Although similar numbers of African Americans and whites are sentenced in Dane County to serve prison terms each year, Dane County’s overwhelmingly white population causes a disproportionate ratio of African Americans admitted to prison compared to whites, according to a pair of UW professors.
UW Sociology Professor Pamela Oliver said in 1999 a total of 86 African Americans and 67 whites sentenced in Dane County were admitted to prison, but compared with their respective populations in the county, the ratio of African Americans sentenced to prison compared to whites was 33 to 1.
More specifically, Oliver said the ratio was 92 African Americans for every white person sentenced for a drug-related offense, including drug dealing and possession with intent to deliver. For violent offenses, the ratio was 27 to 1, and for robbery and burglary, the ratio was 31 to 1.
“People want to know if the rates are disproportional because of the different rates crimes are committed, the different rates of being processed in the system, or an unconscious bias. I think it’s a combination of all three,” Oliver said.
Oliver said the disproportionate ratio may be caused by several factors, but a major influence may be policing decisions like where to put a higher concentration of police enforcement because of a greater risk for serious crimes. She also said often the result is more police in areas populated primarily by minorities, which may explain why African Americans are arrested at a much higher rate than whites.
Similarly, Oliver said there is a higher rate of African Americans being arrested for drug-related offenses, disorderly conduct and public order offenses because this differential policing increases the likelihood of offenders being arrested if they are in an intensely policed area.
Oliver also said critics argue differential policing is a racist, unjust response to the U.S. drug enforcement policy, which gives police incentives to increase the number of drug-related arrests, especially for cocaine. With more police in an area, it may be easier for police to catch drug offenders.
“It’s harder to catch white suburbanites in their own homes,” Oliver said.
In contrast, Oliver said downtown is Madison’s “high crime center,” areas where homes are more densely concentrated, such as apartment buildings particularly on the east side, accounted for most occurrences of rape, assault, vandalism, violation of liquor licenses, drug abuse and drug selling.
UW criminal justice lecturer Daniel Nevers said, while Dane County has the highest proportion of African American arrests in Wisconsin, this is not an isolated trend since most counties in Wisconsin and most states in the United States also arrest a disproportionate number of African Americans compared to whites.
Nevers said this issue shows a society-wide trend, and the problem is at many levels in the criminal justice system. He said it is necessary to examine where decisions are being made regarding criminals; not just in the policing realm, but also the activities courts and prosecutors. He said more whites than minorities are sentenced to probation rather than prison terms or are more likely to receive other diversion methods like alcohol or substance treatment rather than prison terms.
In Madison, Nevers said, a program used by police emphasizing “decentralized community policing” has good intentions because its aim is to have more police out of the office and patrolling neighborhoods to have more interaction with people.
Consequently, however, Nevers said this method of policing has also led to an increase in arrests and prosecutions of minorities.
Madison police officer Kris Acker said from a patrol perspective, decentralized policing gives police more access to the public and allows them to address problems more directly because they are closer to the community.
“Decentralization is nice because you’re in the district you are working in and are closer to the problems,” Acker said.
