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IV. Race and the Incarceration of Drug Offenders

The punitive anti-drug policies of the last 20 years bear heavy responsibility for the extremely high and disproportionate representation of black Americans in the US prison population.⁴¹

Drug Offenses and Black Incarceration

Drug offenses have played a greater role in black incarceration than white:

• 38.2 percent of all blacks entering prison in 2003 with new sentences had been convicted of drug offenses, compared to 25.4 percent of whites. (Table 1).
• Between 1990 and 2000, drug offenses accounted for 27 percent of the total increase in black inmates in state prison and only 15 percent of the increase in white inmates.⁴²
• Among blacks currently serving state prison sentences, 22.9 percent were convicted of drug offenses; among whites, 14.8 percent. ⁴³

In some individual states, the impact of drug policies on black incarceration has been far greater: for example, in Illinois, the number of black admissions for drug offenses grew six-fold between 1990 and 2000, while the number of whites admitted for drug offenses remained relatively stable.⁴⁴

Table 1: Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses as a Percentage of All Admissions, by Race and Gender, 2003

State	White	White	White	Black	Black	Black
	Male	Female	All	Male	Female	All
Alabama	29.5%	40.7%	31.2%	32.7%	29.8%	32.4%
California	28.2%	35.1%	29.2%	32.9%	32.1%	32.8%
Colorado	20.9%	38.9%	23.3%	35.7%	46.5%	37.3%
Florida	18.4%	37.1%	20.5%	39.0%	36.8%	38.8%
Georgia	27.7%	40.5%	29.5%	34.8%	26.6%	34.0%
Hawaii	12.0%	21.7%	13.6%	31.1%	33.3%	31.4%
Illinois	24.2%	32.3%	25.3%	48.2%	42.4%	47.5%
Iowa	32.6%	36.1%	32.9%	22.9%	10.5%	21.4%
Kentucky	28.5%	43.5%	30.8%	39.3%	38.6%	39.2%
Louisiana	26.6%	38.8%	28.1%	44.2%	39.9%	43.9%
Maryland	22.5%	26.0%	22.8%	50.7%	54.2%	50.9%
Michigan	10.6%	18.3%	11.2%	22.9%	17.1%	22.5%
Minnesota	33.8%	48.9%	35.3%	28.2%	30.4%	28.3%
Mississippi	34.5%	39.2%	35.3%	36.3%	36.4%	36.3%
Missouri	29.4%	43.2%	31.1%	38.2%	27.6%	37.5%
Nebraska	30.1%	38.9%	31.1%	17.2%	32.6%	18.9%
Nevada	14.3%	29.2%	16.2%	19.2%	15.7%	18.8%
New Hampshire	19.0%	30.6%	19.9%	24.2%	0.0%	21.1%
New Jersey	30.2%	49.4%	32.2%	55.1%	53.8%	55.0%
New York	23.9%	43.0%	25.9%	43.9%	54.3%	44.6%
North Carolina	12.7%	24.2%	14.4%	27.3%	30.2%	27.6%
North Dakota	39.5%	62.9%	42.3%	15.6%	20.0%	16.2%
Oklahoma	41.8%	59.1%	44.5%	42.3%	52.5%	43.6%
Oregon	13.7%	25.9%	14.8%	11.6%	26.3%	13.4%
Pennsylvania	24.7%	31.0%	25.2%	43.6%	31.7%	43.1%
South Carolina	16.3%	18.5%	16.7%	33.0%	20.8%	31.8%
South Dakota	30.1%	33.3%	30.6%	32.6%	45.5%	35.1%
Tennessee	16.8%	28.1%	18.8%	30.6%	29.2%	30.5%
Texas	23.5%	38.8%	25.7%	38.8%	38.7%	38.8%
Utah	36.8%	52.5%	38.9%	35.1%	70.0%	38.0%
Virginia	13.7%	21.6%	14.9%	31.8%	35.4%	32.2%
Washington	30.0%	44.8%	31.9%	43.1%	55.5%	44.5%
West Virginia	9.2%	15.8%	10.1%	31.8%	31.8%	31.8%
Wisconsin	19.1%	25.7%	19.7%	44.3%	53.3%	44.9%
Total*	23.9%	35.9%	25.4%	38.3%	36.7%	38.2%

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.
* Total calculated on basis of 34 reporting states.

Racial Composition of Drug Offender Admissions

Among the 34 states reporting new admissions to the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) in 2003, there were a total of 111,247 adult men and women who entered state prison that year convicted of drug offenses—possession, sales, manufacturing, or other drug related offenses. The new drug offender prison admissions included 59,535 black men and women (53.5 percent of the total) and 37,003 white men and women (33.3 percent of the total). (See Table 2 for the number of prison admissions for drug offenders by race in each of the 34 states, and Figure 2 for the racial composition of drug offender admissions).⁴⁵

Racial Disparities in Rates of Admission

Because the proportion of blacks and whites in state populations varies considerably, rates of admission for drug offenses relative to the black and white population of each state present a clearer picture of the racial impact of drug law enforcement than the racial composition of admissions. According to our analysis of the 2003 admissions, as shown in Figure 3, the total rate of prison admission for blacks in the 34 reporting states⁴⁶ was 256.2 per 100,000 adult black residents.⁴⁷ For whites, the rate was 25.3 per 100,000 adults. The black rate of admission has grown much faster than the white rate: between 1986 and 2003 the rate of admission to prison for drug offenses for blacks quintupled; the white rate did not quite triple.⁴⁸

Table 2: Number of Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses, by Race, 2003

State	White	Black	Other	Total
Alabama	1,261	1,463	6	2,730
California	5,341	4,777	7,524	17,642
Colorado	634	380	490	1,504
Florida	3,009	5,740	216	8,965
Georgia	1,502	3,005	30	4,537
Hawaii	39	16	177	232
Illinois	1,982	8,052	723	10,757
Iowa	625	98	10	733
Kentucky	1,799	847	9	2,655
Louisiana	616	2,021	12	2,649
Maryland	585	4,200	44	4,829
Michigan	565	1,054	12	1,631
Minnesota	805	305	59	1,169
Mississippi	1,080	1,706	9	2,795
Missouri	1,321	783	9	2,113
Nebraska	432	80	20	532
Nevada	247	131	170	548
New Hampshire	126	8	8	142
New Jersey	1,019	3,600	542	5,161
New York	1,242	3,870	1,395	6,507
North Carolina	1,170	3,419	318	4,907
North Dakota	247	6	44	297
Oklahoma	1,869	725	359	2,953
Oregon	285	21	32	338
Pennsylvania	1,233	1,732	13	2,978
South Carolina	618	2,223	51	2,892
South Dakota	305	20	41	366
Tennessee	804	1,241	72	2,117
Texas	2,646	4,136	2,090	8,872
Utah	653	46	20	719
Virginia	735	2,404	45	3,184
Washington	1,787	665	144	2,596
West Virginia	116	61	1	178
Wisconsin	305	700	14	1,019
Total*	37,003	59,535	14,709	111,247

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.
* Total calculated on basis of 34 reporting states.

Fig.2: Racial Composition of Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses, 2003

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.

Table 3: Rates of Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses, by Gender and Race, 2003

(Rates calculated per 100,000 residents of each race and gender)

State	White	White	White	Black	Black	Black
	Male	Female	All	Male	Female	All
Alabama	83.5	19.9	50.6	363.6	26.1	177.2
California	43.8	9.2	26.5	515.1	62.5	280.8
Colorado	31.9	8.9	20.4	456.5	117.2	294.8
Florida	44.9	11.2	27.5	628.2	50.7	321.5
Georgia	55.5	12.7	33.9	345.3	21.8	169.9
Hawaii	20.0	7.7	14.2	122.0	25.3	82.5
Illinois	44.2	8.5	26.0	1,227.6	109.4	613.8
Iowa	53.7	6.4	29.3	402.7	28.8	224.3
Kentucky	102.6	26.4	63.1	725.8	88.5	392.3
Louisiana	47.7	9.1	27.8	414.0	27.4	202.9
Maryland	39.7	4.1	21.3	760.5	50.1	370.5
Michigan	16.3	2.1	9.0	218.8	11.0	106.3
Minnesota	40.8	6.1	23.1	412.1	38.5	233.6
Mississippi	132.4	29.0	79.2	477.7	41.1	239.4
Missouri	60.9	11.6	35.4	129.8	14.3	95.4
Nebraska	62.3	10.6	35.9	277.3	60.7	166.2
Nevada	26.6	8.2	17.6	211.5	19.4	115.5
New Hampshire	24.2	3.1	13.3	167.0	0.0	95.2
New Jersey	34.7	6.2	19.9	822.1	59.5	409.4
New York	19.5	3.7	11.3	333.9	24.1	161.8
North Carolina	36.7	12.2	24.2	519.5	50.7	264.2
North Dakota	90.1	19.2	54.4	281.7	91.5	209.2
Oklahoma	143.7	35.9	88.3	684.0	119.5	392.4
Oregon	19.4	3.8	11.4	66.8	24.7	47.5
Pennsylvania	27.6	3.1	14.8	407.7	13.0	193.7
South Carolina	47.3	9.7	28.0	537.2	30.8	260.0
South Dakota	99.5	19.3	58.8	597.6	387.6	526.3
Tennessee	33.8	10.9	22.0	371.9	28.9	184.7
Texas	31.1	8.6	19.7	430.6	51.4	230.2
Utah	70.7	15.2	42.8	468.6	117.7	322.4
Virginia	28.4	6.9	17.4	435.2	49.5	229.4
Washington	74.4	15.6	44.7	719.8	133.5	449.7
West Virginia	14.3	3.3	8.6	245.9	32.4	140.0
Wisconsin	14.4	1.9	8.0	664.8	51.5	340.3
Total*	42.1	9.1	25.3	495.5	44.0	256.2

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.
* Total calculated on basis of 34 reporting states.

Fig.3: Rates of Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses, by Race, 2003

(Rates calculated per 100,000 residents of each race)

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.

The state rates for drug offender prison admissions for whites ranged from a low of 8 (Wisconsin) to a high of 88.3 (Oklahoma) per 100,000 white residents. (Table 3). The rates for drug offender admissions for blacks ranged from a low of 47.5 (Oregon) to a high of 613.8 (Illinois) per 100,000 black residents. The five states with the highest black drug offender admission rates were Illinois (613.8), South Dakota (526.3), Washington (449.7), New Jersey (409.4), and Oklahoma (392.4). Table 3 also shows that in every one of the 34 states, blacks were sent to prison for drug offenses at far higher rates than whites in that state.

In Figure 4, we present the ratio of black drug admission rates to white drug admission rates in the 34 states. Overall, blacks were sent to state prison for drug offenses in 2003 at 10.1 times the rate of whites. The disparity between black and white rates of admission was lowest in Missouri, where the black rate was still 2.7 times greater than the white rate. In the state with the highest disparity, Wisconsin, blacks entered prison on drug charges at 42.4 times the rate of whites. The rate of black drug offender admissions was more than 20 times that of whites in Illinois (23.6) and New Jersey (20.6). As shown in Table 4, the 10 states with the worst ratios between the rates at which blacks and whites were sent to prison for drug offenses were: Wisconsin (42.4), Illinois (23.6), New Jersey (20.6), Maryland (17.4), West Virginia (16.3), Colorado (14.4), New York (14.3), Virginia (13.2), Pennsylvania (13.1), and Michigan (11.8).

We analyzed the admissions data to determine whether some states send drug offenders of both races to prison at higher rates than other states, even though the drug admission rates of whites and blacks may be of a considerably different magnitude. As shown in Figure 5, there is a weak correlation between drug admission rates for blacks and for whites in each state.⁴⁹ Illinois and New Jersey, for example, have very high rates of black admissions but relatively low rates of white admissions. Conversely, Alabama and Mississippi have relatively high rates of white admissions and relatively low rates of black admissions. Oklahoma, in contrast, sends both whites and blacks to prison for drug offenses at relatively high rates.

Fig.4: Ratio of Black:White Rates of Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses, 2003

(Rates calculated per 100,000 residents of each race)

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.

Table 4: Ranking of States by Ratio of Black:White Prison Admission Rates for Drug Offenses, 2003

(Rates calculated per 100,000 residents of each race)

State	Black:White Rate Ratios
Wisconsin	42.4
Illinois	23.6
New Jersey	20.6
Maryland	17.4
West Virginia	16.3
Colorado	14.4
New York	14.3
Virginia	13.2
Pennsylvania	13.1
Michigan	11.8
Florida	11.7
Texas	11.7
North Carolina	10.9
California	10.6
Minnesota	10.1
Washington	10.1
South Carolina	9.3
South Dakota	9.0
Tennessee	8.4
Iowa	7.7
Utah	7.5
Louisiana	7.3
New Hampshire	7.1
Nevada	6.6
Kentucky	6.2
Hawaii	5.8
Georgia	5.0
Nebraska	4.6
Oklahoma	4.4
Oregon	4.1
North Dakota	3.8
Alabama	3.5
Mississippi	3.0
Missouri	2.7

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.

Fig.5: Correlation of White and Black Rates of Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses, 2003

(Rates calculated per 100,000 adults of each race)

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.

Race and Gender

Racial disparities in incarceration for drug offenses are even more evident when the data analysis incorporates gender. As shown in Table 1, drug offenses in 2003 accounted for about two in ten white men entering prison that year (23.9 percent) but nearly four in ten black men (38.3 percent). The differences were less marked among women: drug offenses accounted for 35.9 percent of white women entering prison that year and 36.7 percent of black women.

The proportion of black men sent to prison in 2003 because of drug offenses ranged from a low of one in 10 (Oregon, 11.6 percent) to a high of one in two (New Jersey, 55.1 percent, and Maryland, 50.7 percent). The proportion of white men sent to prison because of drug offenses was never higher than 41.8 percent (Oklahoma).

Drug offenses play a greater role in sending women to prison than men. In seven states (Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin), drug sentences accounted for 50 percent or more of all black women sent to prison in 2003. Convictions for drug offenses accounted for 50 percent or more of the new admissions among white women in three states (North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah).

We computed the prison admission rates for drug offenses per 100,000 adult residents for the 34 NCRP participating states, disaggregating the data by gender and race. As shown in Table 3, the drug admission rates for the 34 states together were 495.5 for black men, 44.0 for black women, 42.1 for white men and 9.1 for white women. Drug admission rates for black men ranged from a low of 66.8 per 100,000 black adult males in Oregon, to a high of 1,227.6 in Illinois. For white men, the rates of drug offender admissions ranged from a low of 14.3 per 100,000 white male adult residents in West Virginia to a high of 143.7 in Oklahoma. The highest black male rate is 8.5 times greater than the highest white male rate. The rates at which black women were sent to prison for drug offenses ranged from a low of 11.0 per 100,000 black female adults in Michigan⁵⁰ to a remarkably high 387.6 in South Dakota. The lowest rate for white women was 1.9 in Wisconsin and the highest was 35.9 in Oklahoma. (The contrast between the black and white rates for men and women in each state is displayed graphically in Figures 6 and 7).

Among the 34 states, black men were admitted to prison on drug charges at 11.8 times the rate of white men. (Table 5). The lowest ratio of black to white male drug admission rates was 2.1, in Missouri, with the highest in Wisconsin, at 46.1. That is, a black man was twice as likely as a white man to be sent to prison on drug charges in Missouri and 46 times as likely in Wisconsin.

Marked racial disparities exist among female offenders as well, although the magnitude of the disparity is smaller. As seen in Table 5, black women are sent to prison on drug charges at 4.8 times the rate of white women. In five states (Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, South Dakota, and Wisconsin), black women are sent to prison on drug charges at more than 10 times the rate of white women, with the greatest disparities in South Dakota (the rate at which black women entered prison for drug offenses was 20 times greater than that of white women) and Wisconsin (black women’s rate was 27.6 times greater than that of white women).

Fig.6: Male Rates of Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses, by Race, 2003

(Rates calculated per 100,000 male residents of each race)

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.

Fig.7: Female Rates of Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses, by Race, 2003

(Rates calculated per 100,000 female residents of each race)

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.

Table 5: Ratio of Black:White Rates of Prison Admissions for Drug Offenses by Gender, 2003

State	Black:White	Black:White	Black:White
	Male	Female	Total
Alabama	4.4	1.3	3.5
California	11.8	6.8	10.6
Colorado	14.3	13.2	14.4
Florida	14.0	4.5	11.7
Georgia	6.2	1.7	5.0
Hawaii	6.1	3.3	5.8
Illinois	27.7	12.8	23.6
Iowa	7.5	4.5	7.7
Kentucky	7.1	3.4	6.2
Louisiana	8.7	3.0	7.3
Maryland	19.2	12.3	17.4
Michigan	13.4	5.2	11.8
Minnesota	10.1	6.3	10.1
Mississippi	3.6	1.4	3.0
Missouri	2.1	1.2	2.7
Nebraska	4.4	5.8	4.6
Nevada	8.0	2.4	6.6
New Hampshire	6.9	0.0	7.1
New Jersey	23.7	9.6	20.6
New York	17.1	6.5	14.3
North Carolina	14.2	4.2	10.9
North Dakota	3.1	4.8	3.8
Oklahoma	4.8	3.3	4.4
Oregon	3.5	6.5	4.1
Pennsylvania	14.8	4.2	13.1
South Carolina	11.3	3.2	9.3
South Dakota	6.0	20.0	9.0
Tennessee	11.0	2.6	8.4
Texas	13.9	5.9	11.7
Utah	6.6	7.7	7.5
Virginia	15.3	7.1	13.2
Washington	9.7	8.5	10.1
West Virginia	17.2	9.9	16.3
Wisconsin	46.1	27.6	42.4
Total*	11.8	4.8	10.1

Source: National Corrections Reporting Program, 2003.
* Total calculated on basis of 34 reporting states.

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