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Black People in Great Britain Six Times More Likely to Face Arrest for Drug Offenses Than White People

 According to an article in The Observer, new research has shown that black people are six times more likely to be arrested for drug offences than white people. They are also eleven times more likely to be imprisoned. This, all despite the fact, that there is no evidence that proves that black people are more likely to use or deal drugs.

 The evident bias in racial drug arrests in England and Wales is even worse than it is in the United States—where black people are three times more likely to be arrested and ten times more likely to be imprisoned than whites.

Professor Alex Stewart of the University of Kent found this disturbing trend when he analyzed recent data provided by the Ministry of Justice. Stewart said: “Criminalisation of illicit drugs reinforces social and ethnic inequalities. Decriminalisation of drug use would help to reduce these inequalities.” Stewart added: “This differential enforcement of drug laws contributes substantially to the over-representation of black people in prison in England and Wales.”

Source: The Observer

– Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

25 thoughts on “Black People in Great Britain Six Times More Likely to Face Arrest for Drug Offenses Than White People”

  1. Pingback: Blacks are more likely to… | theblackstairwell

  2. Portrait Of The 1985 Handsworth Riots – Pogus Caesar – BBC1 TV . Inside Out.

    Broadcast 25 Oct 2010.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey7ijaXv6UQ

    Birmingham film maker and photographer Pogus Caesar knows Handsworth well. He found himself in the centre of the 1985 riots and spent two days capturing a series of startling images. Caesar kept them hidden for 20 years. Why? And how does he see Handsworth now?.

    The stark black and white photographs featured in the film provide a rare, valuable and historical record of the raw emotion, heartbreak and violence that unfolded during those dark and fateful days in September 1985.

  4. Well, given the 8th Amendment, why doesn’t someone make a law that bail for a misdemeanor can’t be more than 8 hours of minimum wage? Now that the professor brought up the bail bond industry in the context of the Judge Porteus impeachment, maybe that link is the problem.

    I didn’t even get a bail hearing myself but I would testify that my cell mates were having real problems making bail and sometimes it caused them to lose their jobs. One of them was charged with having expired auto registration — not driving without insurance — just driving with expired papers. I did that and all I got was a ticket. Her daughter had cancer.

  5. 1z, Coke white people 4 to 10…1z Crack……Blacks 5 to 20…disparate treatment…..either side of the pond….

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