Pubdate: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 2007 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82 Author: Darnell Little BLACKS HIT HARD IN DRUG SENTENCING, STUDY FINDS African-Americans in Cook County were imprisoned for drug offenses at 58 times the rate of white people--the seventh-worst racial disparity among large counties nationwide, according to a new report. The Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank advocating alternatives to prison for social problems, was set to release a study Tuesday detailing the different treatment white and black drug offenders receive under the criminal justice system. The institute found that nationwide, African-Americans are imprisoned for drugs at 10 times the rate of white people. Cook County also ranked high for its overall rate of drug imprisonment, the authors said. In 2002, the year selected for study, more than 166 out of every 100,000 people went to prison for a drug offense in Cook County, the ninth highest rate in the nation. A Tribune investigation last summer also found a high disparity between the treatment of black and white drug offenders, and detailed how new drug laws -- such as those targeting dealers arrested near churches, schools, parks and public housing -- disproportionately affect predominantly black neighborhoods. The new paper, titled "The Vortex: The Concentrated Racial Impact of Drug Imprisonment and the Characteristics of Punitive Counties," argues that there is little relationship between a county's drug imprisonment rate and the rate of illegal drug use in the county. Instead, high rates of imprisonment typically indicate counties with larger proportions of African-Americans, higher unemployment and poverty rates, and larger judicial system budgets. Part of this is due to increased police attention in urban areas, where drugs are bought and sold in open-air drug markets. In suburbs, where overall crime rates are lower and drug sales and usage more often take place behind closed doors, police are less likely to notice or take action. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek