Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jun 2000
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190
Fax: (408) 271-3792
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author: JESSE KATZ, Los Angeles Times

GROUP SLAMS U.S. FOR BLACKS' INCARCERATION RATE

Watchdog, In Report On Drug Crimes, Calls Racial Disparities `A National 
Scandal'

Charging that the war on drugs has been waged disproportionately against 
blacks, Human Rights Watch is scheduled to release a report today showing 
that 482 of every 100,000 African-American men are in prison for a drug 
crime, compared with just 36 of every 100,000 white men.

The study, titled ``Punishment and Prejudice,'' also found that blacks make 
up 62 percent of the United States' imprisoned drug offenders, despite 
accounting for just 13 percent of the population. In half a dozen states, 
the disparity is even greater, with blacks making up 80 to 90 percent of 
all drug convicts behind bars. In every state, they are more likely than 
white men to be incarcerated for such crimes -- from North Dakota, where 
the odds are double, to Illinois, where the ratio is 57-to-1.

According to the report, California sends drug offenders to prison at the 
highest rate in the nation, 91 per 100,000 residents. Thirty percent of all 
drug offenders sent to prison in California are black, although blacks make 
up just 7 percent of the state's population.

``These racial disparities are a national scandal,'' said Ken Roth, 
executive director of the New York-based watchdog organization, which 
touted the report as the first state-by-state analysis of its kind. ``Black 
and white drug offenders get radically different treatment in the American 
justice system. This is not only profoundly unfair to blacks, it also 
corrodes the American ideal of equal justice for all.''

The report, funded by billionaire investor George Soros' Open Society 
Institute, adds to the already bleak statistical portrait of inner-city 
America, which has served as the drug war's front line. But as with similar 
studies, its interpretation -- and the appropriate target for outrage -- is 
a matter of considerable debate.

To Human Rights Watch associate counsel Jamie Fellner, who is the author of 
the report, the numbers paint a ``devastating picture of the price black 
Americans have paid'' for the country's failed battle to control illicit drugs.

``While drug abuse and drug trafficking warrant concerted national 
efforts,'' she wrote, ``it may be that the human, social and economic cost 
of the prison `cure' is worse than the `disease' itself.''

Conservatives, however, derided those conclusions as ``inflammatory,'' 
arguing that racially distinct outcomes, in and of themselves, are not 
evidence of racially biased policies.

``There will be inevitably, inherently, disparities of all sorts in the 
enforcement of any kind of law,'' said Todd Graziano, a senior fellow in 
legal studies at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. ``I'm 
sure you can find disparity among racial groups as to whether their ZIP 
codes end in odd or even numbers. It doesn't prove anything.''

Because the illegal drug trade tends to flourish in economically depressed 
communities, conservatives contend, it may be that blacks simply commit 
more drug crimes than whites -- or, at least, the kind of drug crimes that 
are more likely to result in a prison term. If that is the case, they say, 
then inner-city black neighborhoods are the ones that most benefit from 
putting drug offenders behind bars.

``Why on earth are people who claim to be civil rights advocates defending 
the predators in these communities?'' asked David Horowitz, president of 
the Los Angeles-based Center for the Study of Popular Culture and the 
author of ``Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes.''

The answer from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, is that a black teenager 
standing on a corner with a baggie of crack cocaine should be viewed as a 
scapegoat, not a villain. He provides a convenient target for law 
enforcement, ``but a 19-year-old, low-level drug dealer in South-Central 
L.A. is not responsible for the devastation of the community,'' Waters said.

Rather, she believes outrage -- and prison time -- should be reserved for 
those who allow international traffickers to move their drugs and money in 
and out of the United States. As an example, Waters pointed to a recent 
Senate investigation that rebuked Citibank for helping the brother of 
former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari transfer tens of 
millions of dollars in alleged drug profits out of his country, yet 
resulted in no charges of wrongdoing against the banking conglomerate.

``Blacks get treated differently,'' she said.

The numbers contained in the Human Rights Watch report rely on 1996 
prison-admission data from the National Corrections Reporting Program. The 
study for the first time calculated per capita incarceration rates for drug 
offenders in the 37 states that participated.

Illinois topped the list, with 1,146 of every 100,000 black men (compared 
with just 20 of every 100,000 white men) in prison for a drug offense. Ohio 
followed, with a rate of 968, then Kentucky, at 869. The report then 
compared those numbers with the rates for white men and ranked the states 
according to the degree of racial disparity. Illinois again led, with 
blacks 57 times more likely than whites to be incarcerated for drug crimes. 
Wisconsin followed with a 54-1 ratio, then Minnesota at 39-1.

Human Rights Watch, whose stated goal is to make governments around the 
world ``pay a heavy price in reputation and legitimacy if they violate the 
rights of their people,'' concludes with several policy recommendations: 
Repeal mandatory-minimum sentences, increase the availability of drug 
treatment and eliminate racial profiling.

``If this were happening to whites,'' Fellner said, ``the policies would 
change.''

Mercury News Staff Writer Ben Stocking contributed to this report.
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