STUDY: BLACKS IN COUNTY 42 TIMES LIKELIER TO BE JAILED

Blacks are jailed on drug offenses in Washtenaw County at 42 times
the rate of whites, placing the county within the top 10 nationwide
in racial disparity, a recent study concluded.

The Justice Policy Institute study showed that, when broken down by
race, nearly three white offenders per 100,000 residents are
incarcerated on drug charges - compared to 112 black offenders per
100,000 residents.

But local officials are skeptical about the study's results and are
compiling their own data as they study local trends in the criminal
justice system.

Washtenaw was one of seven Michigan counties included in the study,
titled the "Vortex: The Concentrated Racial Impact of Drug
Imprisonment and the Characteristics of Punitive Counties." Washtenaw
topped the other Michigan counties in terms of the racial disparity ratio.

The institute, a Washington-based group committed to reducing
reliance on incarceration, studied drug offenses and incarceration
rates along racial lines for 198 counties with populations exceeding
250,000. It focused on 2002, the most recent year data was available
from the National Corrections Reporting Program, and population data
from the 2004 U.S. Census.

The study found that 97 percent of the nation's largest counties
imprisoned blacks at a higher rate than whites.

Among the other findings of the study:

Washtenaw is listed among the top 10 counties nationwide with lowest
overall drug admission rates, at 17.05 per 100,000 residents.

In 2002, 19.5 million Americans admitted to using drugs. During the
same year, about 1.5 million were arrested on drug charges. Of those
arrested, 175,000 were sentenced to prison, and more than half those
were black.

Those involved in the study say the report is the first of its kind
that localizes the racial disparity of drug-related incarcerations at
the county level.

"Drug addiction doesn't discriminate, but our drug policies do," said
Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a
national group pushing for alternatives to current drug enforcement
policies. "The exponential removal of people of color who have
substance abuse problems from their communities and into prisons
undermines and destabilizes neighborhoods - it does not make them safer."

The report does not make detailed recommendations for improvement,
but urges policymakers to consider de-escalating the "war on drugs,"
and focus instead on evidence-based drug enforcement tactics.

LaWanda Johnson, spokeswoman for the Justice Policy Institute, said
the numbers are disturbing because similar drug usage levels have
been reported among blacks and whites.

"It has nothing to do with who is using drugs. But if you look at who
is going to prison for drugs, it is black Americans," she said.

Washtenaw County Sheriff Dan Minzey cautioned that drug charges
result from several factors and are often not the initial reason
police are called to a scene. Critics of how police handle narcotic
enforcement must also consider current financial constraints, Minzey said.

"With limited resources, we're not doing as much proactive police
work, we're doing more reactionary work and generating drug charges
when there was another reason we responded there," Minzey said.

Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Donald Shelton said the recent study
has flaws. He noted that the statistics are dated, the study did not
account for prior criminal histories or severity of the crime, and
there was no mention of other charges the inmates faced.

"The study is probably accurate but certainly does not tell the whole
story," Shelton said. "Simply comparing prison admissions for drug
offenses by race without county populations by race can be misleading."

The county hopes to have a more accurate picture later this year as
the Criminal Justice Collaborative Council - a task force of county
elected officials, attorneys and community leaders - compiles data on
crimes and race while studying chronic overcrowding at the Washtenaw
County Jail, officials said.