|
Human
Rights
Watch
Releases
Major
Study
of
Race
and
Imprisonment
in
the
Drug
War
6/9/00
A new study released yesterday
by the widely known human rights watchdog group Human Rights Watch promises
to generate great interest among the mass media and other interested parties.
"Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs" charges
that the war on drugs has been waged overwhelmingly against black Americans,
and includes the first state-by-state analysis of the role of race and
drugs in prison admissions. All of the 37 states Human Rights Watch
studied send black drug offenders to prison at far higher rates than whites.
"These racial disparities
are a national scandal," said Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights
Watch. "Black and white drug offenders get radically different treatment
in the American justice system. This is not only profoundly unfair
to blacks, it also corrodes the American ideal of equal justice for all."
The ten states with the greatest
racial disparities are: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maine, Iowa, Maryland,
Ohio, New Jersey, North Carolina, and West Virginia. In these states,
black men are sent to prison on drug charges at 27 to 57 times the rate
of white men.
"Most drug offenders are
white. Five times as many whites use drugs as blacks," said Jamie
Fellner, Human Rights Watch associate counsel and author of the report.
"But blacks comprise the great majority of drug offenders sent to prison.
The solution to this racial inequity is not to incarcerate more whites,
but to reduce the use of prison for low-level drug offenders and to increase
the availability of substance abuse treatment."
Among the report's key findings:
-
Nationwide, blacks comprise
62 percent of drug offenders admitted to state prison. In seven states,
blacks constitute between 80 and 90 percent of all people sent to prison
on drug charges.
-
Nationwide, black men are sent
to state prison on drug charges at 13 times the rate of white men.
-
Two out of five blacks sent
to prison are convicted of drug offenses, compared to one in four whites.
-
Black men are incarcerated at
9.6 times the rate of white men. In eleven states, they are incarcerated
at rates that are 12 to 26 times greater than that of white men.
-
Nationwide, one in every 20
black men over the age of 18 is in prison. In five states, between
one in 13 and one in 14 black men is in prison.
"Punishment and Prejudice" also
documents how drug law enforcement has fueled the exploding U.S. prison
population. During the 1990s, more than one hundred thousand people
were admitted to prison on drug charges every year. Over 1.5 million
prison admissions on drug charges have occurred since 1980. The incarceration
of nonviolent drug offenders has propelled the nation's soaring incarceration
rate, the highest in the western world. Human Rights Watch calls
for changes in drug control strategies to minimize their racially disproportionate
impact and to reduce the over-incarceration of nonviolent offenders.
Among its recommendations, Human Rights Watch urges states to:
-
repeal mandatory minimum sentencing
laws for drug offenders;
-
increase the availability of
alternative sanctions;
-
increase the use of drug courts;
-
increase the availability of
substance abuse treatment; and
-
eliminate racial profiling.
"Punishment and Prejudice: Racial
Disparities in the War on Drugs" is online at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa/.
-- END --
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Issue #140, 6/9/00
Welcome to Phil Smith | Drug War McCarthyism in Syracuse | Faint Glimmers of Hope in Texas | Arizona Initiative Hits Bumpy Ground | Political Earthquake Alert: California Drug Reform Initiative Passes First Big Hurdle | UC San Diego Pulls Plug on Controversial Server: BURN! Group's Hosting of Colombian Rebel Group Site Blamed | Human Rights Watch Releases Major Study of Race and Imprisonment in the Drug War | Opposition to Meth Bill Mounting | DRCNet Potentially Threatened by Meth Bill | Anti-Ecstasy Bill Filed in Senate | Canadian Court Upholds Marijuana Law, Dissenting Justice Finds Jail Sentences Violate Canadian Charter of Rights | Event Calendar | Job Openings, Temporary and Permanent | Editorial: Oaths and Allegiances
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