Racial Disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System for Drug Offenses

• Author: Thomas Lyons,Pamela Rodriguez,Arthur J. Lurigio,Lorena Roque
• Date: 01 January 2013
• DOI: 10.1177/2153368712468861
• Published date: 01 January 2013
• Subject Matter: Articles

Racial Disproportionality

in the Criminal Justice

System for Drug

Offenses: A State

Legislative Response to

the Problem

Thomas Lyons

1

, Arthur J. Lurigio

2

,

Lorena Roque

2

, and Pamela Rodriguez

3

Abstract

This article describes the work of the Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact

Study Commission, a nonpartisan, multidisciplinary group of policy makers, gov-

ernment leaders, and justice professionals that focused on understanding and

alleviating the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans and Latinos in

Illinois for drug law violations. The study data were obtained from arrest records

statewide and court cases in Cook County (Chicago), which were both drawn

from calendar year 2005. Results showed that racial disproportionality in arrests

for drug crimes is found in urban, suburban, and rural counties of the state and is

more pronounced among arrestees with arrest records than among first-time

arrestees. Analyses of Cook County court data showed that controlling for other

variables, including criminal history, African Americans were approximately 2.2

times more likely than Whites, and Latinos were approximately 1.6 times more

likely than Whites, to be prosecuted for drug offenses. Unequal outcomes in

court processing compound the disparities at arrest, perpetuating a vicious cycle.

The article concludes with the Commission’s proposed remedies for racial

disproportionality.

1

Chicago State University, Chicago, IL, USA

2

Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

3

TASC, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Thomas Lyons, HIV/AIDS Research and Policy Institute, Chicago State University, 9501S. King Dr., Chicago

IL 60628, USA.

Email: tlyons20@csu.edu

Race and Justice

3(1) 83-101

ªThe Author(s) 2013

Reprints and permission:

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DOI: 10.1177/2153368712468861

http://raj.sagepub.com

Keywords

drug laws, drugs, race and sentencing, race and courts, racial profiling, race and

policing, African/Black Americans, race/ethnicity, Latino/Hispanic Americans,

community corrections, race and corrections, pretrial process

The mass incarceration of minorities in the war on drugs is one of the most pressing

social problems in the United States, and to a large extent must be remedied through

policy and legislative changes at the state level, where drug laws are made and

enforced. This article describes the work of the Illinois Disproportionate Justice

Impact Study (DJIS) Commission, a nonpartisan, multidisciplinary group of policy

makers, government leaders, and justice professionals, appointed by the Illinois leg-

islature in 2009. The Commission’s research advisory group analyzed arrest and

criminal processing data in order to guide the Commission in recommending systemic

changes that could mitigate or eliminate racial disproportionality in sentencing for

drug crimes. These data were gathered from samples of statewide criminal records and

from court cases in Cook County (Chicago), both of which were drawn from calendar

year 2005 (Lurigio, Lyons, Brookes, & Whitney, 2010).

The research advisory group determined that four research questions were of

primary importance in guiding the Commission’s recommendations:

1. Which specific laws account for the disproportionality in incarceration for drug-

related offenses?

2. To what extent is this racial disproportionality a statewide phenomenon?

3. Are racial disparities fully explained by disparities at arrest, or do disparities in

criminal justice processing also contribute to disproportionality in incarceration?

4. To what extent does criminal history account for racial disparities at arrest and

sentencing?

Background

The War on Drugs

The war on drugs has played a well-documented role in the disproportionate incar-

ceration of African Americans and Latinos in state prison systems (Mauer, 1999;

Western, 2006). In 1980, 19,000 (6%) state prison inmates had been convicted of

drug offenses; by 1999, that number had risen to more than 250,000 (20%), increasing

10-fold the nation’s incarceration rate, from 15 to 150 inmates per 100,000 Ameri-

cans. African Americans are disproportionately arrested, charged, and sentenced to

prison for drug offenses. Although African Americans constituted only 13%of the

general population in 2005, they represented 34%of those arrested and 45%of those

incarcerated in state prison for a drug offense in that year (Sentencing Project, 2009).

In 2005, Illinois ranked 14th among the states in the ratio of incarcerated African

Americans to Whites, which was 9 times higher among the former (2,020 per 100,000)

than the latter (223 per 100,000; Mauer & King, 2007). Beginning in the 1980s, arrests

and admissions to prison for drug law violations in Illinois rose dramatically. By far,

84 Race and Justice 3(1)