Myths about blacks in prison

"Drug sentences do not explain blacks’ overrepresentation in prison. Blacks represent 39% of drug convicts, compared with 37% of all prisoners. This means that if all drug convicts were removed from America's prisons tomorrow, the share of black prisoners would drop from 37.4% to 37.2%. In the federal system, blacks accounted for 24% of 2015 drug-trafficking convictions and 6 percent of convictions for simple possession. It is blacks’ disproportionate involvement in violent street and property crimes that causes their over representation in prison, not drug prosecutions."

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/IB-HM-0716.pdf