Wisconsin's designation as the 'Worst Place in the Nation to be Black' by an online newspaper prompted members of the Wisconsin state Legislature to formally ask Gov. Jim Doyle Tuesday to form a task force to address the issue.
The article was published in The Black Commentator on July 14, 2005, granting Wisconsin the title based on the disproportionate incarceration of blacks in the state. Comparing the percentage of the black population in prison to the percentage of the white population in prison, it found blacks in Wisconsin went to prison 'at a rate 11.6 times higher than whites.'
While this proportion is equal to the proportion in Iowa, the article said Wisconsin was worse because a greater percentage of the black community was in prison. 'Just over four percent of black Wisconsin, including the very old and the very young of both sexes, are behind bars,' it said.
Pamela Oliver, chair of the UW-Madison Sociology Department, studied the difference in incarceration rates and said Wisconsin became worse than other states when the disparity 'kept rising in the late 80s while other places leveled off.'
According to Oliver, the escalation in the disparity resulted from the war on drugs. While the use rates are similar between blacks and whites, Oliver said the difference emerges when blacks are disproportionately sentenced to prison for drug crimes. 'The disparity ratio of going to prison for a drug charge for 18-to-19-year-olds was basically 70 to one,' she said.
This article spurred action amongst legislators when state Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, received it from one of his constituents. Black said it inspired him to approach state Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, about co-authoring a letter to Doyle requesting a task force be formed to investigate the issue.
Grigsby agreed, saying the root causes of disproportionate incarceration needs to be investigated. 'It's way too simplistic to say that certain groups commit more crimes,' she said. 'It's about police practices and criminal practices that contribute to it.'
The letter authored by the two representatives and containing the signatures of 16 other members of the legislature will be delivered to the governor's office Tuesday. The letter claims a task force is necessary because the disparity causes bad publicity and directly relates to the other disparities faced by the black community.
According to Black, the task force could help solve the problem. 'We have to look at the social causes, but we also have to evaluate fairly whether the criminal justice code and the criminal justice system impact disproportionately on African-Americans,' he said.
