Sentences for using or selling crack were much tougher, Mauer notes, and “80 percent of those arrested for crack were black,” he adds. Much of this had to do with the difference in how crack cocaine was treated versus powder cocaine. Meanwhile, the rate for white defendants had barely budged, rising from 2 per 100,000 people in 1984 to just 3 per 100,000 by 1999. As drug offenses soared in the 2002 to 2005 years African American men had 11 to 12 times as many drug-related prison admissions as white men,” the study reported.Ī previous study by Pam Oliver, a sociologist at UW-Madison, found the rate of imprisonment in Wisconsin for drug offenses by African Americans rose from 9 per 100,000 people in 1984 to nearly 257 per 100,000 by 1999. “In the early 1990s African Americans had 4 times as many annual admissions for drug-related offenses as white men. Forty percent of black males from Milwaukee County incarcerated since 1990 were drug offenders, the study found. The number peaked at 10,669 black males from Milwaukee County imprisoned in 2007.ĭrug offenses have been a big factor driving this wave of imprisonment. The UWM study tracks the stunning rise in imprisonment for African American males from Milwaukee County: the number imprisoned rose four-fold, growing from 2,684 imprisoned in 1990 to 5,521 in 1995 and 9,123 in 2000. A national push to get tough on drugs, truth-in-sentencing and “three strikes and you’re out” (meaning permanent incarceration) rules were among the factors driving the growth of prisons. but the numbers really grew in the 1980s and 1990s, he says. Nationally, Mauer notes, there has been a “40 year explosion” in imprisonment in the U.S. “It certainly is disturbing to see this rate of imprisonment for black males,” says Mauer.
That rate is 32 percent higher than the second worst state, Oklahoma, and nearly double the national average of 6.7 percent (or 1 in 15).īy contrast, Wisconsin’s rate of incarceration of white men is similar to the national average and the rate for Hispanics is actually lower than the national average. The study found that 12.8 percent, or 1 in 8 of African American working age men, were incarcerated. No state comes close to Wisconsin in imprisoning black males.
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