STATE JAIL STATISTICS SADLY UNSURPRISING

Most Wisconsin Counties Have A Greater Percentage Of Blacks In Jail Than The
Percentage Of Blacks Who Live There.

To which some people might reasonably respond:

"So what? Now tell me something I didn't know."

It's not a shocking statistic to anyone who has been keeping track of
the color of crime and punishment in the United States of America, or
Wisconsin.

Or anyplace else.

It's probably not a surprise to those who already think it's natural
to have more blacks behind bars than anyone else.

This is America's Dairyland, after all, which leads the nation in the
disparity between white and black incarceration rates.

According to recent state statistics, the percentage of black
Wisconsin jail inmates in most counties is equally impressive, given
that some places with very few black residents still do a pretty good
job of putting black faces behind bars.

(And we're talking about jail, you must remember. That's the place we
put people charged with - but not always convicted of - a crime.)

In some rural counties, the disparity was glaring. One place, Washburn
County, reported black jail admissions at 32.4% while the entire black
population was only 0.2%.

Even the local law enforcement types seemed hard-pressed to explain
how their predominantly white communities ended up with so many blacks
behind bars.

The Washburn County sheriff blamed his statistics on the presence of a
state prison work camp in his area. La Crosse County District Attorney
Scott Horne said many blacks jailed in his county were non-residents
arrested while transporting drugs such as crack cocaine.

Which leads me to this question:

Any chance they were buying from or selling drugs to people in La
Crosse County? If so, did any of those people go to jail?

This kind of report jibes with my long-standing belief that many crime
statistics about race do little more than confirm racial stereotypes
without providing the necessary context to understand the problem.

As national studies have proved time and time again, whites use
illegal drugs just as much or more than blacks, but blacks go to
prison more.

As for those who argue that's not inherently "discriminatory," I
suggest they get a dictionary.

For at least a decade, the criminal justice system has tried to deal
with accusations of a sliding scale of justice when it comes to people
caught using crack vs. powdered cocaine.

Most caught on the wrong side, once again, were black.

This is the main reason why the Rush Limbaughs and Robert Downey Jr.s
of the world draw so much scorn, particularly from African-Americans
with relatives serving hard time for their addiction to illegal drugs.

Affluent whites end up with "drug problems" while blacks get tagged
with the label of "criminal."

None of this will change your mind if you want to continue to use
racial statistics about crime as a justification for your personal
prejudices.

But I think the Racine chapter of the NAACP has it right by objecting
to a proposed jail expansion until someone takes a hard look at the
incarceration policies there.

The folks in Racine seem to understand a basic rule about crime and
punishment in America:

If you build it, they will come. If they don't, we'll go out and get
them anyway.

Particularly if they are black.