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New Report Shows Black Vermonters Face Disproportionate Drug Charges, Incarceration

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Social equity has been at the forefront of many conversations surrounding cannabis legalization as reform measures make their way through the U.S., alongside it a number of reports on racial disparities across the criminal justice system in regard to drug crime.

A new data analysis for the Council of State Governments sought insights on the matter in Vermont, finding that Black people are far more likely than white people to be charged and imprisoned on felony drug charges.

According to the council’s Justice Center report, prepared for the state Justice Reinvestment Working Group, Black Vermonters were 14 times more likely to be defendants in felony drug cases than their white counterparts, along with being more likely to be incarcerated for drugs, despite the fact that national data suggests they use and sell drugs at the same rates as white people.

The group was created from the Justice Reinvestment Act and is made up of a coalition of legislators, advocates, nonprofit leaders and corrections officials. The group has looked into similar issues before, back in 2019 releasing their report on parole and furlough, which led to Bill S. 338, with the intent to reduce disparities in parole.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed the bill into law in July 2020.

The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee and member of the working group, Senator Dick Sears, D-Bennington, spoke about the findings, saying that the data “has challenged our assumptions and highlighted issues we didn’t know were there, didn’t understand or didn’t want to admit were there.”

The report also notes that Vermont is far from the only state that has seen similar disparities, citing that national research indicates disparities have been a “persistent and pervasive feature of the U.S. criminal justice system,” even though rates have declined since 2000.

The disparities are most apparent when looking at drug charges. National research has found that Black people are more likely to be arrested, charged, convicted and receive longer sentences than white people, even when these factors are compared across the same severity of crime.

The report also notes that Black people in Vermont are more than six times as likely to be incarcerated than white people for all crimes, which is higher than the national average.

For misdemeanor cases, they were 3.5 times more likely to be defendants; for felony cases, they were 5.9 times more likely to be defendants. Felony drug charges also showed the most disparity, with 14 times the likelihood of becoming defendants, according to Sara Bastomski, senior research associate for the Council of State Governments.

Disparity is also reflected in rates of incarceration. After conviction, the probability that Black people will be incarcerated for felony drug and property offenses is 18 percentage points higher, which means they are less likely to receive options like probation, split sentences or suspended sentences, according to the report.

Stakeholders told researchers that the charges being filed against out-of-staters was the reason for the disparity, though the data does not back up that assumption.

The analysis, taken from 79,570 cases from 2014 to 2019, found these disparities still held true, even when accommodating factors like whether or not someone is a Vermont resident.

In recommendations for reducing the disparity, the report suggests applying a racial equity lens to the reclassification of drug offenses. The state is already considering a new classification system for drug offenses. Researchers posed taking disparities into account and moving certain crimes from felony to misdemeanor, along with changing drug amount thresholds.

The Council of State Governments also suggests creating nonbinding sentencing guidance, or probation guidance, for certain drug and property offenses. They cite evidence that similar guidance for other crimes in Vermont led to fewer disparities.

Karen Tronsgard-Scott, executive director of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual violence and a member of the working group, called the findings of the data analysis “irrefutable.”

“It shows us what Black Vermonters have been saying for a really long time,” she said.