Original article
Racial disparity cited in drug sentences
Blacks imprisoned at 99 times rate whites are in Onondaga County, survey says. Tuesday, December 04, 2007By Sue Weibezahl Porter Staff writer
A national group is releasing a report today alleging that blacks in Onondaga County are going to prison on drug offenses at 99 times the rate of whites.
The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) of Washington, D.C., claims in its report that Onondaga County has the second highest rate of racial disparity in the 198 counties it surveyed, said executive director Jason Ziedenberg.
Local reaction to the study was mixed:
An advocate for alternatives to prison was not surprised by the racial disparity.
Ö A judge said the justice system in Onondaga County is colorblind.
Ö A professional pollster and political scientist raised questions about the validity of the study.
The study was based on sentencing statistics in 198 counties from 38 states voluntarily provided to the National Corrections Reporting Program, a federal repository for information on corrections and the use of prisons. The counties represent about half the country's population.
The researchers, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, calculated the number of people - black and white - sent to prison on drug offenses in 2002 and compared that to the county's population and racial breakdown. The study did not provide actual numbers.
"This is not to say that one county necessarily does a worse job than others," Ziedenberg said. "Ninety-seven percent of the other large population counties (in the study) also have a large racial disparity."
Pollster Jeff Stonecash, who read the study, said he is leery about the way it was done.
"It's work I would not accept," said Stonecash, a pollster and political science professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. "The bottom line is we should be cautious in accepting this."
The study's findings came as no surprise to Marsha Weissman, executive director of Syracuse's Center for Community Alternatives. Many factors contribute to the disparity, she said.
Police are more likely to saturate poor communities and communities of color, they are more likely to use their discretion differently when dealing with a white or black suspect, and most in the criminal justice profession are white, she said.
That means that more often than not, blacks will be dealing with white police officers, white prosecutors and white judges, and that can make a difference in how they're treated, Weissman said.
Once a suspect is "in the system," the consequences can be dire, she said.
"It marginalizes them for life, barring people from employment, education opportunities and housing options," Weissman said. "It's basically reintroducing racial segregation."
Of the 175,000 people admitted to prison nationwide in 2002 on drug charges, more than half were black, although blacks make up less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, the study said.
Onondaga County Undersheriff Warren Darby said the study's conclusions could be misleading.
"It sounds like we're targeting (the black population), and we're certainly not," Darby said. "We go to where the drug investigations lead us and that means in any economic strata or racial group."
Onondaga County Judge Anthony Aloi said he and his colleagues "have no control over who's arrested here or prosecuted here."
"I don't get up every morning saying, 'I'm going to send some young black person to jail,' " he said. "I think the criminal justice system here is colorblind."
The reality, said Aloi, is that law enforcement efforts tend to be more concentrated in urban areas where violence and drugs are more prolific.
"The criminal justice system is not the arbiter of all the ills and failures of society," Aloi said.
JPI officials are hoping the study drives home "society's reliance on incarceration and proposes effective solutions to social problems," Ziedenberg said.
JPI, which began 10 years ago, has a staff of six people and relies on foundation grants for funding. Its goal is to find alternatives to jailing people.
Overall, Ziedenberg said, Onondaga County's black population is "far more impacted" by the trend than its white population.
National surveys show that blacks and whites tend to use and sell drugs at similar rates, he said. The study attributes that to studies by the federal Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration.
Kay Springer, spokeswoman for SAMHSA, does not recall the research agency making correlations on drug use rates by race.
Because the white population in the U.S. is significantly higher than the black population, it stands to reason more white people would be arrested and incarcerated for drug offenses, but that's not the case, Ziedenberg said.
"Drug laws are supposed to apply to everyone," said Ziedenberg, "but police are primarily spending their time in urban settings, dealing with street corner sales. A lot of drug dealing in this country goes on inside people's homes in the suburbs, but that just doesn't get as much scrutiny."
Syracuse police Chief Gary Miguel said law enforcement agencies are not profiling.
"With the resources we have available for narcotic enforcement, our investigations are complaint- driven," Miguel said.
The two biggest complaints in the minority community are drugs and gun violence, he said.
"It's our responsibility to investigate those complaints and make arrests," said Miguel.
Stonecash acknowledged the information contained in the report sounds damning.
"There's no question this looks bad," he said. "We may all suspect this goes on, but you have to know the characteristics of each case."
Rates of incarceration can change dramatically from year to year and the group should have examined at least five years of statistics before making conclusions, Stonecash said.
He also said that he would prefer to see data on individual cases, rather than aggregate data and percentages.
"Were they dealing it? Were they caught with it? How much did they have? Did they have a criminal history?" Stonecash said. "All those determine whether a person will be indicted, tried or convicted."
Because JPI also promotes alternatives to incarceration, "That agency's agenda should also be factored into this."
The report is being released days before the Drug Policy Alliance hosts its 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference in New Orleans.
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