Editorial: Inequality under law

The arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for breaking into his own house draws attention to the disparate treatment of black people in the criminal-justice system.

Gates' arrest may have been more a misunderstanding due to hot tempers than racism. The local police dropped the charges, but not before the acclaimed teacher underwent the indignity of being booked.

Gates aside, there is plenty of evidence that shows that the law deals more harshly with black defendants. African Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population but account for 38 percent of all felony convictions.

The imbalance stems from the history of America's black population, which remains disproportionately poor and poorly educated - vestiges of slavery, segregation, and racism.

Poverty breeds crime, and the poor get the worst legal representation, a huge factor in the percentage of blacks in prison and their sentences. Imagine former State Sen. Vince Fumo's sentence if he could afford only a public defender.

A new study by the Sentencing Project prison reform group (www.sentencingproject.org) points out America's virtual abandonment of rehabilitation as the goal of incarceration.

Almost 10 percent of the nation's prison population - 140,610 inmates - are serving life terms. And again, African Americans are disproportionately represented. They are 48 percent of all those serving life sentences, and 56 percent of the 41,095 sentenced to life without parole.

In both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 63 percent of the prisoners serving life terms are black.

This disparity is further seen in juvenile cases, where life sentences are more common now. Nationally, 6,807 inmates are serving life terms for crimes they committed as juveniles, 47 percent of them black. Pennsylvania leads the way with 345 of the nation's 1,755 inmates sentenced as juveniles to no-parole life terms.

The report says the tendency toward longer prison sentences in America has as much to do with politics as anything else. People run for office with lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key rhetoric. Likewise, incumbents fear releasing an inmate who may rape or kill someone.

Of course, many sentenced to life do pose a serious threat to public safety. But the lifers also include people convicted of drug and other nonviolent crimes who could be rehabilitated. The Sentencing Project says persons released from life terms are a third less likely to be rearrested.

For that reason, the Sentencing Project supports making parole available to all who earn it. That makes sense, except perhaps in capital cases, but with them life without parole would be a better alternative to the death penalty.

With prison costs, including new construction, continuing to climb, budget-conscious states should use parole to reduce the number of aging inmates requiring expensive medical care. It can cost as much as $1 million to incarcerate a lifer for 40 years.

It's more cost-effective to spend what it takes to rehabilitate inmates, so more of them can safely return to society. That could also help end racial disparities in sentencing, though more will depend on elimination of the economic disparities that produce crime.