From the Washington Post today:
The D.C.-based Sentencing Project reported that the number of black inmates in state prisons for drug offenses had fallen from 145,000 in 1999 to 113,500 in 2005, a 22 percent decline. In that period, the number of white drug offenders rose steadily, from about 50,000 to more than 72,000, a 43 percent increase. The number of Latino drug offenders was virtually unchanged at about 51,000.
Experts suggest that this might be explained in part by the rise of drug courts and the rise of methamphetamine dealing. Most drug courts are in located in cities – where African-Americans live, disproportionately – and methamphetamines are more popular among whites. (One survey showed that 20% of white inmates had used meth in the month before incarceration, compared to 1% of African-American inmates.) But these descriptive accounts don't fully account for the social phenomenon. For example, it's an interesting question whether the rise of drug courts in cities is best understood as the product of progressive local officials, the broader ascendence of new perspectives on fighting drug crime, or simply financial pressure on prison budgets at the state level.
And for all of this news, it remains the case that African-Americans are wildly overrepresented in state prisons both generally and with respect to drug offenses. It is also true that these disparities probably vary wildly from state to state.
The Sentencing Project report, The Changing Racial Dynamics of the War on Drugs is here.