Pubdate: Thu, 26 May 2016 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2016 The Baltimore Sun Company Contact: http://www.baltimoresun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37 Author: James Wyda MD. CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM STILL ISN'T FAIR Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein is right to "Thank a Cop" in honor of National Police Week. Good police work is essential to a fair and effective criminal justice system. However, Mr. Rosenstein is wrong to imply that his office's occasional prosecution of corrupt police officers, usually for theft and fraud offenses, means that we have been vigilant enough in policing law enforcement. Much has changed since 1962, when National Police Week was created. Most significantly, the mass incarceration of racial and ethnic minorities, primarily for drug offenses, has shaken our community's faith in the fairness of the criminal justice system. The U.S. prison population has exploded from less than 300,000 in 1962 to 2.2 million today. In federal courts, home to severe sentences and remote prisons intended to separate prisoners from their loved ones, African-Americans were 68 percent of the defendants prosecuted by Mr. Rosenstein's office in 2015. The Maryland U.S. attorney's office prosecutes more African-Americans per capita than all but two other jurisdictions in the nation - the U.S. Virgin Islands and Mississippi. It would be helpful for the community to see Mr. Rosenstein's office make the prosecution of criminal civil rights violations by law enforcement the priority that some other U.S. attorneys' offices have done. Our community has a deep distrust of law enforcement and the criminal justice system. For our system to function, there has to be trust, and a perception of fairness, between citizens and law enforcement. The Freddie Gray uprising was just the most obvious proof of how the "war on drugs" has undermined our community's faith. Much-needed change seems to be coming. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the Baltimore City Police Department. The city's new police chief, Kevin Davis, has joined civil rights leaders in welcoming this investigation. Political leaders in Baltimore and Annapolis are pushing for reforms that can restore trust and give officers the tools they need to partner with the communities they serve. This is not the time to be satisfied. Our community has waited too long for change. It is in everyone's interest, including law enforcement, that police be perceived as accountable. Real institutional change is hard to do and it will take everyone's support, especially Mr. Rosenstein's. James Wyda The writer is a federal public defender in Maryland. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom