Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jan 2005
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Copyright: 2005 The Capital Times
Contact:  http://www.captimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Author: Brian Blanchard
Note: Brian Blanchard is the Dane County district attorney

DRUG CRIMES ALONE NOT FILLING COUNTY JAIL

The Capital Times and other local media have recently carried opinion 
pieces and news articles criticizing drug prosecutions, and linking drug 
prosecutions with disproportionate minority confinement. The suggestion is 
sometimes made that drugs should be decriminalized, in part because that 
would reduce overrepresentation of minorities in prison. The issues are 
important and deserve attention, which means that it is all the more 
important that the discussion be grounded in facts.

In Dane County, incarceration is not the first option for minor drug 
offenders. The majority of drug possession cases result in referrals to 
Drug Court, fines or probation with treatment. Even in the more serious 
drug crimes that involve distribution, if the offender uses drugs, the 
sentence is structured around treatment. For many, this means probation 
with treatment and some jail time.

Further, drug crimes alone account for relatively few bookings into the 
Dane County Jail. For example, an analysis of bookings for one month in 
2003 showed that only 4.8 percent of new bookings were for stand-alone drug 
crimes. Bookings for many other crimes frequently also include drug crimes, 
because people committing all crimes are often drug and/or alcohol dependent.

Nor are Dane County's courts heavily burdened by drug cases that result in 
state prison sentences. In 2003, Dane County judges sentenced 246 people 
directly to prison, out of nearly 3,000 felony cases filed that year. Of 
the 246 prison cases, only 37 or 15 percent occurred in cases in which a 
drug crime was the most serious conviction.

Reasonable arguments can be made for increasing or decreasing these 
numbers, but in any case the image sometimes painted of a criminal justice 
system bogged down by prison-bound drug offenders is simply not accurate in 
Dane County. Moreover, drug enforcement and prosecution is not the cause of 
Dane County Jail overcrowding.

Some question whether jail or prison is ever the right result for drug 
offenders. I believe that it is the right sentence for those who seek to 
profit from the sale of addicting and potentially lethal substances. This 
is a "business" that thrives on the misery of others, often the young and 
vulnerable. These crimes destroy the lives of individuals and families, and 
also threaten the vitality of neighborhoods. Victims of drug crimes include 
victims of the many burglaries, robberies, identity thefts and other crimes 
committed by those who are drug-dependent.

While we have a sensible drug enforcement policy in Dane County, we 
nonetheless need to address the terrible tragedy of disproportionate 
minority confinement across all categories of crime. Roughly one-third of 
all African-American males in this country will spend time incarcerated. 
This shameful fact is not something that just happens elsewhere. It occurs 
on a large scale in Wisconsin, and in Dane County. (Some relevant facts are 
found in the monograph "Race and Sentencing in Wisconsin" from the 
Wisconsin Sentencing Commission, found at wsc.wi.gov.) We in the criminal 
justice system in Dane County are seeking solutions, and we know that the 
effort must include examining whether our own attitudes and assumptions 
about race and culture contribute to disparity.

We also know that the over-representation of minority populations in prison 
is not primarily the result of decisions made in police stations and 
courthouses. The disproportions we see in our prisons are in large part the 
result of the "achievement gap" in schools, the "employment gap" in 
workplaces, and the "income gap" affecting such vital areas as housing and 
health care. Disproportionate minority confinement is in part the awful 
result of all of these, and each should be addressed by public officer 
holders and policy-makers at all levels of the government and nonprofit 
sectors.

In this relatively affluent and safe community, we have a chance to make 
concrete improvements to keep more people of all backgrounds, especially 
kids, away from life-destroying patterns of crime. We will only make 
progress, though, when these potentially polarizing and complex issues are 
discussed honestly, with the benefit of relevant facts.
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MAP posted-by: Beth