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Challenge DA candidates to say what they would do to reduce racial disparities in drug imprisonment

By Gritsforbreakfast

I wanted to post on this topic yesterday for MLK Day, but an opportunity to spend the day with my granddaughter put off this editorial's more timely publication.As we contemplate the upcoming primary season and head toward the beginning of Black History Month, it's worth recalling some contemporary black history - really everyone's history - regarding continued discriminatory outcomes in the criminal justice system.In December, the Justice Policy Institute published an analysis of incarceration rates for every US county with 250,000 people or more. (See earlier Grits coverage.) The report revealed two key trends in Texas regarding incarceration of African Americans for drug crimes: Wide disparities between the number of blacks sent to prison compared to whites, and impressive differences in the size of disparities among jurisdictions, including some of Texas more "liberal" areas evincing the highest differences...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 22, 2008 (boomark / email).