Pubdate: Mon, 07 Aug 2000
Source: Business Week (US)
Copyright: 2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Contact:  1221 Avenue of the Americas, 43rd Floor, New York, NY 10020
Fax: (212) 512-6458
Website: http://www.businessweek.com/
Author: Robert Sharpe, and Keith Brilhart
Note: Herein are 2 PUB LTE's written in response to the referenced column
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n971/a05.html

''TOUGH JUSTICE'': A RACIST WASTE OF MONEY AND LIVES?

Regarding ''Tough justice is saving our inner cities'' (Economic Viewpoint, 
July 17): I can't believe Gary Becker had the nerve to put his offensive 
views on paper or that BUSINESS WEEK would publish them. Blacks are 
beneficiaries of tough justice? Give me a break! The drug war is arguably 
waged in a racist manner, with African-Americans bearing the brunt of 
zero-tolerance law enforcement. Violent crime continues to trend downward, 
yet the Land of the Free recently earned the dubious distinction of having 
the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Nonviolent drug offenses account for the majority of federal 
incarcerations. While only 11% of the nation's drug users are black, blacks 
account for 37% of those arrested for drug violations, over 42% of those in 
federal prisons for drug violations, and almost 60% of those in state 
prisons for drug felonies. Here in the District of Columbia, 50% of 
18-to-35-year-old black men are under some form of court supervision or 
being sought on arrest warrants. Nationwide, roughly one in three (32%) 
black males aged 20 to 29 is under some type of correctional control. 
Minorities fuel the burgeoning for-profit prison system.

Few Americans seem to care that the drug war has created a 
prison-industrial complex that rivals the cold war's military-industrial 
complex in terms of influencing public policy. Support for the failed drug 
war would end overnight if whites were subjected to ''tough justice'' at 
the same rates as their African-American counterparts.

Robert Sharpe
Washington

Much of the police crackdown on inner-city crime involves a crackdown on 
people associated with illegal drugs in some way. If these people were not 
subjected to police actions because the drugs were legally regulated, and 
if drug use were treated similarly to alcohol and tobacco use, crime would 
drop dramatically, and the costs to society would plummet.

Instead, we have handed a monopoly to organized crime, ruined many lives, 
and drawn unflattering international attention to ourselves because of our 
astronomical incarceration rate. Rather than treat those who seek treatment 
to get off drugs and leave the rest alone, we dispense a brutal solution to 
their problems and in turn create greater problems for society.

Keith Brilhart
Decatur, Ill.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart