Justice Strategies Rept.

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A report to the NAACP Syracuse/Onondaga Chapter on Racial Disparities
in the Local Criminal Justice System
March 2001

by Alan Rosenthal, J.D.

      OVERVIEW

The data from the 2000 census provide an opportunity to look at racial disparities in our local criminal justice system.

The population in Onondaga County declined by 2.3% since the 1990 census. The population of Onondaga County is now 458,336. Of that population, 9.4% are African Americans. Although African Americans are a relatively small percentage of the total County population, they compose a disproportionately high percentage of those who are arrested and sentenced to jail and prison.

Much has been said and written about racial profiling and selective targeting and enforcement by the police. Police practices account for only part of the racial disproportion in the criminal justice system.

In 1999, although African Americans made up only 9.4% of Onondaga County’s population, African Americans constituted 41% of all those arrested. In that same year, Whites represented 55% of those arrested, yet they made up 84.8% of the County population. Clearly the disproportion begins with the arrest policies. However, the disparate treatment by the criminal justice system does not stop there.

A review of the racial composition of the Onondaga County Correctional Facility (OCCF), where men and women arrested in Onondaga County are sentenced to up to one year jail terms, shows a racial disproportion that extends beyond the disparity caused by arrest policies. In 1999, 1516 people were sentenced to serve jail terms in OCCF. In a County that is only 9.4% African American, and in which 41% of those arrested were African American, we end up with African Americans constituting 52.2% of those admitted to jail at OCCF in 1999. Of the adults sentenced to jail in Onondaga County in 1999, African Americans constituted 56%.

The disproportion is even greater when we look at the harsher sentence of State prison. In 1999, 60% of the men and women sentenced to State prison from Onondaga County were African American.

The disproportion shifts the other way when we analyze the more lenient sentence of probation. According to the 1999 Annual Report of the Onondaga County Probation Department, only 36% of those sentenced to probation during 1999 were African Americans. At the same time, Whites constituted 44% of those admitted to OCCF with jail sentences but 58% of those sentenced to probation.

A review of how courts have treated Youthful Offenders--youth between the ages of 14 and 18--reveals an even greater racial disparity. The cumulative data for Onondaga County between 1995-1999 show that of the 1813 young people adjudicated to be Youthful Offenders by the Courts, 49% were African American and 47% were White. Yet when one looks at the percentage of those given straight jail sentences, we find an astounding 77% of those given jail sentences were African American and 19% were White. African Americans were four times more likely to receive a straight jail sentence as a Youthful Offender than their White counterparts. They were sentenced to probation in equal proportions, but the more lenient sentence of a Conditional Discharge was distributed 60% to White Youthful Offenders and 37% to African American Youthful Offenders.

This racial disparity is repeated in County after County so that we have a State prison system that is approximately 50% African American and 34% Hispanic in a State that is 15.9% African American and 15.1% Hispanic.

The disparity is most dramatic as it relates to drug offenses. According to almost any study one looks at, the use of illegal drugs is about the same percentage across racial and ethnic lines. In New York that means that for every one African American using illegal drugs there are four Whites using illegal drugs.

According to the 1998 FBI Uniform Crime Report, the percentage of arrests for drug offenses is equally distributed between Whites and African Americans. A review of new commitments to New York State prisons in 1998 shows a startling disproportion. Only 5% of all the new commitments to State prison for drug offenses were White, while African Americans and Hispanics made up 94% of the new commitments for drug offenses.

The “war on crime” and the “war on drugs” is disproportionately affecting communities of color and poor communities. The racial disparity is affected by racial attitudes, and not just racial attitudes of the police. It is affected by who gets bail, who can hire an attorney, victims' racial attitudes, and race may affect decisions by the Assistant District Attorney handling the case, the Probation Officer making sentencing recommendations and the sentencing Judge.

As of 1997, Onondaga County spent $38,382.00 per year per prisoner to keep them locked up at the Onondaga County Correctional Facility and only 8,883.00 per pupil for a year of public education. It is time to reassess our priorities.

DEMOGRAPHICS
2000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

ARRESTS BY RACE AND CRIME TYPE
Onondaga County
2000

Source: DCJS, Computerized Criminal History system (2/2001)

ONONDAGA COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
Admissions by Race
1999

African American	792	52.2%
Caucasian	667	44.0%
Hispanic	27	1.8%
Native American	24	1.6%
Other	6	0.4%
------------------	------	-------
Total	1516	100.0%

Source: Onondaga County Department of Corrections 1999 Annual Report

ONONDAGA COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
Number of Criminal Court Probationers
Received During 1999 by "Race"

While Blacks are 52% of the prisoners sentenced to jail, they are only 36% of those sentenced to probation and only 9% of the county population. Whites are 44% of the prisoners sentenced to jail, but are 58% of those sentenced to probation and 85% of the county population.

Source: Onondaga County Probation Department 1999 Annual Report

YOUTHFUL OFFENDER ADJUDICATION BY AGE,
GENDER, RACE AND SENTENCE
Onondaga County
1995-1999 Cumulative

Source: DCJS

ONONDAGA COUNTY ADULT ARRESTS BY RACE/ETHNICITY