Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 Source: Spokesman-Review (WA) Copyright: 2001 The Spokesman-Review Contact: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417 Author: Rebecca Cook, Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues) HIGH BLACK PRISON POPULATION TIED TO DRUG POLICIES Census Figures Show Total Incarcerated Population Increased 98 Percent Over Decade OLYMPIA - Prison and jail population in Washington doubled over the past decade, according to census figures released today, and black men and women were incarcerated at a disproportionately high rate. Black men in Washington make up only 3 percent of the male population, but 18 percent of the male population behind bars. "The overwhelming majority of those are fathers," said Shirl E. Gilbert, president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Tacoma. "You build, then, the continuing cyclical nature of poverty. ... The impact on the minority community is enormous." The 2000 Census counted 28,871 people in state and federal prisons, local jails, military jails and correctional halfway houses in Washington. The incarcerated population increased 98 percent, while total state population grew 21percent over the same decade. Census data show that 4.6 percent of all black men in Washington are imprisoned. The figure falls to 2.2 percent for American Indians, 1.3 percent for Pacific Islanders and Hispanics, 0.7 percent for whites and 0.4 percent for Asians. Experts say drug policies explain the racial disparities. In Washington prisons alone, 22 percent of inmates were convicted of drug crimes. Law enforcement usually targets urban, black neighborhoods for drug busts -- despite equal amounts of drug use across racial lines. "Police officers make arrests where they're easiest. That's usually in low-income neighborhoods in inner-city communities," said Hubert Locke, professor emeritus at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs. "It's a lot easier to target the kid on the street corner peddling crack than the people who supply attorneys downtown or provide cocaine for suburban parties." Courts, attorneys and law enforcement agencies know this. A study of 3,000 drug arrests, released in May by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, found that while blacks constitute only 6 percent to 7 percent of drug users in King County, they account for 57 percent of adult drug arrests. Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said he was not surprised by the findings, and that police tend to target open-air drug markets. Drug policies discriminate in other ways, too. For example, possessing 5grams of crack, a drug prevalent in black neighborhoods, will get you the same federal sentence as being caught with 500 grams of powder cocaine, a drug more popular with whites. Washington's figures follow a national trend -- in fact, the prison population is more racially proportionate in Washington than in many other states. For example, in Connecticut, black men are 3percent of the population but 47 percent of the prisoners. In Alabama, blacks are 26 percent of the population and 62.5percent of the prison inmates. Rep. John Lovick of Mill Creek, a Washington State Patrol sergeant and one of two black legislators in Washington, said that in his experience black defendants often don't get as good a defense as whites, for economic reasons. "Money, at times, buys justice," he said. Lovick believes the state should offer more alternative sentencing and treatment of nonviolent, low-level drug offenders, as well as do more with prevention. "Unfortunately a lot of violent criminals are not in jail because we have to make room for drug offenders," Lovick said. "The war on drugs is just simply not working." The effect of the high incarceration rates for blacks is devastating, especially to black children, Lovick said: "This is what they see and hear and sometimes, they start to believe it. I try to be a positive role model, to let them know that frankly, there is hope." - --- MAP posted-by: GD