Original article
MON., DEC 3, 2007 - 11:10 PM
Dane County 3rd nationally in racial disparity
By Karen Rivedal
A new study says Dane County in 2002 sent 97 black people to prison for drug offenses for every white person incarcerated for the same category of crimes, for a ratio of racial disparity the survey showed was the 3rd highest in the nation among big counties.
And while there could be many reasons for that result -- the study did not, for example, consider the offenders ' prior criminal history -- the authors believe policing practices, such as where police choose to enforce the drug laws, play an important role.
"In an urban setting, it 's easier to spot the drug trade on the corner than it is to spot the drug trade in a suburban household, where police would have to knock down the door, or in a private college dorm, " said Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that advocates alternatives to incarceration such as job training, education and public health programs.
The findings were based on the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics for counties with more than 250,000 people. The study also found that Milwaukee County sent blacks to prison for drug offenses at 15 times the rate of whites, while Waukesha County did so at 24 times the rate of whites, compared to a national average among big counties of 10 times the rate of whites.
The two counties with higher rates of racial disparity than Dane were Forsyth County, N.C., at 164 times, and Onondaga County, N.Y., at 99 times.
The study 's findings appear to be another example of a long-standing problem of disproportionate numbers of minorities in Wisconsin 's corrections systems.
In January, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency reported that black youths in Wisconsin are imprisoned at nearly 20 times the rate of young whites. In response, Gov. Jim Doyle appointed a statewide commission to propose solutions.
"There 's a huge racial disparity in the drug war virtually everywhere in the U.S., " said commission member Pam Oliver, a UW-Madison professor of sociology who has studied the issue. "Dane County has an extremely high racial disparity rate because we have a quite high black incarceration rate compared to an extremely low white incarceration rate " for drug offenses.
The tough part is figuring out why that is, Oliver said. Public health data has long shown that illegal drug use is about the same among blacks and whites, Oliver said, noting she agrees with Ziedenberg about the importance of where police focus their efforts.
"You tend to catch more drug dealers where you look for more drug dealers, " she said.
But Oliver also said police can make the case that they pay more attention to low-income, urban neighborhoods, which tend to be more heavily populated by minorities, because there 's often more violence associated with drug dealing in those areas.
Focusing on low-level users and dealers to reduce drug use, though, is often ineffective, Oliver said, because short sentences mean the offenders, who are often addicts, are soon back in the neighborhood with criminal records that make getting a job or going to college much harder, challenges that make staying clean more difficult.
"It 's a complex issue, " she said. "Poverty certainly plays a role, segregation plays a role, all kinds of things play a role. What actually works to reduce drug use is to focus on education and treatment, to work on the demand side rather than the supply side. "
The commission, co-chaired by Madison Police Chief Noble Wray and state Sen. Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee, is due to make its recommendations by Jan. 31. Its membership includes representatives from law enforcement, the legislature and the judiciary as well as religious and business leaders and private attorneys. Its goal is to develop strategies to reduce racial disparities at each stage, from arrest to parole.
"The commission is concerned about all these issues, " Oliver said. "There is a diversity of opinion about what to do, but not a lack of awareness of the problem. "
For more information Read the full report about racial disparity in incarceration rates for drug offenses at www.justicepolicy.org/content?hmID1811&smID1581&ssmID69. The site also includes an interactive map for county-by-county data.
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