Pubdate: Mon, 05 Mar 2001
Source: Northwest Florida Daily News (FL)
Copyright: 2001 Northwest Florida Daily News
Contact:  http://www.nwfdailynews.com/
Author: Craig Brown

JUSTICE IS BIASED

Facts, Mr. Ross (letter, "Curry is wrong," March 1)? Every study 
shows that drug use is equal among races, yet twice as many blacks as 
whites are in prison where drug crimes are the highest. Considering 
blacks' proportion of the population, it is clear that the drug war 
is being waged against blacks more than 10 times as hard as it is 
against whites.

Perhaps if drug dogs were run through college dorms, or proportional 
numbers of whites were searched for drugs, the numbers would equal 
out. You would also have to fix a court system that shows a greater 
propensity to jail blacks for the same drug offenses as whites.

Proof? According to the Department of Justice, 68 percent of 
arrestees are white, yet whites make up 37 percent of the prison 
population. Blacks are 22 percent of arrestees yet make up 47 percent 
of the prison population.

Clearly, one group is getting a better deal from justice than the 
other group is.

There are more than 300,000 blacks in the prison system for drug 
crimes. When we jail 1.7 million whites for drugs (instead of 
150,000), then I'll agree that the system isn't biased. And when that 
happens, just like Prohibition, you'll see white violent crime 
skyrocket as well.

CRAIG BROWN

Crestview
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe