Race and Incarceration

Research on incarceration in the United States reveals profound disparities between African-Americans and whites in relation to sentencing and jail time served, says Dr. Alfred Blumstein, director of the National Consortium on Violence Research (NCOVR). Blumstein held the second of four lectures presented by the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work in the Fall 2004 Speaker Series on October 5, 2004. The lecture, was organized by the Center on Race and Social Problems at the school, and was sponsored by the Buchanan Ingersoll law firm.

Blumstein focused on the increase of incarceration of African-Americans due to involvement in and use of illegal drugs. According to his research, incarceration for drug use is 10 times what it was 20 years ago, because it is widely seen as the solution to wiping out drugs in the United States. Blumstein’s research stated that drug users are sentenced to five years in prison for possessing 500 grams of the powder form of cocaine, while users who possess just five grams of crack cocaine receive the same sentence. People convicted of crack offenses serve jail time 50 percent more than those accused of possession of the powder form of cocaine, says Blumstein. Eighty-five percent of people incarcerated for selling crack cocaine are African American. The 18 percent selling the powdered form are white. This is one of the major causes of the disparities between whites and blacks in incarceration, in addition to any racism that underlies the criminal justice system itself, according to Blumstein’s research.

In response to the question of what must be done to get a handle on the situation within the criminal justice system, Blumstein replied by saying that the criminal justice system must focus first on individual sectors of society rather than taking on discrimination as a whole. He also suggested that the use of treatment over incarceration could improve the nature of the problem as well, as those incarcerated find youthful recruits to resume their lost position in the drug world, thus perpetuating the cycle of instability within a given community. Blumstein suggested that in order to narrow the gap between African-American prisoners and white prisoners, the law could be modified to distribute equal sentencing for both forms of the cocaine drug, and the establishment of treatment clinics and cocaine maintenance clinics could also aid the situation.

Bonita Poe, 29, of Pittsburgh is a student at the School of Social Work at Pitt. She says she is not surprised by what she heard at the lecture, and suggests that education as a whole will ultimately lead to the improvement of the situation. “We need to educate ourselves in order to educate others who are not aware of what is happening in the criminal justice system. This will give us the power to change the mentality of society on a broader scale while we are unable to change the laws ourselves.”

- Stephanie Rex is currently a photojournalism student in Pittsburgh. She has considered herself a feminist and human rights activist since the tender age of 7, when her mother told her that someday, even she could be president. Stephanie hopes to become a documentary photographer for democratic campaigns after finishing her degree.