From: James M. Blaut,
To: Critical geography lforum, INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
Socialist Geograaphy Lis, INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
Date: 6/9/100 9:21 PM
RE: racism
From: "David Melville", INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
Date: 6/9/100, 8:40 PM
Re: DEBATE: "Race...Ever?"...HR Watch report on drug convictions
disparity
Race report singles out Illinois for drug-conviction disparity
By Christi Parsons
Tribune Staff Writer
June 8, 2000
Black men end up in Illinois prisons on drug convictions at a rate 57 times
greater than white men, the most striking gap of any state examined by a
new study of racial disparity in the nationwide war on drugs.
As a result, 90 percent of drug offenders admitted to state prisons in
Illinois are African-American, the highest percentage in the country,
according to the report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch, a New
York-based organization that monitors human rights worldwide.
The study, which analyzed data reported to the U.S. Department of Justice
by 37 states, showed that black men across the nation are far more likely
to go to prison for drug crimes than are white menłeven though blacks are
estimated to account for less than 13 percent of the nationwide population
and government figures indicate that most drug users are white.
"Five times as many whites use drugs as blacks," said Jamie Fellner, a
staff lawyer who wrote the report for the group, a New York-based
organization that monitors human rights worldwide. "But blacks comprise the
great majority of drug offenders sent to prison. Race is clearly a factor
in the process."
The new figures could add fuel to debate about the role that racial
profiling plays in police work and prosecution. And though the notion that
race influences how law enforcement officials do their jobs is nothing new,
advocates hope the mounting statistical evidence will produce change.
The new report, which Human Rights Watch said was the first state-by-state
analysis of its kind, tracks with other recent studies showing a
quantifiable link between race and admission to prison. One study released
earlier this year by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency found
that, when charged with the same offenses, black youths were much more
likely to be locked up than were white youths with comparable criminal
backgrounds.
Human Rights Watch researchers say that a host of factors are responsible
for the disparity, including a heavier concentration of police sting
operations in minority neighborhoods and a greater likelihood that black
youths will be prosecuted once they are caught.
Law enforcement officials say that they don't purposely target minorities
for arrest and prosecution and that they are working to come up with
alternatives to incarceration that can help drug offenders of all racial
backgrounds go straight.
But critics of the criminal justice system say the latest statistics are
evidence that more sweeping reform is needed.
In the study, researchers for Human Rights Watch analyzed demographic and
conviction information about hundreds of thousands of inmates admitted to
state prisons all over the country in 1996, the most recent year for which
complete data was available when the study began. A total of 37 states
voluntarily provided the information to the Justice Department that year.
Overall, the study found that all 37 states incarcerated blacks at much
higher rates than whites. Weighting numbers to account for the smaller size
of the nationwide black population, the study concluded that in the 37
states black men are sent to state prison for drug convictions at a rate 13
times that of white men.
In New York, black men were sent to prison for drug convictions at a rate
11 times greater than whites. In Maryland, they found the incarceration
rate 28 times greater for black men. In Minnesota, the rate for black men
was 39 times greater.
Nationwide, blacks make up 62 percent of drug offenders admitted to state
prisons, according to the report. In seven of the states, blacks
constituted between 80 and 90 percent of all people sent to prison for drug
convictions.
Those figures were even starker in Illinois, especially when researchers
considered the rate of prison admissions relative to overall population.
Out of every 100,000 white male adult residents of the state, 20 were sent
to prison during the study period for violation of drug laws.
Meanwhile, of the same number of black adult males, 1,146 were admitted to
prison for the same reasonsła rate 57 times greater.
Of the total number of people sent to Illinois prisons for drug convictions
that year, 90 percent were African-American, the study found. While blacks
make up only 15 percent of the state's population, they constitute 65
percent of the prison population as a whole. Whites make up 25 percent of
Illinois inmates, and Hispanics account for 10 percent.
The researchers said they don't know specifically why Illinois'
incarceration rate for black men was so high, or why there was such a range
among the states. Among the 10 states with the greatest disparities, the
rate at which black men ended up in prison for drug crimes ranged from 27
to 57 times the rate for white men.
But some lawyers and advocates argue that police and prosecutors treat
blacks differently than they treat whites. For starters, blacksłand black
men in particularłare stopped by police more often, said William Hooks,
president of the Cook County Bar Association, a group of African-American
lawyers and judges.
If blacks are searched more often, they will be arrested more often, he
said.
Young and first-time offenders are treated differently once they're in
police custody, too, said Hooks, who is also a Chicago criminal defense
attorney. Police tend to call a young white man's parents and try more
frequently to quickly end a case, he said.
"When I go to court with my white clients in Cook County, oftentimes I am
met by the arresting officer and pulled aside," Hooks said. "The attitude
is, 'How can we resolve this? We don't want to hurt her."'
Hooks said he tries to help that client be diverted from the court system
and into a counseling program because it's in her best interests.
"But it hurts deep inside that my other clients don't get the same offer,"
he said. His black clients are often eligible for the same treatment, he
said, "but it's not this aggressive approach to get them out of the
system."
Once those marks show up on a youth's record, said researcher Fellner,
there's a systemic bias against him.
"Black kids are going to have more arrests on their records," she said.
"Each time you go through the turnstile, you are treated more harshly."
But many law enforcement officials dispute claims that "racial profiling"
by police or prosecutors is the reason why more African-Americans are in
prison for drug convictions.
"I've asked this question of other officers, of corrections officers," said
Bob Wallace, training director and public information officer for the
National Association of Chiefs of Police. "Probably the accurate answer is
because the majority of people who commit these crimes are of the
African-American culture."
Wallace said he believes that some police officers unintentionally allow
personal observations about race to influence how they do their jobs. But
he said that doesn't fully explain the demographics of the prison
population.
"In the high-crime areas, you do have a high population of African-American
people," Wallace said. "There are a lot of good people of all races.
Unfortunately, where you have poor standards of living, you're going to
find people looking for quick ways of making money."
Prosecutors deny that decisions on whether to pursue cases are influenced
by race. Many prosecutors are now formalizing so-called diversion programs
in an attempt to help more young and first-time offenders of all races
avoid prison.
In Cook County, half of all first- and second-time drug arrestees get drug
treatment instead of prosecution, said Bob Benjamin, spokesman for State's
Atty. Dick Devine.
"You're trying to get them before they go too far on the escalator, with
more and more drug use, more and more misery," he said.
As for whether a suspect's skin color makes any difference in determining
whether to proceed with prosecution, Benjamin said, "Race is not a factor
at all. Ever."
Advocates for Human Rights Watch say they hope law enforcement agencies
around the country will adopt such diversion programs.
"The solution to this racial inequity is not to incarcerate more whites,"
Fellner said, "but to reduce the use of prison for low-level drug offenders
and to increase the availability of substance abuse treatment."
Article received on Thursday, June 08 2000 at 07:02 EDT
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