''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

Much of the police crackdown on inner-city crime involves a crackdown on
people associated with illegal drugs in some way. If these people were not
subjected to police actions because the drugs were legally regulated, and
if drug use were treated similarly to alcohol and tobacco use, crime would
drop dramatically, and the costs to society would plummet.

Instead, we have handed a monopoly to organized crime, ruined many lives,
and drawn unflattering international attention to ourselves because of our
astronomical incarceration rate. Rather than treat those who seek treatment
to get off drugs and leave the rest alone, we dispense a brutal solution to
their problems and in turn create greater problems for society.

Keith Brilhart
Decatur, Ill.