Drug-war arrests and imprisonment fell disproportionately on Black Americans

Evidence

The “war on drugs” created a black market in drugs. It drove addicts into lives of crime; it contrib­ uted to urban decay. The policy not only failed, it did incalculable harm. The effect on African-​Americans has been particularly harsh; by 1992, near the peak of the “war,” blacks made up 40 percent of the men and women arrested for drug abuse—​out of all proportion to their share of the population, and out of all proportion to their actual use of drugs. There may not be an easy solution to the drug problem, but that does not alter the fact that drug laws have a lot to answer for. In 2014, years after the peak of the drug war, there were still over 96,000 people in the federal prison system whose most serious crime was a drug offense: about 74,000 of those inmates were black or Hispanic; only 21,000 were white. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1435

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Formal law fails against minority cultural practices that resist it — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 1434; Post-2000s drug incarceration racial disparities contracted as Black arrests fell — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 1049; Recent drug sanction declines come almost entirely from reduced Black arrest rates — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 1082 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Post-2000s drug incarceration racial disparities contracted as Black arrests fell #contradicts (0.90) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1049
• Racialized leniency toward the opioid crisis nonetheless reduced Black drug arrests #corroborates (0.85) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1089
• Recent drug sanction declines come almost entirely from reduced Black arrest rates #corroborates (0.82) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1082
• The War on Drugs did not create but vastly amplified existing racial disparities #qualifies (0.82)
• Drug arrest declines concentrate among African Americans while White rates shift little. #corroborates (0.80)
• Crack-cocaine sentencing laws deliberately criminalized black drug behavior more than white #expands (0.80) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 421
• Racial gaps in drug prison admissions predate the War on Drugs. #contradicts (0.80) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1042
• Reduced drug enforcement under the opioid crisis benefited Black Americans #corroborates (0.78)
• Self-reported drug distribution differences between races are too small to explain arrest disparities #corroborates (0.78) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1056
• Drug-offense racial disparities resist explanation by actual offending differences #expands (0.78) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1035
• Black drug and murder defendants receive harsher punishment than White ones #expands (0.76)
• Drug arrests reduce employment for Black workers specifically #expands (0.75) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1080
• Drug arrests of Blacks stem from proactive stops while White arrests are reactive #expands (0.74) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1067
• The War on Drugs was deliberately engineered to harm black communities #expands (0.72) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 410