Targeting Blacks for Marijuana 06-29-10 (2)

8/9/2019 Targeting Blacks for Marijuana 06-29-10 (2)

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Targeting Blacks

for Marijuana

Possession Arrests

of African Americans

in California, 2004-08

________________________________________________________________

Prepared By

The Marijuana Arrest Research Project

Harry G. Levine, PhD

Sociology Department

Queens College

City University of New York

[email protected]

Jon B. Gettman, PhD

Criminal Justice Department

Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA

Loren Siegel, JD

LS Consulting, Brooklyn, NY

________________________________________________________________


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About

Credits

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the nation's leading organization

promoting policy alternatives to the drug war that are grounded in

science, compassion, health and human rights

3470 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 618

Los Angeles, CA 90010

[email protected]

Contact:

Stephen Gutwillig

California State Director

[email protected]

Headquarters:

70 W. 36th Street, 16th Floor

New York, NY 10018

212.613.8020

www.drugpolicy.org

Cite as: Harry G. Levine, Jon B. Gettman, Loren Siegel. "Targeting

Blacks for Marijuana: Possession Arrests of African Americans in

California, 2004-08. Drug Policy Alliance, LA: June 2010.

We would like to thank: Joey Huddleston, Brian Scott, and Allison

Stouch, DPA fellows, Southern California; Anne Irwin, deputy public

defender in San Francisco; Greg Hoegee and Rigoberto Arrechiga,

deputy public defenders in Los Angeles County; Alice Huffman,

President, California State NAACP; Mauricio Garzon, Campaign

Coordinator, Tax Cannabis 2010; the members of the NationalBlack Police Association and its Executive Director, Ron Hampton;

the Open Society Foundations; Jamie Fellner and Human Rights

Watch for the title; Craig Reinarman, Professor, Department of

Sociology, University of California-Santa Cruz; Troy Duster,

Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California-

Berkeley; and especially Stephen Gutwillig, who supervised the

editing and production of this report.


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Report Highlights: Targeting Blacks for Marijuana

In every one of the 25 largest counties in California, blacks are

arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than whites,typically at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites.

(pages 6-8, 12)

U.S. government studies consistently find that young blacks use

marijuana at lower rates than young whites. (pages 5)

In Los Angeles County, with nearly ten million residents and over a

quarter of California's population, blacks are arrested at over triple

the rate of whites. Blacks are less than 10 percent of L.A. Countyspopulation, but they are 30 percent of the people arrested for

marijuana possession. (pages 6-8, 12)

These racially-biased marijuana arrests are a system-wide

phenomenon, occurring in every county and nearly every police

department in California, and elsewhere. The arrests are not mainly

the result of personal bias or racism on the part of individual patrol

officers who are doing what they are assigned to do.

(pages 9,11)

Marijuana possession arrests have serious consequences. They

create permanent "drug arrest" records that can be easily found on

the Internet by employers, landlords, schools, credit agencies,

licensing boards, and banks. (pages 9-11)

The "scarlet letter" stigma of criminal records for marijuana

possession can create barriers to employment and education for

anyone, including whites and middle class people. (pages 10-11)

Criminal records for marijuana possession severely limit the life

chances of the poor, the young, and especially of young blacks and

Latinos. (pages 10-11)


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4

Targeting Blacks for MarijuanaPossession Arrests of African Americans in California, 2004-08

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__________________________________________________________________________________________

5

__________________________________________________________________________________________

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2002-03 2004-05 2006 2007 2002-03 2004-05 2006 2007 2002-03 2004-05 2006 2007

Ever Used Marijuana in Life Used Marijuana in Past Year Used Marijuana in Past Month

Whites Blacks Latinos

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

2004-2005 2006 2007 2004-2005 2006 2007

Used Marijuana in Past Year Used Marijuana in Past Month

Whites Blacks Latinos

Marijuana Use by Whites, Blacks and Latinos, Ages 18 to 25, 2002-200

Marijuana Use by Whites, Blacks and Latinos, Ages 12 to 17, 2004-2007

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6

Marijuana Possession Arrests in California's 25 Largest Counties

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__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

7

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 60

San Joaquin County

Contra Costa County

Tulare County

Alameda County

Ventura County

Stanislaus County

San Luis Obispo County

San Mateo County

San Francisco County

Riverside County

Kern County

San Bernardino County

Sacramento County

Monterey County

Marin County

Placer County

Fresno County

Solano County

Santa Clara County

Los Angeles County

Santa Barbara County

San Diego County

Orange County

Sonoma County

Santa Cruz County

White Marijuana Arrest Rate Per 100,000 Whites, 2004-08

Black Marijuana Arrest Rate Per 100,000 Blacks, 2004-08

Source: FBI / Uniform Crime Report County Arrest Data and U.S. Census Data. 5 year average: 2004-2008

Harry G. Levine, Sociology Department, Queens College, City University of New York, [email protected]

Jon B. Gettman, Criminal Justice Department, Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA

Loren Siegel, LS Consulting, Brooklyn, NY. June 2010

White and Black

Marijuana Possession Arrest Rates

in the 25 Largest Counties in California, 2004-08


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__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

8

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Solano County

Sacramento County

San Francisco County

Los Angeles County

Alameda County

Contra Costa County

San Bernardino County

San Diego County

Kern County

Fresno County

Riverside County

San Joaquin County

Santa Clara County

San Mateo County

Monterey County

Marin County

Stanislaus County

Sonoma County

Placer County

Orange County

Santa Barbara County

Santa Cruz County

Tulare County

Ventura County

San Luis Obispo County

Black % of County Population

Black % of Marijuana Possession Arrests

Source: FBI / Uniform Crime Report County Arrest Data and U.S. Census Data. 5 year average: 2004-2008

Harry G. Levine, Sociology Department, Queens College, City University of New York, [email protected]

Jon B. Gettman, Criminal Justice Department, Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA

Loren Siegel, LS Consulting, Brooklyn, NY. June 2010

Black % of County Population and

Black % of Marijuana Possession Arrests

in the 25 Largest Counties in California, 2004-08


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9

Racially-Biased Marijuana Arrests as a System-Wide Phenomenon

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Marijuana Possession Arrests Have Serious Consequences

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11

End Notes1In this report we use the terms black and African American interchangeably. In California most people coded by thepolice as black are African American, but some are immigrants from the Caribbean, Africa and elsewhere.2 Daniel Macallair and Mike Males, "Marijuana Arrests and Californias Drug War: A Report to the CaliforniaLegislature." Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, San Francisco, Ca, October 2009.At: http://www.cjcj.org/files/Marijuana_Arrests_and_Californias_Drug_War.pdf3

We are working on a follow up report using California state data to focus on the marijuana possession arrests of Latinos.4

The arrest rate is calculated by dividing the number of arrests of a group by the population of that group times 100,000.5

The logic of police patrol and arrest processes for marijuana possession and other misdemeanors is described in:Harry G. Levine and Deborah P. Small, Marijuana Arrest Crusade: Racial Bias and Police Policy in New York City,1997-2007NYCLU, 2009. At: http://www.nyclu.org/files/MARIJUANA-ARREST-CRUSADE_Final.pdf.

Also see: Jim Dwyer. "Whites Smoke Pot, but Blacks Are Arrested." NY Times. Dec 23, 2009. At:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/nyregion/23about.html?_r=1

Patrol and narcotics police, and their immediate supervisors, often face enormous pressure to meet arrest and ticketquotas sometimes termed "performance guidelines." Making marijuana arrests, including by writing courtsummonses, are a relatively safe and easy way for police to meet their quotas. Arrests, quotas and their importance forpatrol and narcotics police and their supervisors is discussed in Marijuana Arrest Crusade, cited above. For a detailedand chilling example of the pressure put on patrol officers to meet arrest and ticket quotas, see: Graham Rayman, "The

NYPD Tapes: Inside Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct," The Village Voice, May 4, 2010.At: http://www.villagevoice.com/content/printVersion/17978476

Representatives of police departments and prosecutors will sometimes tell the media that marijuana possessionarrests reduce serious crime. We have found no study to support that claim, and some researchers have found theopposite. In their report, Macallair and Males (cited above) write: "Counties with high rates of marijuana possessionarrests had about the same rates of crime clearance [making an arrest] as those with low marijuana arrest rates,indicating that arresting more people for marijuana neither detracts from nor enhances the ability of police agencies tosolve more serious offenses. Nor do marijuana arrest rates seem connected to a countys overall crime rate....Counties with very similar marijuana possession arrest rates (i.e., Santa Cruz and Merced, or San Bernardino andMarin) have very different rates of violent, property, and other offenses."

For a sophisticated study of the impact of marijuana possession arrests on serious crime in New York City, by twoUniversity of Chicago law professors, see: Bernard E. Harcourt and Jens Ludwig, "Reefer Madness: Broken WindowsPolicing and Misdemeanor Marijuana Arrests in New York City, 1989-2000", Criminology and Public Policy 6:1, pp.165-182, 2007. Available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=948753. The authors write: "We findno good evidence that the MPV [marijuana possession] arrests are associated with reductions in serious violent orproperty crimes in the city. As a result New York Citys marijuana policing strategy seems likely to simply divert scarcepolice resources away from more effective approaches that research suggests is capable of reducing real crime.7

In addition to a $100 fine, misdemeanor marijuana possession offenders are subject to nine separate fees in theCalifornia Penal and Business Codes. These assessments include a $30 flat fee imposed on every conviction for acriminal offense and multiple assessments from $1 to $10 for every $10 of the base fine. If each of these assessmentswere imposed, $360 in additional fees would accrue.8

The discussion of the damaging effects of criminal records for marijuana possession is based on our ongoing

research in New York, California, and elsewhere in the U.S. For an overview of the spread and dangers of the online

criminal databases see: Hon. Cynthia Diane Stephens, "Keeping an Arrest from Resulting in a Life Sentence."

Michigan Bar Journal, Nov 2008. http://www.michbar.org/journal/pdf/pdf4article1433.pdf.

A simple Google search for the phase criminal database or criminal records will produce numerous links to firms,

some claiming that their searches are better than the others. Some offer "50 state searches" for as low as $12.95.9 Representatives Steve Cohen and Sheila Jackson Lee used the phrase "scarlet letter" during a major hearing of theJudiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Cohen repeatedly termed the stigmatizing effects ofcriminal records for marijuana possession a type of "scarlet letter." "Unfairness In Federal Cocaine Sentencing: Is ItTime To Crack The 100 To 1 Disparity?" Hearing Before The Committee On The Judiciary House Of Representatives.May 21, 2009. Pages 19-20. At: http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/printers/111th/111-27_49783.PDF. On the life-damaging effects of drug arrests also see: Michelle Alexander,The New Jim Crow, New Press, 2009.10

For an excellent, detailed discussion of the many costs and collateral consequences of policing focused onmisdemeanor arrests see: Babe Howell, "Broken Lives from Broken Windows: The Hidden Costs of AggressiveMisdemeanor Policing." New York University Review of Law and Social Change, Vol. 33, No. 3, 2008.At: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1307112


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Documents

Targeting Blacks for Marijuana 06-29-10 (2)