WASHINGTON (APBnews.com) -- Calling the criminal justice system a "machine of injustice," a civil rights coalition released a report today showing vast disparities in the way blacks and Hispanics are treated by police, the court system and in prisons.

In its wide-reaching report, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights said its findings show minorities are disproportionately targeted for arrest by strategies such as racial profiling; they are subject to stiffer charging decisions of prosecutors; and sentenced under discriminatory sentencing laws and guidelines.

"The biased mistreatment of racial minorities in the criminal justice system is one of the most profound civil rights crises facing America in the new century," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the leadership conference, a coalition of 180 civil rights groups.

The report comes one week after a study by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency found that black and Hispanic youth are more likely than whites to be arrested, prosecuted, held in jail without bail and sentenced to long prison terms.

Prosecutors debate conclusions

The authors of today's study placed the blame for the disparities in large part on the government's war on drugs and "get tough on crime" programs that they say increase incarceration rates among minorities. And, they said, anti-drug policies focusing on street drug sales have spurred a vicious cycle of crime and poverty in minority communities, especially in inner cities.

The report's conclusions were sharply criticized by some prosecutors who questioned the authors' statistical interpretations.

"Young men of all races commit more crime," said Josh Marquis, the district attorney for Clatsop, Ore., County. "And young men of minority races between the ages of 18 and 25 are committing more certain kinds of crime, especially street crimes, than the general population.

"That's not to say they're more likely to commit crimes because they're black -- because whites are committing crime behind closed doors -- but they are more likely to be the ones committing visible crimes in the streets."

Marquis said the idea that the prosecutorial system is inherently racist is "repugnant and not true."

'It's a systemic problem'

But the report's authors say they are not accusing police and prosecutors of being deliberately racist; rather they are saying the system is driven by perception and stereotypes.

"It's a systemic problem," said co-author Ron Weich, a Washington attorney. "Getting tough on crime creates crime because it creates the conditions for crime to thrive."

Conference leaders say the massive unfairness in the system and the unequal enforcement of laws have eroded the public's faith in the justice system and threatens to wipe out civil rights advances of the past 50 years.

"As today's report demonstrates, police prosecutors and judges encounter minority witnesses and juries so seared by previous encounters with a racist criminal justice system they are reluctant to cooperate," said Laura Murphy, a conference committee member and director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office.

A blueprint for change

The conference report calls for sweeping reforms in the criminal justice system. Among the recommendations:

• Develop a system of police and prosecutorial accountability
• Improve diversity of law enforcement personnel
• Improve the collection of racial data
• Impose a moratorium on the death penalty
• Repeal mandatory minimum sentencing laws

  Amy Worden
  Reporter
  
  e-mail:
  amy.worden@apbnews.com