As of 1999, blacks in Wisconsin were 20 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, UW-Madison law professor Pamela Oliver said Wednesday night in a discussion about racial disparity in the state's legal system.
'A lot of people think that because there's this imprisonment boom, it must be because there's a huge crime boom, and that's just not true,' Oliver said.
This problem began to escalate in the early '80s with the rise of cocaine dealing and caused a policy shift that increased funds for prison facilities.
Law enforcement's desire to bring crack under control occurred at the expense of black men, according to Oliver.
'With crack, unlike other drugs, the mere possession of a relatively small quantity of the drug gets you presumed to be a dealer,' Oliver said.
As a result, communities were destroyed as black men went to prison for possessing tiny amounts of crack, leaving their families behind in poor and often crime-ridden neighborhoods, Oliver said.
'At the end of the 1980s, there were pretty much only blacks going to prison for drug offenses,' she said.
In 2003, the system of discrimination was still in place, as it still went unnoticed that whites used drugs more than blacks.
Police are aware that whites sell drugs; however, this is not seen as a growing social problem because they deal privately and in wealthier neighborhoods.
'A good portion of the crime that is recorded and seen happens in black communities because things happen on the street, because of the media covering big drug charges,' said Matt Rink, UW-Madison senior and WUD Contemporary Issues Committee member.
To combat this issue, Oliver stressed the need for people to talk with friends and relatives in order to get rid of stereotypes that negatively portray blacks.
UW-Madison sophomore Mitra Jalali said she agreed.
'If you just tell people the truth and you're willing to argue about it, that's the biggest thing you as a regular person can do,' Jalali said. 'You need to force people to step outside of their judgments. It never occurred to me that if I just spread the word, that's really powerful.'
