STATE NO. 2 IN RACIAL GAP IN DRUG SENTENCES

Study: Across U.S., Blacks Are More Likely Than Whites To Be Imprisoned

Singling out Wisconsin as one of the most vivid examples, an international
human rights organization is charging that black people have been the
targets of the war against drugs in the United States to a degree that is
far disproportionate to actual rates of drug crimes.

The report released Wednesday said that the vast disparity between the rates
at which white and black men are imprisoned for drug crimes "is nothing
short of a national scandal."

Human Rights Watch, a private group based in New York, said that black males
were 13 times more likely to be imprisoned for drug offenses in the U.S.
than white males.

For Wisconsin, black men were 53 times more likely to be serving time for
drug crimes than white men, the second-highest ratio among 37 states for
which comparable data were compiled.

Using federal data from recent years, the report said that black males in
Wisconsin were imprisoned for drug offenses at a rate of 689 for every
100,000 people, compared with 13 per 100,000 for white males. The comparable
national figures were 482 for blacks and 36 for whites.

Jamie Fellner, associate counsel for Human Rights Watch, said the study did
not attempt to figure out whether blacks and whites were given different
sentences in similar circumstances. But it brought together research from
several federal sources that indicates that actual use of illegal drugs does
not vary much by race, although the rate at which people are imprisoned is
vastly different.

"This racial disparity bears scant relation to racial differences in drug
offending," the study said. "Ostensibly colorblind, the war on drugs has
been waged disproportionately against black Americans."

Among the adverse effects of this is to weaken the social fabric of black
communities, the study said. And the study suggests that because such
communities are weak in terms of political power, there is much less demand
for change than if whites were on the adverse end of such statistics.

The study put states in the upper Midwest, including Wisconsin, at the top
of the list when it came to disparity between sending black and white men to
prison or jail for drug crimes. Illinois had a ratio of 57 black men for
each white man sent to prison, the highest on the list. Minnesota was third
at 39-to-1. Iowa was fifth at 29-to-1.

Fellner said an explanation for the figures for upper Midwest states might
lie in high concentrations of African-Americans in low-income urban
communities with high crime rates and high levels of police presence.

"That's where the police are located, in poor urban areas," she said.

Although rates of drug use might not be particularly different in
higher-income (and whiter) areas, the nature of how drug dealing is
conducted and how law enforcement works leads to lower arrest rates in those
areas, the study said.

The study brought strong reactions from several political leaders in the
black community and others.

Confirming the Obvious?

"Those of us who care about this don't need a study to know that racial
discrimination is rife in drug arrests, charging and convictions," said
state Sen. Gary George (D-Milwaukee), an African-American and chairman of
the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"The system is unfair to African-Americans. White people are not held to the
same standard when it comes to drug offenses."

Sen. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee), also an African-American, said that someone
outside the black community finally was addressing the racial disparity of
the war on drugs.

"My quest is not to now try to round up some naughty white boys that are
using drugs," Moore said. "I think the disparity speaks to the lack of
social and community resources to turn people around at a point when they
can be turned around."

But George Mitchell, a consultant who has been involved in state prison
policy, said that simply comparing black and white incarceration rates is
meaningless. For example, he said, it doesn't factor in whether actual
incidence of crime is higher among blacks; or the economic factors that
allow people who are better-off to get better attorneys; or the more
discreet manners of committing drug crimes among higher-income people.

Gov. Tommy G. Thompson was unavailable for comment on the report, but his
press secretary, Tony Jewell, said Thompson was concerned about drug abuse
and taking steps to deter youths from a life of drug abuse.

In his annual "state of the state" address this year, Thompson proposed an
intensive drug treatment program as an alternative to imprisonment. The
Department of Corrections, Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael
McCann and Milwaukee County judges launched the pilot project in February.

According to department spokesman Dale Jellings, the program has 48
first-time, non-violent drug offenders in intensive treatment.

Racial or Regional Issue?

Rep. Scott Walker (R-Wauwatosa), chairman of the Assembly Committee on
Corrections and the Courts, said he couldn't quarrel with the numbers in the
study, but he objected to the argument that the drug war was racially
motivated.

"It's not a racial issue as much as it's a regional issue," Walker said.
"White offenders in Milwaukee County also tend to get harsher sentences for
drug crimes than they would elsewhere in this state. It just so happens that
a significant percentage of all the offenders in Milwaukee County happen to
be African-American."

Yet Kit McNally, executive director of the Benedict Center, a Milwaukee
organization, said the data were further evidence that Wisconsin, once a
bright light for progressive social and criminal justice policies, was now a
highly regressive state.

"It's really depressing when you've got the whole world watching," she said,
referring to the international reputation of Human Rights Watch. McNally's
group supports much more use of treatment than incarceration in dealing with
drug crimes.

Fellner said it is clear that public policy and attitudes, along with
different strategies for law enforcement, affect how many people are
imprisoned for drug crimes and the racial breakdown of those serving time.

The study said: "The imprisonment of blacks for drug offenses is part of a
larger crisis of over-incarceration in the United States.

"Prison is a legitimate criminal sanction. But it should be used sensibly,
justly, parsimoniously and with due consideration for the principles of
proportionality and respect for human dignity required by international
human rights law. The incarceration of hundreds of thousands of low-level,
non-violent drug offenders betrays indifference to such considerations."

The study did not break down the racial disparity in imprisonment of women
in states. Although the totals for women in prison have been rising quickly,
they are still much lower than for men; women made up 6.5% of the national
prison population in mid-1999, the study said.

But the study said that nationally, black women are eight times as likely to
be incarcerated as white women.

"Human Rights Watch believes there are numerous policy alternatives to
current patterns of criminal law enforcement that would reduce adverse
racial disparities while continuing to respond to social concerns about
public drug dealing and drug abuse," the study said.

Among its recommendations:

* creased use of alternative sentences for drug offenders who have not
engaged in specific seriously threatening behavior or who are not in
higher-level roles in drug organizations.

* creased availability of substance abuse treatment and prevention programs
in prison as well as in the community.

* creased use of "drug courts" in which judges have more flexibility in
deciding what should be done with drug offenders, including a requirement
for treatment.