TO THE EDITOR:

Once again, although whites commit more street drug offenses, African-Americans are arrested and imprisoned on street drug charges at much higher rates. An African-American man is 11.8 times more likely than a white man to be sent to prison on drug charges. An African-American woman is 4.8 times more likely than a white woman. In 16 states, African-Americans are sent to prison for street drug offenses at rates 10 to 42 times greater than the rate for whites. Overall from 1980 to 2003, the number of those imprisoned for street drug offenses in the U.S. has increased b...