DRUG EFFORTS TARGET BLACKS, STUDY FINDS

Rights Group's Study Says MD. Imprisons Highest Percentage; 'Stunned
By The Results'

Maryland ranks number one in the percentage of minorities locked up
for drug crimes , according to a major national study released
yesterday that suggests national anti-drug efforts have targeted
blacks while paying far less attention to whites.

The study, released by the national advocacy group Human Rights Watch,
contends that, although the vast majority of people involved with
illegal drugs are white, far more black people in virtually every
state are sent to prison for drug crimes.

That is especially true in Maryland. State data indicate that nine out
of 10 people sentenced to prison for drug crimes are black, even
though five times more whites than blacks use illegal drugs.
Maryland's population is about 27 percent black. Only Illinois posted
similar numbers

Nationally, the study found, about six out of 10 people sentenced to
jail for drug crimes are black. Blacks make up about 13 percent of the
U.S. population.

"We assumed the numbers would be bad, but we were stunned by the
results," said Jamie Fellner, an attorney with Human Rights Watch who
wrote the study. "The magnitude of the disparity was
breathtaking."

The study also shows - for the first time, Human Rights Watch said -
how national figures mask even greater disparities within individual
states. Along with Maryland and Illinois, South Carolina and North
Carolina had wide disparities in drug sentencing.

In Maryland, 79 percent of the overall prison population is black,
according to the National Corrections Reporting Program. The study
suggests that such overall racial disparities among those imprisoned
results, in no small measure, to the disparity among the races in
drug-related incarcerations

"It suggests this country has lost sight of the proper use of prison,
which is the most severe sanction that can be imposed short of the
death penalty," said Fellner in a phone interview from the advocacy
group's headquarters in New York City. "Unlike crimes of violence,
where you could say prison is probably a legitimate response, drug
sellers - street level guys, not kingpins - are probably not best
handled by being locked away."

The study, based on state and federal data, does not point to racism
as a reason for the disparity but suggests that law-enforcement
efforts most often target inner-city neighborhoods, with drug sweeps
and other actions that lead to the arrest of blacks.

In contrast, few resources are devoted toward white people using
illegal drugs in such neighborhoods as Federal Hill.

Fellner said she is aware of the violence associated with
street-corner drug dealing - which might account for the increased
law-enforcement presence in inner-city neighborhoods - but she said
that does not justify the disparity in incarcerations. Anti-drug
efforts could be more effective and cause fewer racial disparities if
law officers concentrated on mid- and upper-level dealers, she said.

Among the recommendations in the report, Human Rights Watch calls on
state and federal officials to:

Eliminate sentencing laws that require prison sentences based on the
quantity of drugs sold.

Increase the use of drug courts and alternative sentencing for
low-level users and dealers to keep them out of prison and allow them
to complete court supervised substance abuse treatment.

Redirect law-enforcement efforts from corner dealers to major
distributors and manufacturers.

Eliminate racial profiling and differing sentencing structures for
powder cocaine and crack cocaine. Federal law requires longer prison
sentences for crack cocaine, popular in the inner-city, and about 10
states have similar structures in place.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening said yesterday that he had not had a chance
to review the report completely but that many of the recommendations
are in line with state policy.

"We are doing strong intervention to try to reduce drug crime," he
said through a spokesman, adding that support for treatment programs
and efforts to eliminate racial profiling "are in sync with the goal
of ensuring any racial disparity is not racial discrimination."

Jenkins Odoms Jr., president of the Maryland NAACP, said causes of the
disparities go beyond police practices, extending to overall
discrimination against blacks in the state and elsewhere, but that law
enforcement could do a much better job.

"Look at the economics of it," he said. "To eliminate this, our
law-enforcement agencies - the police the FBI, everybody - they all
have to focus on the big-time dealers. Every time they lock up one
African-American, another will take his place. But the rich man, the
dealer, is still dealing. You have not taken the drug off the street.
To eliminate this disparity, you have to get the drug off the street."

Bob Weiner, a spokesman for Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton's drug
czar, said strong national efforts have begun to end racial
disparities and that he hopes the report will prompt others to join
the cause.

Drug courts - which call for supervised, mandatory drug treatment
instead of prison sentences - have increased from 12 to 750 across the
nation since 1995, he said, and funding for treatment has increased by
$3.5 billion in the same period.