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Marc Mauer, Assistant Director of The Sentencing Project, on the occasion of the release of "Drugs and Disparity: The Racial Impact of Illinois' Practice of Transferring Young Drug Offenders to Adult Court."The Illinois automatic drug transfer laws have produced racial disparities that are second to none in the nation. They vividly illustrate the twin problems of excessive use of the criminal justice system and the failure of policymakers to project the impact of proposed legislation.No matter how well intended the Illinois laws relating to automatic transfer of juveniles for selling drugs near public housing may have been, it should have been obvious at the time that such a policy would overwhelmingly punish the drug crimes of African Americans and Latinos and not white juveniles living in suburban areas. These policies contribute to the two-tiered "war on drugs" - treatment for suburban youth with drug problems and harsh punishment for inner city youth. There is no inherent reason why the treatment orientation pursued in suburban communities could not become the primary approach in urban areas as well. Such a strategy would both address drug problems more effectively and begin to reduce the unconscionable racial disparities that characterize our criminal justice system.
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