Two reports released this week underscore a pressing need to reform the U.S. penal system.  A 20-page report, titled "Decades of Disparity: Drug Arrests and Race in the United States," revealed that blacks have been arrested nationwide on drug charges at higher rates than whites for nearly three decades, even though they engage in drug offenses at comparable rates.

            Released Monday, and authored by Jamie Fellner, senior counsel with Human Rights Watch's US Program, the report used data obtained by the FBI.  It showed that 
adult African Americans were arrested on drug charges at rates that were 2.8 to 5.5 times as high as those of white adults in every year from 1980 through 2007, the last year for which complete data were available. About one in three of the more than 25.4 million adult drug arrestees during that period was African American.
            The report also says that arrests for drug possession have greatly
exceeded arrests for drug sales every year since 1980.

            "Hauling hundreds of thousands of people down to the station house each
year because they have some weed or a rock of crack cocaine in their
pocket has had little impact on drug use," said Fellner. "But the stigma
of a drug arrest, especially if followed by a conviction, limits
employment, education and housing opportunities. A more effective, less
destructive drug policy would prioritize treatment, education, and
positive social investments in poor communities over arrest and
incarceration."
            "Decades of Disparity: Drug Arrests and Race in the United States" is available at http://hrw.org/en/node/81110/.

            In a separate study, the Pew Center on the States has reported that the number of people on probation or parole nearly doubled to more than 5 million between 1982 and 2007. Including jail and prison inmates, the total population of the U.S. corrections system now exceeds 7.3 million—one of every 31 U.S. adults. 
            According to the report, one of every 11 black adults is under correctional supervision, one of every 27 Hispanic adults, and one of every 45 white adults.
            Overcrowding and state budget crisis have made new prison construction less likely and shifted focus toward improved community supervision.  Costs per year for a prison inmate average nearly $29,000, while average costs for managing parolees and probationers range from $1,250 to $2,750 a year.
            The report's recommendations for strengthening community corrections include:
            -Base intervention programs on sound research about what works to reduce recidivism.
            -Use advances in supervision technology such as electronic monitoring and rapid-result alcohol and drug tests.
            -Create incentives for offenders and supervision agencies to succeed, and monitor their performance.
            -Impose swift, certain sanctions for offenders who break the rules of their release.