STATES RECONSIDER TOUGH DRUG LAWS THAT PUT MOSTLY BLACKS IN PRISON

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 among communities of blacks.

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.

Overall in Connecticut, one in 11 black men between the ages of 18 and 64
is behind bars, the census found. In 1990, that figure was about one in 25.

Similar disparities can be seen across the country. In Louisiana, one of
the few states to receive updated race statistics from the census, black
inmates outnumber whites 3-to-1; blacks account for a third of the state's
population.

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 that state
governments spend $20 billion a year fighting drugs.

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

"You can't put every drug user in jail, because if you do and they don't
get any help, they're going to be right back in again," said Chief State's
Attorney Jack Bailey, Connecticut's top prosecutor for 10 years. This year,
the Legislature voted to give judges more leeway in sentencing drug dealers
who operated near schools, day-care centers and public housing projects.

The old law set a three-year mandatory minimum sentence for dealing within
1,500 feet of those places. In densely populated New Haven, that meant
virtually everywhere.

Although drugs also are prevalent in Connecticut's mostly white suburbs,
the preference there for powdered cocaine over crack and sprawling
development meant that few suburban dealers faced the same penalties.

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.

A similar 4-year-old program in Arizona has saved money because treatment
is cheaper than prison, a state analysis found.

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

Some politicians, however, think a hard line on drugs is appropriate, or do
not wish to be seen as soft on crime.

"I think it sends out a very negative message to the public at large," said
Connecticut state Rep. Ronald San Angelo, a Republican who opposed changing
mandatory minimum sentences.

People who lived through the gang and drug wars also offer caution. Though
they are angry that a generation of young black men are in prison, they do
not want to return to the past.