NCJ Number
166383
Journal
Human Rights Watch Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: (July 1996) Pages: complete issue
Date Published
1996
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This report examines drug law enforcement in Georgia in light of The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), to which the United States is a signatory, focusing primarily on the years 1990 to 1995.
Abstract
The impact of crime control policies on minorities is among the most striking, disturbing and contentious social issues facing the United States. Overwhelming data establish the striking proportion of African-Americans entangled in the criminal justice system. They have been arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned at increasing rates since the early 1980s, and grossly out of proportion to their numbers in the general population or among drug users. The operation of the criminal justice system in Georgia is governed by State and Federal law, both of which enjoin discrimination on the basis of race. International human rights law is also implicated, especially the principle of equality before the law. CERD is the most comprehensive international codification of the human rights principle of racial equality. This report examines drug law enforcement in Georgia in light of CERD and the requirement of nondiscrimination. Because of limitations in the data, figures in the study are estimates illuminating the general contours of the racial patterns in Georgia drug law enforcement. However, the documented racial impact at the end points of the criminal justice system, arrest and incarceration, does raise questions concerning the fairness and equity of Georgia's drug law enforcement. Footnotes, tables, figures