WISCONSIN'S RATE OF BLACK PRISONERS HIGHEST IN COUNTRY

Wisconsin incarcerates black offenders at a higher rate than any other
state, a report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics says.

The report released Wednesday said the state's overall incarceration rate
is below the national average, but the percentage of blacks serving time
behind bars tops the nation.

In Wisconsin, there were 4,058 black prison and jail inmates per 100,000
black residents in mid-2001, the report said. Iowa was second, with 3,302
black inmates for every 100,000 black residents.

Nationally, black incarceration rates were six times higher than those for
whites, but in Wisconsin the rate for blacks was more than 10 times the
rate for whites.

The numbers come as no surprise to Thomas White of Racine, president of the
Wisconsin arm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People.

"It doesn't surprise me because we live here in Wisconsin and quite frankly
(prisons) are an industry here," White said. "We're the worst right here."

White said he thinks blacks accumulate police records faster than their
white counterparts because police are more likely to document contacts with
blacks. When it's time to be sentenced, he said, those records make black
defendants appear more prison-bound.

Sentences for probation, parole revocations and drug offenses rose in the
black population during the 1990s, while the number of sentences for
violent crimes declined, said Pam Oliver, a UW-Madison sociology professor
who studies racial disparities in sentencing and imprisonment.

"What's driving new prison sentences for African Americans in this state
are drug offenses," she said. "You're seeing declining serious crimes:
robbery, burglary and violent crimes."

Arrests for drug crimes often come in areas already

"It has an enormous impact on women and children. You can't lock up that
high a percentage of the young black male population without devastating
black communities," Oliver said.

White said it's also difficult for poor people of any race to get adequate
legal representation because the state public defender's office is
overwhelmed with cases. As a result, poorer defendants get to spend very
little time preparing cases with their lawyers.

Wisconsin also led the United States in sending prisoners out of state:
4,526 state inmates were housed in other states or federal institutions at
the time of the study, far outpacing second-place Hawaii, with 1,225.

The number has dropped significantly since then, to about 3,318 inmates in
out-of-state institutions, state Department of Corrections spokesman Bill
Clausius said.

If you go

What: "Racism and Justice," a presentation by UW-Madison sociology
professor Pam Oliver on racial disparities in arrest rates and
incarceration in Dane County.

When: 3 to 4 p.m. April 21.

Where: Edgewood College's Predolin Center, 1000 Edgewood College Drive off
Monroe Street.