BLACK PROFESSIONALS PROPOSE HELP, NOT JAIL, FOR DRUG CRIMES

WASHINGTON - Dissatisfied with sentencing rules that keep a large
number of black men in the prison system, a coalition of black
professional organizations called Wednesday for a focus on prevention
and treatment in drug-related crimes instead of imprisonment.

The National African American Drug Policy Coalition is promoting what
it calls therapeutic sentencing in which judges require those
convicted of some drug crimes to undergo treatment instead of being
given jail time. The group also aims for black professionals to mentor
schoolchildren to prevent drug use.

The Washington-based coalition consists of the National Bar
Association and nine other black professional groups, including the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the National Black Caucus of
State Legislators and the National Dental Association.

"We've seen the drugs drop almost off the screen of this country,"
said retired police chief Clarence Edwards, coalition member and
president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement
Executives. "A fresh approach is sorely needed."

Clyde Bailey, past president of the National Bar Association and
founder of the coalition, noted that the number of black men in jail
exceeds the number of black men in higher education.

In 2000, 791,600 black men were in the prison system, while 603,032
were enrolled in a college or university, according to a 2002 study by
the Justice Policy Institute, a group promoting alternatives to
incarceration. By contrast, three times as many black men were in
higher education than in prison in 1980.

"We found that if we looked behind the data, drug abuse was a key
reason the numbers were so high, so we decided to pull together a
coalition to address this," Bailey said.

The coalition will encourage tough sentencing of those who deal drugs,
but will attempt to turn the focus and funding of drug policy toward
public health, said the coalition's executive director Arthur Burnett,
a retired senior judge from Washington, D.C.

According to a 2001 report by the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, less than 11 percent of state prison inmates receive substance
abuse treatment although 70 to 80 percent could gain from it.
Treatment reduces drug use by 40 to 60 percent, the agency found.

The education and treatment approach, which seeks to minimize the role
of law enforcement in drug policy, has the backing of Edwards'
National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

"Our members have heard the mournful cries of countless mothers,
grandmothers, sisters, aunts, fathers and other family members and
friends of victims of gun violence precipitated by illegal drug
conflicts," said Edwards, a former police chief from Montgomery
County, Maryland. "We know for certain that we can't arrest our way
out of this problem."