Spotlight on Criminal Justice
Sentencing inconsistency
Sentencing inconsistency
ex-offenders, has seen the issue of the disproportionate confinement of African American men from both sides. He was sent to prison three times for crimes
fueled by his crack cocaine habit, crimes for which he took full responsibility for and paid his debt to society. He has seen it as a lawbreaker and as a law-abider.
He has seen the devastation it has wreaked on the African American community. He has dedicated his life to help the system change.
As we sit in his office at the Madison-area Urban Ministry ion the Villager Mall where he works in The Journey Home project, one would never guess that
Dillard himself is an ex-offender. He is clean-cut, mild-mannered and articulate. But as we discuss the issues, one readily observes that these issues are his life’s
passion, helping people avoid his own pitfalls and to assist people to get on with their lives once they leave prison.
“It’s devastating communities in this country,” Dillard said about crack cocaine. “To give you a little history, I can remember when crack first came onto the
scene. It was in the early 1980s. At the time, heroin and powder cocaine were being used. But crack also brought a lot of violence into the communities
because of the dollars being made. I went away for three years and I came back to a community that was under siege because of the shootings and the wars for
turf due to the crack epidemic. And at that time, the Feds came in with the truth in sentencing and mandatory laws. What drives me to do what I do today is just
seeing those young men coming into prison as low-level drug dealers with 20-25 year sentences.”
In this three part series, The Capital City Hues is going to look at the issue of disproportionate confinement and some of the causes of Wisconsin’s very high
disproportionate incarceration rate of African American men.
fueled by his crack cocaine habit, crimes for which he took full responsibility for and paid his debt to society. He has seen it as a lawbreaker and as a law-abider.
He has seen the devastation it has wreaked on the African American community. He has dedicated his life to help the system change.
As we sit in his office at the Madison-area Urban Ministry ion the Villager Mall where he works in The Journey Home project, one would never guess that
Dillard himself is an ex-offender. He is clean-cut, mild-mannered and articulate. But as we discuss the issues, one readily observes that these issues are his life’s
passion, helping people avoid his own pitfalls and to assist people to get on with their lives once they leave prison.
“It’s devastating communities in this country,” Dillard said about crack cocaine. “To give you a little history, I can remember when crack first came onto the
scene. It was in the early 1980s. At the time, heroin and powder cocaine were being used. But crack also brought a lot of violence into the communities
because of the dollars being made. I went away for three years and I came back to a community that was under siege because of the shootings and the wars for
turf due to the crack epidemic. And at that time, the Feds came in with the truth in sentencing and mandatory laws. What drives me to do what I do today is just
seeing those young men coming into prison as low-level drug dealers with 20-25 year sentences.”
In this three part series, The Capital City Hues is going to look at the issue of disproportionate confinement and some of the causes of Wisconsin’s very high
disproportionate incarceration rate of African American men.
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 1 of 3
Last December, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case that Federal judges could hand down lighter sentences for convictions
concerning crack cocaine than federal sentencing guidelines specify. The Court handed down the ruling, in large part, because
of the wide disparity in length of sentence for powder and crack cocaine. 80 percent of those sentenced for crack cocaine are
African American, while Euro-Americans and Latinos tend to prefer powder cocaine.
The sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine is just one of the straws that contribute to the disproportionate
number of African Americans, particularly young men, who are imprisoned in the state of Wisconsin. In fact, Wisconsin has the
second largest disproportionate rate of confining African American men in the country.
“We do know that the War on Drugs has pretty much been a war against young African American men,” said Jerome Dillard, the
leader of Voices Beyond Bars. “We can look at the prison make-up, the 2.3 million who are incarcerated in our prisons and jails
and over 50 percent, from my understanding now, are African Americans. And a substantial number of those, over 70 percent,
are drug convictions.” Dillard has been working on the issues of formerly incarcerated individuals for the past several years.
Dillard who won the 2008 Martin Luther King Jr. Recognition Award from Dane County for his efforts on behalf of
Part 1 of 3
Last December, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case that Federal judges could hand down lighter sentences for convictions
concerning crack cocaine than federal sentencing guidelines specify. The Court handed down the ruling, in large part, because
of the wide disparity in length of sentence for powder and crack cocaine. 80 percent of those sentenced for crack cocaine are
African American, while Euro-Americans and Latinos tend to prefer powder cocaine.
The sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine is just one of the straws that contribute to the disproportionate
number of African Americans, particularly young men, who are imprisoned in the state of Wisconsin. In fact, Wisconsin has the
second largest disproportionate rate of confining African American men in the country.
“We do know that the War on Drugs has pretty much been a war against young African American men,” said Jerome Dillard, the
leader of Voices Beyond Bars. “We can look at the prison make-up, the 2.3 million who are incarcerated in our prisons and jails
and over 50 percent, from my understanding now, are African Americans. And a substantial number of those, over 70 percent,
are drug convictions.” Dillard has been working on the issues of formerly incarcerated individuals for the past several years.
Dillard who won the 2008 Martin Luther King Jr. Recognition Award from Dane County for his efforts on behalf of
Jerome Dillard works on
ex-offender issues through
the Madison-area Urban
Ministry and Voices Beyond
Bars
ex-offender issues through
the Madison-area Urban
Ministry and Voices Beyond
Bars