Racial Sentencing Disparities

Sentencing Law & Policy reports on the Justice Policy Institute’s new report on sentencing disparities by race. The report includes an interactive map where you can search by county. 5 Atlanta metro counties were included in the study. We didn’t do so hot.

The study analyzes imprisonment rates for blacks versus whites for drug crimes. It’s just one facet of criminality, but it’s one where racial issues come up most often. Blacks tend to be targeted for drug crime, whites tend to get off the hook.

Gwinnett County imprisons blacks at 5 times the rate of whites (they have a 16% black population). Fulton is 17 times more, DeKalb is double, and Cobb is 6 times more. Surprisingly, Clayton County has blacks at a lower rate than whites. (Anyone Clayton folks have an explanation for that?)