REPORT: STATE PRISONS HIGH IN RACIAL DISPARITY

Connecticut ranks among the five states with the highest racial and
ethnic disparities in its prison and jail systems, according to a
research report released yesterday.

Blacks are 12 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites in
Connecticut, according to the report from the Sentencing Project, a
Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that studies the justice
system. The report said that is more than double the nation's average
incarceration rate for blacks, as compared with whites.

Hispanics in Connecticut are nearly seven times more likely than
whites to end up in prison, the report found, which is the largest gap
in the country.

The report is based on statistics from the state Department of
Correction. Researchers calculated how many out of 100,000 people in
each group are incarcerated.

Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, said the
keys to cutting the racial prison gap include funding more drug
treatment programs, rethinking mandatory minimum drug sentences and
providing offenders with a support system when they leave prison.

Connecticut's high disparities come in part because whites are less
likely to be incarcerated here than in other states, the report found.

Connecticut imprisons about 211 of every 100,000 white residents,
compared with a national average of 412, the report found.

Only four states and the District of Columbia jail whites at a lower
rate, the report found.

Connecticut incarcerates about 2,500 of every 100,000 black residents,
which is just above the national average of 2,290.

That shows the disparities may be more between the rich and the poor,
said state Rep. Mike Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the
legislature's Judiciary Committee.

Connecticut's white population is unusually rich, meaning more white
offenders can afford the best attorneys and avoid prison than minority
defendants, Lawlor said.

"We don't have a lot of poor white people compared with other states,"
he said.

Still, Lawlor said the state must close the racial and ethnic
gaps.

"It's unfair and unjustifiable," he said.

About 70 percent of the state's 18,892 prison and jail inmates are
black or Hispanic, according to state Department of Correction statistics.

Connecticut has taken steps to reduce the racial gap, Mauer said. The
legislature in 2005 increased the amount of crack cocaine a person
must carry to be charged with planning to sell drugs. A commission of
legislators, officials and policy experts is studying sentencing
reform, including possibly changing the state's mandatory minimum drug
laws.

Nearly two-thirds of defendants charged with mandatory minimum drug
crimes are black or Hispanic, state statistics show.

Many legislators and police officials have discussed reducing the size
of so-called drug-free zones, where penalties are increased for anyone
caught selling drugs within 1,500 feet of a school, housing complex or
day care center.

Reports have found that the rule is unfair to minorities and city
residents, because almost all of a typical city falls within a
drug-free zone.

"The discussion is out there in Connecticut," Mauer said. "That's more
than we've seen in many other states."

Officials have said the state is aware of the racial gap and is moving
to close it. One way to do so is to provide treatment to prisoners and
help them develop employment skills to make sure they don't offend
again, experts said. That could break the cycle of imprisonment in the
state's most impoverished neighborhoods, they said.

"The overrepresentation of people of color in our correctional
institutions has long been of great concern to me," Correction
Commissioner Theresa Lantz said. "While I can't control who is placed
in my custody, I strive to address literacy, employment skills,
sobriety and housing during incarceration, so that these individuals
are prepared for a productive re-entry to their communities."

The Sentencing Project in March designated Connecticut a leading state
in keeping former offenders from returning to prison. A February
report from Pew Charitable Trusts named Connecticut as one of three
states expected to see no growth in its prison population through 2011.

Judicial officials said they hope that trying 16- and 17-year-olds in
juvenile court starting in 2010 also will help narrow the racial and
ethnic gaps by keeping teens out of adult prisons.

The aim is to place most juvenile offenders in counseling programs and
other alternatives to prison, officials said.

"There is no easy solution," said Judge William Lavery, the state's
chief court administrator. "But I think we took a positive step."

The goal is the same for adult offenders, Lawlor said. Treating people
outside of prison will save the state money and keep offenders from
committing second and third offenses.

"There are other ways to punish people and get something good out of
it," Lawlor said.