"Everett and Wojtkiewicz (2002) find harsher sentences for African Americans arrested for drug offenses. Even when controlled for offense related variables, African Americans are twenty-two percent more likely to receive greater sentences than whites (Everett & Wojtkiewicz, 2002). In an analysis of 9,690 habitual Florida offenders in fiscal year 1992-1993, Crawford et
al. (1998) find sentencing disadvantages for African Americans especially for drug offenses. Myers (1989) finds greater disparity in sentencing among African Americans for drug distribution and drug usage as compared to white drug offenders while Spohn (2000) reports that African Americans receive 14.09 months lengthier sentences than whites for drug offenses through studies conducted in Georgia and Kansas City respectively."

Estes, D. (2015) Race & Non-Racial Characteristics in Sentencing
Length and Sentencing Type Disparity. Retrieved from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/...58&context=etd

"Decades of research have shown that the criminal courts sentence black defendants more harshly than whites. But a striking new investigation of sentencing disparities in Florida by The Sarasota Herald-Tribune expands our understanding of this problem in two important ways.

It exposes the fact that African-American defendants get more time behind bars — sometimes twice the prison terms of whites with identical criminal histories — when they commit the same crimes under identical circumstances. It also shows how bias on the part of individual judges and prosecutors drives sentencing inequity.

The Florida Legislature has been wrestling with this issue for decades. In the 1980s, for example, it tried to change sentencing policies that varied widely from place to place by creating sentencing guidelines. Today, prosecutors assign defendants points — based on the seriousness of their crime, the circumstances of their arrest and whether or not they have prior convictions — to determine the minimum sentence required by law."

The Editorial Board (2016) Unequal Sentences for Blacks and Whites. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/17/o...nd-whites.html


46% of individuals in prison are doing time for drug offenses. That's the overwhelming majority of the prison population.

Federal Bureau of Prisons. (2018) BOP Statistics: Inmate Offenses. Retrieved from https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics...e_offenses.jsp


"Black men in prison on average are given sentences nearly 20 percent longer than those served by white men for similar crimes, new sentencing data shows.

The data is contained in a report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission that was submitted to Congress last month and made public this week, the Wall Street Journal (sub.req.) reports.

According to the report, sentences for black males were 19.5 percent longer than those for similarly situated white males between December 2007 and September 2011, the most recent period covered in the report. The commission also found that black males were 25 percent less likely than whites to receive a sentence below the sentencing guidelines.

A separate analysis of the data that excluded sentences of probation showed the same pattern, although the racial disparity was less pronounced. Black men on average were given sentences 14.5 percent longer than whites."

Hansen, M. (2013) Black prisoners are given longer sentences than whites, study says. Retrieved from Black prisoners are given longer sentences than whites, study says