HOW TO REDUCE RACIAL DISPARITIES IN PRISON

Maryland's mandatory sentencing laws for nonviolent drug offenders
negatively affect the state, particularly African American families. These
laws not only have contributed to Maryland's mushrooming $1 billion prison
budget; they have exacerbated the stark racial disparities in Maryland's
prisons.

According to a 2003 study by the Justice Policy Institute, while 28 percent
of Maryland's population is African American, 76 percent of the prison
population is African American. That is the third-highest rate in the
country and is driven by the imprisonment of drug offenders, many of whom
are incarcerated under mandatory sentences. Nine out of 10 persons
imprisoned in Maryland for drug offenses are African American, even though
national studies show that African Americans and whites use drugs at
similar rates.

The institute's report also showed that African American men in Maryland
are imprisoned at nearly eight times the rate of white men. African
American women in Maryland are incarcerated at 4.2 times the rate of white
women. On the flip side, less than 1 percent of white men are incarcerated
in Maryland, whereas 5.6 percent of the state's African American male
population is incarcerated.

Last year, the legislature and the governor took steps to divert nonviolent
drug offenders into treatment. But mandatory sentences still tie the hands
of judges in trying to balance the need for incarceration against the
potential to turn around the lives of nonviolent, drug-addicted offenders.

As someone who worked for the U.S. Marshals Service for 13 years, I have no
problem with locking up bad guys for a long time. But prisons alone cannot
solve our state's drug problems. The clearest way to reduce the racial
disparities in sentencing and get nonviolent drug offenders the treatment
they need is to abolish mandatory sentencing laws for such offenders and
allow judges the necessary discretion to determine the best sentence for
each individual case.