Post-2000s drug incarceration racial disparities contracted as Black arrests fell

Evidence

Taken together, these facts suggest that the number of drug offenders imprisoned grew explosively between the 1980s and the early part of the 2000s due to increased drug arrests, that the probability of being imprisoned given a drug arrest increased, that most of those imprisoned were convicted of drug trafficking, and that African Americans were most affected by these changes—leading to growing racial imbalances in those sanctioned for drug offenses. However, after the mid-2000s, many of these patterns changed with the rates of African American drug arrests and drug-related prison admissions falling markedly, while those of Whites remained much more stable—causing racial disparities to contract. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1049

Categorization

• QUESTION: What caused the sharp post-mid-2000s decline in Black drug arrests? Policy change, policing shifts, or something else? Worth chasing.
• XREF: connects to: Drug-war arrests and imprisonment fell disproportionately on Black Americans — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 1435