Sentencing Project

Columnist Jerry Large writes that “the Metropolitan King County Council went on a field trip Monday to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle where Bryce Siedl, the center’s CEO, led council members and other officials on a brief tour of the exhibit, ‘RACE: Are We So Different?’.

“In October, the county released its second Equity and Social Justice annual report, which captured in numbers wide gaps in health, wealth and school-graduation rates that correlate with race or with geographic patterns that reflect racial segregation.

“The report said: ‘The 10 ZIP codes with the highest diversity have more than 7 in 10 people of color’ while the 10 ZIP codes with the lowest diversity have, on average, fewer than 1 of every 10. There are strong connections between place, race, health and income.

“Government — and the public whose support it requires — needs to understand the role race plays in creating or sustaining inequalities in order to improve the prospects for more residents.

 “Last year in King County, people who are African American represented 30 percent of all (criminal justice) bookings even though they only represent seven percent of the total population.

“Similarly, according to The Sentencing Project, ‘three-fourths of all persons in prison for drug offenses are people of color.’

“More alarmingly, in Seattle, blacks were more than 21 times more likely to be arrested for selling serious drugs than whites in 2005-2006, despite the fact that multiple data sources suggest that whites are the majority of sellers and users of serious drugs in Seattle.”