GROUP SLAMS U.S. FOR BLACKS' INCARCERATION RATE

Watchdog, In Report On Drug Crimes, Calls Racial Disparities `A National
Scandal'

Charging that the war on drugs has been waged disproportionately against
blacks, Human Rights Watch is scheduled to release a report today showing
that 482 of every 100,000 African-American men are in prison for a drug
crime, compared with just 36 of every 100,000 white men.

The study, titled ``Punishment and Prejudice,'' also found that blacks make
up 62 percent of the United States' imprisoned drug offenders, despite
accounting for just 13 percent of the population. In half a dozen states,
the disparity is even greater, with blacks making up 80 to 90 percent of
all drug convicts behind bars. In every state, they are more likely than
white men to be incarcerated for such crimes -- from North Dakota, where
the odds are double, to Illinois, where the ratio is 57-to-1.

According to the report, California sends drug offenders to prison at the
highest rate in the nation, 91 per 100,000 residents. Thirty percent of all
drug offenders sent to prison in California are black, although blacks make
up just 7 percent of the state's population.

``These racial disparities are a national scandal,'' said Ken Roth,
executive director of the New York-based watchdog organization, which
touted the report as the first state-by-state analysis of its kind. ``Black
and white drug offenders get radically different treatment in the American
justice system. This is not only profoundly unfair to blacks, it also
corrodes the American ideal of equal justice for all.''

The report, funded by billionaire investor George Soros' Open Society
Institute, adds to the already bleak statistical portrait of inner-city
America, which has served as the drug war's front line. But as with similar
studies, its interpretation -- and the appropriate target for outrage -- is
a matter of considerable debate.

To Human Rights Watch associate counsel Jamie Fellner, who is the author of
the report, the numbers paint a ``devastating picture of the price black
Americans have paid'' for the country's failed battle to control illicit drugs.

``While drug abuse and drug trafficking warrant concerted national
efforts,'' she wrote, ``it may be that the human, social and economic cost
of the prison `cure' is worse than the `disease' itself.''

Conservatives, however, derided those conclusions as ``inflammatory,''
arguing that racially distinct outcomes, in and of themselves, are not
evidence of racially biased policies.

``There will be inevitably, inherently, disparities of all sorts in the
enforcement of any kind of law,'' said Todd Graziano, a senior fellow in
legal studies at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. ``I'm
sure you can find disparity among racial groups as to whether their ZIP
codes end in odd or even numbers. It doesn't prove anything.''

Because the illegal drug trade tends to flourish in economically depressed
communities, conservatives contend, it may be that blacks simply commit
more drug crimes than whites -- or, at least, the kind of drug crimes that
are more likely to result in a prison term. If that is the case, they say,
then inner-city black neighborhoods are the ones that most benefit from
putting drug offenders behind bars.

``Why on earth are people who claim to be civil rights advocates defending
the predators in these communities?'' asked David Horowitz, president of
the Los Angeles-based Center for the Study of Popular Culture and the
author of ``Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes.''

The answer from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, is that a black teenager
standing on a corner with a baggie of crack cocaine should be viewed as a
scapegoat, not a villain. He provides a convenient target for law
enforcement, ``but a 19-year-old, low-level drug dealer in South-Central
L.A. is not responsible for the devastation of the community,'' Waters said.

Rather, she believes outrage -- and prison time -- should be reserved for
those who allow international traffickers to move their drugs and money in
and out of the United States. As an example, Waters pointed to a recent
Senate investigation that rebuked Citibank for helping the brother of
former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari transfer tens of
millions of dollars in alleged drug profits out of his country, yet
resulted in no charges of wrongdoing against the banking conglomerate.

``Blacks get treated differently,'' she said.

The numbers contained in the Human Rights Watch report rely on 1996
prison-admission data from the National Corrections Reporting Program. The
study for the first time calculated per capita incarceration rates for drug
offenders in the 37 states that participated.

Illinois topped the list, with 1,146 of every 100,000 black men (compared
with just 20 of every 100,000 white men) in prison for a drug offense. Ohio
followed, with a rate of 968, then Kentucky, at 869. The report then
compared those numbers with the rates for white men and ranked the states
according to the degree of racial disparity. Illinois again led, with
blacks 57 times more likely than whites to be incarcerated for drug crimes.
Wisconsin followed with a 54-1 ratio, then Minnesota at 39-1.

Human Rights Watch, whose stated goal is to make governments around the
world ``pay a heavy price in reputation and legitimacy if they violate the
rights of their people,'' concludes with several policy recommendations:
Repeal mandatory-minimum sentences, increase the availability of drug
treatment and eliminate racial profiling.

``If this were happening to whites,'' Fellner said, ``the policies would
change.''

Mercury News Staff Writer Ben Stocking contributed to this report.