Reports show disparity in drug arrests in Baltimore

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), May 6, 2008 by Danny Jacobs

Baltimore had the most drug arrests per 100,000 residents -- as well as drug arrests of blacks per 100,000 black residents -- among 43 American cities in 2003, while Maryland had the fourth-highest rate of black drug offenders imprisoned for every white drug offender the same year, according to two studies released Monday.

But Baltimore officials said the city's numbers have changed significantly from five years ago, thanks to new law enforcement strategies and treatment programs since 2003 -- the most recent data available from the FBI for The Sentencing Project's long-term city comparisons, and from the Justice Department for Human Rights Watch's state-by-state comparison.

Nearly 11,300 Baltimore residents per 100,000 were arrested on drug charges in 2003, almost 25 percent more than in second-place Tucson, Ariz., according to data compiled by The Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that does research and advocacy work on criminal justice policy issues.

Among black residents, almost 7,200 per 100,000 were arrested on drug charges. That, too, was about 25 percent higher than second- place San Francisco, according to the report.

In all, about four black drug offenders were arrested for every white drug offender in 2003; the national rate was 3.5 to 1, according to the report. Baltimore had approximately 630,000 residents in 2003, more than 60 percent of whom were black.

'Zero tolerance'

Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the city, declined to comment on the report's specifics because he had not reviewed it but said "things have changed a lot since 2003."

The Sentencing Project's 2003 data was collected during the "zero tolerance" policy in Baltimore promoted by then-Mayor Martin O'Malley and then-police Commissioner Kevin Clark, said Margaret Burns, a spokeswoman with the city's state's attorney's offices.

The city court system had to expand its docket to handle all of the felony narcotics cases, many of which prosecutors declined to pursue because of a lack of information, Burns said.

She and Clifford said the city's focus has shifted to violent offenders and treatment for drug offenders at all levels of the court system and away from drug arrests.

As a result, narcotics cases charged in Baltimore fell from almost 7,500 in 2003 to 4,000 in 2006, and the state's attorney's office went from dropping one out of every three cases in 2003 to one out of every 4.5 cases in 2007 as the number of overall cases declined, according to the state's attorney's office.

"This office has supported the 180-degree turnaround that includes a steep reduction in arrests as well as support for addicted offenders to receive treatment," Burns said.

State figures

Maryland as a whole admitted 17 black drug offenders to prison for every white drug offender per 100,000 residents in 2003, according to data from 34 states compiled by New York-based Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit that investigates human rights abuses across the world.

The state's population is approximately 5.6 million, with twice as many whites as blacks. Nationally, 10 black drug offenders were imprisoned for every white one, and blacks constitute 43 percent of people convicted of drug felonies in state court despite the black population being six times smaller than the white population, according to the report.

Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman with the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, could not comment on the report's specifics because he had not seen it. The majority of Maryland's 26,500 inmates are black, but the state only records an inmate's race with his or her most serious conviction, he said.

Recommendations for change

Baltimore's figures showed significant percentage increases from 1980, the baseline year for The Sentencing Project report, while Maryland's ratio was a 30 percent drop compared to 1996, the baseline year for many of Human Right Watch's calculations.

Overall, however, the authors of both reports said the data prove the need to alter the current "War on Drugs" to emphasize public health initiatives to help users.

"The fundamental paradigm of the 'War on Drugs' remains unchanged," said Jamie Fellner, senior counsel for Human Rights Watch's U.S. program. "It's still overwhelmingly seen as needed for urban, minority offenders."

"The current model has been proven ineffective," said Ryan King, a policy analyst with The Sentencing Project.

Gerald Stansbury, president of the Maryland State Conference of NAACP Branches, agreed with many recommendations laid out in the report, including more resources for the public defender offices that often represent blacks arrested on drug charges and better access to treatment programs to break drug addictions. He also encouraged residents to report crimes to the police and hold their elected officials accountable.

"It starts at the top," Stansbury said. "The community has to get involved to stop drugs."

No national data exist to suggest blacks' rates of drug use or selling increased more than whites' rates since 1980, King said, and both authors attributed some of the racial disparities to profiling. But King said it is not racism in the "Bull Connor model," referring to the Birmingham, Ala., police chief and known segregationist who used fire hoses and dogs on black civil rights demonstrators in 1963.