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Use of illicit drugs is about the same among black and white Americans, but a pair of new studies shows that blacks are still more likely to be arrested and imprisoned for drug offenses despite widespread awareness of the disparity, the New York Times reported May 6.

Reports from the Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch blamed the overrepresentation of black drug convicts on the fact that police still focus law-enforcement efforts on inner-city drug use even though the original impetus — the violence and crime associated with crack cocaine — has generally faded since the 1980s.

Black men are still 12 times as likely as white men to be imprisoned on drug charges, according to Human Rights Watch. Blacks comprise 12.8 percent of the U.S. population but comprise 33 percent of drug arrestees and 53.5 percent of individuals entering prison because of drug convictions.

“The way the war on drugs has been pursued is one of the biggest reasons for the growing racial disparities in criminal justice overall,” said Ryan S. King of the Sentencing Project, who called for more drug treatment and less focus on incarcerating drug offenders.

“The race question is so entangled in the way the drug war was conceived,” said Jamie Fellner of Human Rights Watch. “If the drug issue is still seen as primarily a problem of the black inner city, then we’ll continue to see this enormously disparate impact.”

Some experts, however, say that blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to be involved in drug sales and distribution. “The disparities reflect policing decisions to use drug laws to try and reduce violence and to respond to the demand by law-abiding residents in poor neighborhoods to clean up the drug trade,” said Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York.

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News Feature
By Bob Curley

There have been few instances where addiction recovery and drug-reform groups have united in praise for federal drug policy, but President Bush earned kudos earlier this month for signing into law the Second Chance Act, which provides for addiction treatment and other services for offenders reentering the community.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill) and Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) in the House and Sens. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in the Senate, easily passed both houses of Congress and was signed by Bush on April 9.

Davis noted that the U.S. jails more citizens than any other nation on Earth, and releases 650,000 offenders from state and federal prisons annually. “These men and women deserve a second chance. Their families, spouses and children, deserve a second chance and their communities deserve a second chance,” said Davis. “A second chance means an opportunity to turn a life around. A chance to break the grip of a drug habit. A chance to support a family, to pay taxes, to be self-sufficient.”

All told, the measure includes $362 million in budget authorizations, including $55 million in grants to state and local governments for programs to ease the transition for adult and youth offenders upon their release from prison (the money can be spent on addiction and mental-health treatment, job training, education, housing, and other services). Additionally, the Act authorizes a number of other programs aimed at offenders, including treatment programs as an alternative to incarceration and expansion of drug treatment programs inside prison walls.

“We believe that even those who have struggled with a dark past can find brighter days ahead,” said Bush in signing the measure into law. “One way we act on that belief is by helping former prisoners who’ve paid for their crimes — we help them build new lives as productive members of our society.”

Fred Davie, president of Public/Private Ventures, a national organization devoted to improving social policies that recently completed a 17-site, $30-million prisoner reentry demonstration project, called the Second Chance Act “a promising first step in addressing our prison crisis and saving our cities.” Malakkar Vohryzek, an administrative associate at the Drug Policy Alliance, recently wrote in a column on AlterNet that the signing of the Second Chance Act brought “an ounce of sanity to our drug laws.”

Vohryzek, while fiercely critical of drug Prohibition and the Bush administration’s broader drug policy, described the Act as a “second chance for our nation’s failed drug policies because it acknowledges that people with problematic relationships with drugs need treatment and other kinds of assistance, not jails and prison records.

“By signing this act, the President and Congress sent a message that these people need help and should be afforded another opportunity to be productive members of society,” he wrote.

Alexa Eggleston, director of public policy for the National Council of Community Behavioral Healthcare, called the Act “a landmark piece of legislation that will begin to invest in sensible reentry systems for people coming out of prison and jail and offer the services necessary to end the cycle of recidivism that traps so many.”

Davie and others noted the challenges that lawmakers face in supporting this type of legislation — including the risk of being labeled “soft on crime” — but the Second Chance Act won significant bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.

Still, advocates are calling on supporters to contact their representatives in Congress to ensure that the programs under the Act are fully funded. “Even though the Second Chance Act is law, no resources will be available until Congress votes to allocate funding for the Act’s programs,” Faces and Voices of Recovery noted in a recent action alert.

Hi all,

Just a quick email to let you all know that we had a fantastic rally at the state Capitol Building yesterday! Over 500 people showed up for the third annual “Prop 36 Works!” rally—and for the third year in a row we had spectacular spring weather. Grads spoke about how Prop 36 changed their lives. Several legislators came out to speak (Mark Leno, Fiona Ma, Dave Jones, Jim Beall), even though today was a very busy hearing day in the Capitol. And Judge Gary Ransom of the Sacramento Superior Court came out to our rally to sing the praises of Prop 36! He recognized many rally participants from his court, saying he was glad none of them needed to appear on Friday…  

Our emcees, Gretchen Burns Bergman (A New PATH), Lou Martinez (The Effort) and Penny Sheridan (The Effort) did an awesome job! (At one point, Penny waived around her w-2 form and said she hadn’t seen one of these with her name on it in years, but as a Prop 36 grad now she has one—it was absolutely brilliant and entirely her own idea!!)

The 500-strong crowd showed their support for Prop 36 by marching around the capitol building, before gathering into teams and entering the building to leave letters of support for Prop 36 with over 100 of California’s 120 legislators!! When they returned to the rally point, our rally DJ got an awesome dance party going!

A big thanks to all of the event sponsors and supporters: California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC), California Association of Addiction Recovery Resources (CAARR), California Association of Alcohol and Drug Program Executives (CAADPE), California Society of Addiction Medicine, The Effort, NCADD Sacramento, A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing), All of Us or None, Alpha Project, Beacon House Association of San Pedro, California Church IMPACT, Coalition for Effective Public Safety (CEPS), County Alcohol and Drug Programs Administrators Association of California (CADPAAC), Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes (FACTS), Justice Now, Tarzana Treatment Centers and so many more…

Best,

Margaret

full list of witnesses is now available.

paying for and gaining

access to health care

that they believe they

need. About one in seven (15%)

Latinos says that they or another

member of their household

needed medical care, but did not

get it during the past year, with

almost seven in ten of this group

saying the medical condition they

needed care for, but did not get,

was very (30%) or somewhat

(38%) serious. In addition, one in

five (20%) Latinos says that in the

past year, they or another member

in their household postponed

seeking medical care they felt

they needed but couldn’t afford,

with 44% of this group saying the

person never got the care they

needed. About one in five (22%)

Latinos reports that they have

had problems paying medical bills

in the past year, and of this

group, about half (48%) say those

bills had a major impact on themselves

or their family. . .

Some Latinos report having problems

communicating with health

care providers due to language

barriers, or having difficulty getting

care due to their race and

ethnic background. Not surprisingly,

these experiences are more

common among those who are

Spanish dominant and among

those who were born outside the

United States. Almost three in

ten Latinos say they have had a

problem communicating with

health providers over the past

year . . . Almost two in ten Latinos

say they have had difficulty

getting care because of their race

or ethnic background over the

past year. . . Perhaps (cont. p. 2)

Results from “The Pew Hispanic

Center/Kaiser Family Foundation

2002 National Survey of Latinos,”

March 2004

Recognizing the tremendous

growth and complexity of the

Latino population, the Kaiser

Family Foundation and the Pew

Hispanic Center joined forces to

conduct a comprehensive national

survey of the Hispanic

population.

According to the National Survey

of Latinos, over one-third of

Latino adults report lacking

health insurance. In addition,

almost six in ten (59%) of those

who do have health insurance say

that they personally know someone

who does not (38% of all

Latinos). Together, 73% of Latinos

either lack health insurance

coverage themselves, or know

someone who is uninsured.

It is a common misperception

that the majority of people without

health insurance is unemployed.

However, two-thirds of

Latinos who report being uninsured

are employed (63%). Another

20% say that they are

homemakers or stay-at-home

parents, 12% say that they are

currently unemployed, 3% say

that they are retired, and 3% say

that they are students. Foreignborn

Latinos (42%) are more

likely to report being uninsured

than Latinos born in the United

States (25%). Similarly, Latinos

who predominantly speak Spanish

(47%) are more likely to report

being uninsured than those who

are English dominant (26%). Considerably

more Latinos with incomes

less than $30,000 per year

(45%) report having no health

insurance, compared to those

with incomes of more than

$50,000 per year (11%).

Health insurance status also differs

by country of origin, and by

state of residence. For example,

Mexicans (39%) and Salvadorans

(41%) are considerably more

likely to report being uninsured

than are Puerto Ricans (18%),

Cubans (20%), Dominicans (29%),

or Colombians (30%). It is important

to note that immigration

policy and rules impact whether

or not specific groups of Latinos

are able to access public health

insurance programs like Medicaid.

The differences seen in

health insurance status by country

of origin can be at least partially

explained by these policies.

For example, Puerto Ricans are

U.S. citizens, and therefore, not

barred from participating in

Medicaid. Refugees are also eligible

for health insurance coverage

under Medicaid, and since Cubans

are considered refugees,

they can access this program. On

the other hand, new immigrants

(those coming to the United

States since 1996) from many

other countries are banned from

accessing public programs for five

years. . . .

A substantial minority of Latinos

reports additional challenges in

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

registration starts at 8:30, training from 9:00am to 3:00pm

Precious Blood Church
435 S. Occidental Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90057
(at Hoover, north of 6th St., east of Vermont, west of Alvarado)

**there is limited ample, free parking in the lot and on the street**

4 ADPA/OAPP HIV training hours – 3 CEU training hours – training costs $5.00

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name               ____________________________________________________________________________________

Agency             ____________________________________________________________________________________

Address            ____________________________________________________________________________________

Phone (_____) _____-__________     Fax (_____) _____-__________                    E-Mail __________________________

This project is made possible through the funding provided by L.A. County Department of Health Services, Alcohol and Drug Program Administration.