Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
Pedway, First Store Open At Block 37
Around Town
Around Town
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
A report released today from the Justice Policy Institute compares drug imprisonment statistics for big counties and concludes that everything is messed up. Granted, the Institutes's slogan is "dedicated to ending society's reliance on incarceration," but the report is still fascinating and surprisingly easy to read.
Cook County has the ninth highest rate of admission to prison for drug offenses, with 166 out of every 100,000 people going to prison for a drug offense. But our rates of drug use--a little under 9 percent of people have used illicit drugs in the last month (we...would have guessed way higher)--aren't really that high. In fact, four of the ten least-imprisoning counties have higher rates of drug use. And Cook County imprisons blacks for drug offenses rate 58 times higher than it imprisons whites, which is the seventh worst racial disparity in the nation, and we probably don't need to tell you that the racial disparity nationwide is pretty shameful, too.
Illinois on the whole is in pretty much the same boat as Cook County. Statewide, the drug admission rate is 84 out of 100,000, which puts us fifth highest, but our drug use rate of 6.3 percent, same as Pennsylvania. Except their admission rate is 26 out of 100,000. Drug laws: They don't make sense!
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It may not be very PC to say...but I suspect if it were possible to see stats on the races of drug dealers, you would find the racial bias is there, not in the incarceration stats. "Drug users" would be more balanced, but I'd reckon "drug dealers" tends to skew black. I doubt that's just anecdotal.
Kudos to Chicagoist for once realizing that studies are produced to further agendas.
Grain of salt people. More hysterical the language = less reliable the data. And get out the salt lick as soon as somebody whips out the race card.
it's a tax on the system. if cops didn't use any excuse to arrest people (such as a dime bag) we wouldn't have the over crowding problems that we do today.
Matty Is it the polices fault for arresting the guy with the dime bag or the politicans fault for making the dime bag illegal?You blame the police for doing there job but I bet your also the first to complain if the police dont do there job. African americans also make up a very high percentage of drug related murders both Off. and victim.I bet thats the polices fault to. There is a problem with crime in some african american communities and its not racism for the most part. The lack of jobs and education the high rate of single mothers, not the racist police are the problem.
The reasons why this study and its conclusions are absurd are....oh forget it. The lefties have made up their minds.
"The lack of jobs and education the high rate of single mothers,"
Watch out Fed, you might get kicked out the G.O.P for those comments. Now that you'd want to be a demorat.
Actually Tower18, the Chicago Tribune article is clear in saying that drug-dealing rates are equal among white and blacks.
"Ziedenberg stresses that not only does research show that blacks and whites use illegal drugs at similar rates, but blacks and whites also sell drugs at similar rates.
"We've got a media culture that puts out an image of what a drug dealer looks like," Ziedenberg said. "Most people buy drugs from somebody of the same color. And since the vast majority of drug users in the United States are white, the majority of drug dealers are also white.""
Also, despite all the comments about "grains of salt" and "the lefties having made up their mind," I haven't seen any evidence given as to why the study's conclusions are wrong.
Actually Tower18, the Chicago Tribune article is clear in saying that drug-dealing rates are equal among white and blacks.
"Ziedenberg stresses that not only does research show that blacks and whites use illegal drugs at similar rates, but blacks and whites also sell drugs at similar rates.
"We've got a media culture that puts out an image of what a drug dealer looks like," Ziedenberg said. "Most people buy drugs from somebody of the same color. And since the vast majority of drug users in the United States are white, the majority of drug dealers are also white.""
Also, despite all the comments about "grains of salt" and "the lefties having made up their mind," I haven't seen any evidence given as to why the study's conclusions are wrong.
Actually Tower18, the Chicago Tribune article is clear in saying that drug-dealing rates are equal among white and blacks.
"Ziedenberg stresses that not only does research show that blacks and whites use illegal drugs at similar rates, but blacks and whites also sell drugs at similar rates.
"We've got a media culture that puts out an image of what a drug dealer looks like," Ziedenberg said. "Most people buy drugs from somebody of the same color. And since the vast majority of drug users in the United States are white, the majority of drug dealers are also white.""
Also, despite all the comments about "grains of salt" and "the lefties having made up their mind," I haven't seen any evidence given as to why the study's conclusions are wrong.
Olly McPherson, that's interesting. I wonder how that data is influenced by Billy Bob and Tammy Rae cooking meth out in the hinterlands. Nonetheless, interesting...would be interesting to see such stats for Chicago and Cook County though.
Spook
I am not a member of any political party. Left and Right both need to chill. People dont need to be conservitive or liberal on every issue you can think for yourself and have opinions besides what the great thinkers Limbaugh and air america preach.