In the zone.

• Author: Sharpe, Robert
• Position: Letters

John Gould ("Zone Defense," June) argues that "drug-free" school zones which engulf entire cities have done little other than contribute to racially disproportionate incarceration rates. Government statistics support Gould's argument. Blacks and whites use drugs at roughly the same rates. Although only 15 percent of the nation's drug users are black, blacks account for 37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, more than 42 percent of those in federal prisons for drug violations, and almost 60 percent of those in state prisons for drug felonies. Support for the failed drug war would end overnight if white suburbanites were incarcerated for drugs at the same rate as minorities.

But racially disproportionate incarceration rates are not the only cause for alarm. Prisons transmit violent habits and values rather than reduce them. Putting non-violent drug offenders behind bars with violent criminals is a dangerous...