DRUG CRIMES ALONE NOT FILLING COUNTY JAIL

The Capital Times and other local media have recently carried opinion
pieces and news articles criticizing drug prosecutions, and linking drug
prosecutions with disproportionate minority confinement. The suggestion is
sometimes made that drugs should be decriminalized, in part because that
would reduce overrepresentation of minorities in prison. The issues are
important and deserve attention, which means that it is all the more
important that the discussion be grounded in facts.

In Dane County, incarceration is not the first option for minor drug
offenders. The majority of drug possession cases result in referrals to
Drug Court, fines or probation with treatment. Even in the more serious
drug crimes that involve distribution, if the offender uses drugs, the
sentence is structured around treatment. For many, this means probation
with treatment and some jail time.

Further, drug crimes alone account for relatively few bookings into the
Dane County Jail. For example, an analysis of bookings for one month in
2003 showed that only 4.8 percent of new bookings were for stand-alone drug
crimes. Bookings for many other crimes frequently also include drug crimes,
because people committing all crimes are often drug and/or alcohol dependent.

Nor are Dane County's courts heavily burdened by drug cases that result in
state prison sentences. In 2003, Dane County judges sentenced 246 people
directly to prison, out of nearly 3,000 felony cases filed that year. Of
the 246 prison cases, only 37 or 15 percent occurred in cases in which a
drug crime was the most serious conviction.

Reasonable arguments can be made for increasing or decreasing these
numbers, but in any case the image sometimes painted of a criminal justice
system bogged down by prison-bound drug offenders is simply not accurate in
Dane County. Moreover, drug enforcement and prosecution is not the cause of
Dane County Jail overcrowding.

Some question whether jail or prison is ever the right result for drug
offenders. I believe that it is the right sentence for those who seek to
profit from the sale of addicting and potentially lethal substances. This
is a "business" that thrives on the misery of others, often the young and
vulnerable. These crimes destroy the lives of individuals and families, and
also threaten the vitality of neighborhoods. Victims of drug crimes include
victims of the many burglaries, robberies, identity thefts and other crimes
committed by those who are drug-dependent.

While we have a sensible drug enforcement policy in Dane County, we
nonetheless need to address the terrible tragedy of disproportionate
minority confinement across all categories of crime. Roughly one-third of
all African-American males in this country will spend time incarcerated.
This shameful fact is not something that just happens elsewhere. It occurs
on a large scale in Wisconsin, and in Dane County. (Some relevant facts are
found in the monograph "Race and Sentencing in Wisconsin" from the
Wisconsin Sentencing Commission, found at wsc.wi.gov.) We in the criminal
justice system in Dane County are seeking solutions, and we know that the
effort must include examining whether our own attitudes and assumptions
about race and culture contribute to disparity.

We also know that the over-representation of minority populations in prison
is not primarily the result of decisions made in police stations and
courthouses. The disproportions we see in our prisons are in large part the
result of the "achievement gap" in schools, the "employment gap" in
workplaces, and the "income gap" affecting such vital areas as housing and
health care. Disproportionate minority confinement is in part the awful
result of all of these, and each should be addressed by public officer
holders and policy-makers at all levels of the government and nonprofit
sectors.

In this relatively affluent and safe community, we have a chance to make
concrete improvements to keep more people of all backgrounds, especially
kids, away from life-destroying patterns of crime. We will only make
progress, though, when these potentially polarizing and complex issues are
discussed honestly, with the benefit of relevant facts.