A new national study on trends in drug convictions finds a surprising trend: the number of African-American drug offenders is falling while the number of white offenders is rising.
The study by the Sentencing Project found that between 1999 and 2005, the number of black drug convicts in the country fell by over 30,000 while the number of white drug convicts increased by more than 20,000. In Wisconsin, the trend is still weak. UW-Madison sociology professor Pamela Oliver says there are still disproportionately more black drug convicts but the racial disparity isn’t as pronounced as it was at the height of the drug war in the mid-990’s. (Fifth item.)