News

December 4, 2007

Study finds disparity in jailings for drug offenses

JEREMY GRAD jgrad@timesleader.com

African-Americans in Luzerne County are imprisoned for drug offenses at 40 times the rate of whites, according to a study released Monday by the Justice Policy Institute.

The study utilized arrest information from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2006. Of the 198 counties with populations greater than 250,000 that were examined in the study and ranked by drug admissions per 100,000 people, Luzerne County ranked 182.

Eric Wingerter was involved with the study for the Justice Policy Institute.

“The lower the number, the greater the racial disparity,” Wingerter said of the county’s rank. “The racial disparities (in Luzerne County) weren’t as pronounced as we found in other counties.”

U.S. Census Bureau data from 2002 shows that African-Americans make up 2.1 percent of the county’s population. On average, 6.86 whites per 100,000 were arrested for drug offenses, while 271.29 African-Americans per 100,000 were arrested for drug offenses.

The study, “The Vortex: The Concentrated Racial Impact of Drug Imprisonment and the Characteristics of Punitive Counties,” found the same racial disparity in 193 of 198 counties examined.

The study is the first to examine the “relationships between these socio-demographic structures and the specific annual rate at which people are admitted to prison for drug offenses, and the first to localize the racially disparate impact of drug imprisonment on the county level,” according to a Justice Policy Institute press release.

One of the study’s major findings concludes that “while African-Americans and whites use and sell drugs at similar rates, African-Americans are 10 times more likely than whites to be imprisoned for drug offenses (nationwide).”

Also, of the 175,000 people jailed for drug offenses, the study’s data shows more than half were African-Americans, despite the fact that African-Americans make up less than 13 percent of the U.S. population.

While the study does not make individual recommendations for counties, the Justice Policy Institute suggests a major policy shift in the way the drug problem is policed.

“Drug enforcement practices are focused in the African-American community, despite evidence that they are no more likely than their white counterparts to be engaged in drug use or drug delivery behaviors. Local, state and federal policymakers should closely examine racial disparity in local drug imprisonment rates that result from these practices, and consider alternative approaches to reducing drug use and sales,” the study suggests.

Jeremy Grad, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 829-7210.

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