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97 BLACKS JAILED FOR EVERY WHITE OFFENDER IN DANE, REPORT SAYS

A new report says Dane County imprisons 97 black drug offenders for every white offender.  Critics say the report does not consider criminal history enough in its findings

Dane County imprisons 97 black drug offenders for every white offender, the third highest racial disparity in the nation, according to a report issued Tuesday.

The Justice Policy Institute, an advocacy group for alternatives to prison, issued the report.

The report states a disproportionate number of blacks are sent to prison for drug offenses.  However, according to UW-Madison Law Professor John Pray, the amount of drug use by black people is comparable to that of white people.

"I know that as a national average, black people do not use drugs more than white people," Pray said.  "It's an astounding statistic that requires a lot of attention as to how that happens."

According to the report, the incarceration gap is related to social and economic factors such as poverty, percentage of blacks in the community and the amount of money spent on the local criminal justice system.

The incarceration rates in Dane County are generally low, except for drug offenders, in which the racial gap is "extreme," according to Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard.

He said the amount of imprisoned drug offenders widens the racial gap in prisons for all types of crimes.

"That's going to exacerbate the disparity if there already is some disparity between drug [cases] and other cases," Blanchard said.

An important aspect of the sentencing process that requires more careful attention, according to Blanchard, is the criminal history of a defendant.

"Somebody who is caught dealing drugs for the first time with no criminal history stands in extremely different shoes from someone who persistently continues to deal in drugs after being caught.  It's the same across all crimes," Blanchard said.

A report from the Wisconsin Sentencing Commission showed that even after criminal histories were accounted for during a trial, racial disparity persisted, according to the Capital Times.

Blanchard said the Sentencing Commission report may be flawed, but the issues it raises deserve consideration.

"Certainly the idea that somebody is in worse shape in front of a sentencing judge because of the color of their skin is intolerable," Blanchard said.  "The question is, how do we figure out the degree to which that might be true and what we can do about it?"