DRUG LAWS IN CONNECTICUT INCREASE NUMBER OF BLACKS IN PRISON

Census: Disparity Fueled By Penalties

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- When an epidemic of crack and gang violence erupted in
cities like New Haven in the 1990s, police and lawmakers struck back hard.

The war on drugs yielded dozens of new laws, including mandatory sentences
for drug dealers and heavier penalties for dealing crack rather than
powdered cocaine.

But those laws also had unintended consequences in minority communities.

Black men make up less than 3 percent of Connecticut's population but
account for 47 percent of inmates in prisons, jails and halfway houses,
2000 census figures show.

One in 11 black men between the ages of 18 and 64 in Connecticut is behind
bars, the census found. In 1990, that figure was about one in 25.
Nationwide, the Justice Department reported that 12 percent of all black
men between the ages of 20 and 34 were locked up last year.

"I don't think anyone intended it to be this way, but if you were trying to
design a system to incarcerate as many African-American and Latino men as
possible, I don't think you could have designed a better system," said
state Rep. Michael Lawlor, co-chairman of the Connecticut Legislature's
Judiciary Committee.

The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates state governments
spend $20 billion a year fighting drugs.

Some states now are trying to ease the drug laws of the 1990s, putting more
money toward prevention and treatment instead of incarceration.

In California this year, a ballot proposition takes effect that will mean
treatment instead of prison for many first- and second-time drug offenders.
Offenders' records are cleared if they complete treatment.

Similar programs are being considered in Ohio, Florida and Michigan.