State leads in prison drug gap

Blacks get drug terms at 42 times the rate of whites, studies say

More than 25 years after the Reagan administration declared America’s war on drugs, two studies published Monday conclude that the battle has been pitched largely in African-American communities and that African-Americans bear a disproportionate brunt of its collateral damage.

The studies, one by The Sentencing Project and the other by Human Rights Watch, found:

• Blacks in Wisconsin are 42 times more likely than whites to receive prison terms for drug convictions. Wisconsin has the highest racial disparity in drug sentencing in the nation.