''TOUGH JUSTICE'': A RACIST WASTE OF MONEY AND LIVES?

Regarding ''Tough justice is saving our inner cities'' (Economic
Viewpoint, July 17): I can't believe Gary Becker had the nerve to put
his offensive views on paper or that BUSINESS WEEK would publish them.
Blacks are beneficiaries of tough justice?

Give me a break!

The drug war is arguably waged in a racist manner, with
African-Americans bearing the brunt of zero-tolerance law enforcement.
Violent crime continues to trend downward, yet the Land of the Free
recently earned the dubious distinction of having the highest
incarceration rate in the world.

Nonviolent drug offenses account for the majority of federal
incarcerations. While only 11% of the nation's drug users are black,
blacks account for 37% of those arrested for drug violations, over 42%
of those in federal prisons for drug violations, and almost 60% of
those in state prisons for drug felonies.

Here in the District of Columbia, 50% of 18-to-35-year-old black men
are under some form of court supervision or being sought on arrest
warrants.

Nationwide, roughly one in three (32%) black males aged 20 to 29 is
under some type of correctional control. Minorities fuel the
burgeoning for-profit prison system.

Few Americans seem to care that the drug war has created a
prison-industrial complex that rivals the cold war's
military-industrial complex in terms of influencing public policy.

Support for the failed drug war would end overnight if whites were
subjected to ''tough justice'' at the same rates as their
African-American counterparts.

Robert Sharpe
Washington