 797 per 100,000 black people.

In San Mateo County, 76 out of every 100,000 people are admitted to
prison each year for drug offenses. Of those, whites are imprisoned
at a rate of 26 per 100,000 white people, while blacks are
incarcerated at a rate of 946 per 100,000 black people.

In addition to the racial disparities, the report found that counties
that spend more on policing and the judicial system imprison people
for drug offenses at higher rates, even if the crime rate isn't
higher. It also found that counties with higher poverty and
unemployment rates send people to prison more.

An investigation into arrest rates by The Chronicle last year found
that police in San Francisco arrest African Americans for serious
crime at a much higher rate than in the state's other biggest cities.

At the time of that report, San Francisco police cited several
factors that contribute to the disparity. Police officials said most
of the dealers coming from out of town by BART or car to sell drugs
are African Americans; that black drug dealers often sell out in the
open on street corners, increasing their chances for arrest; and that
the department devotes a lot of resources to combatting gangs of
youths responsible for many of the city's black-on-black homicides.

Tim Silard, chief of policy for the San Francisco district attorney's
office, said the new report was disturbing but that the disparity is
likely the result of higher arrest rates among African Americans.

"Data show that San Francisco's charging and conviction rates are
actually fairly consistent across racial lines," Silard said. "At the
same time, the data show that African Americans in San Francisco are
arrested for felonies at three and four times the rate in other major
California cities."

But Adachi, the public defender, said it doesn't matter.

"The arrests may be higher, but it is the district attorney's job to
ensure that charging practices don't discriminate," Adachi said. "Law
enforcement is law enforcement."

Dorsey Nunn, a co-founder of All of Us or None and a long-time
prisoner rights activist, said the numbers were unexpected.

"I see innovative work happening in San Francisco that is getting
young people of color into programs," he said. "The disparity in this
report is surprising."

The report is based on 2002 figures from the U.S. Bureau of Justice
Statistics and 2006 numbers from the National Corrections Reporting Program.