Hunterdon County fared the worst out of the state's 21 counties and Warren County placed fourth-worst, according to the report.
View full sizeHunterdon County fared the worst out of the state's 21 counties and Warren placed fourth-worst, according to an ACLU report. Hunterdon fared the worst out of the state's 21 counties, and Warren was fourth worst.
While the statewide report concludes that blacks were 2.8 times more likely to be accused of marijuana possession than whites, that figure nearly doubles in Hunterdon County to 5.1 times more. In Warren County, blacks are 4.5 times more likely to be charged with marijuana possession.
The report takes 2010 data of each county's population by race and compares it to the number of marijuana arrests.
Other counties joining Hunterdon and Warren in the report's worst five were Ocean, Monmouth and Salem counties.
While the ACLU found that although blacks in Pennsylvania are 5.2 times more likely to be charged with marijuana possession statewide, both Lehigh and Northampton counties were reported to have a racial disparity below the national average of 3.7.
ACLU data disputed
Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns III called the ACLU assessment unfair because nonresidents traveling through the county were also counted in the report. Kearns and county Chief of Detectives John Kuczynski also said there appeared to be a discrepancy in the numbers.
They said that according to raw data from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports for 2010, only 693 total drug arrests countywide were recorded, with roughly 85 percent of those arrested listed as Caucasian.
The data presented by the ACLU appears to show nearly 2,000 marijuana arrests alone for 2010, a figure Kearns and Kucyznski say they're not quite sure how to comprehend.
Kucyznski said that despite the ACLU's figures, "there is no racial-based profiling" in Hunterdon County.
"It's not about race, it's based upon offense," Kucyznski said.
Kearns and Kucyznski said they're willing to sit down with the ACLU to discuss the statistics.
"If there's a perception that there's a problem, we're happy to talk to them and have communication and a dialogue with them," Kearns said.
Warren County Prosecutor Richard Burke did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
NAACP blasts 'war'
Charles Brody, president of the Warren and Sussex chapter of the NAACP, said he takes the ACLU's report "very seriously" and notes that essentially, racial profiling is at the core of the data.
"The only way I can explain it is racial profiling," Brody said. "That's the only way the numbers make sense."
In the report titled "Marijuana in Black and White," figures show that the 21,659 total marijuana arrests made statewide in 2010 accounted for roughly 43 percent of all drug possession arrests. The ACLU claims that percentage has grown by roughly 9 percent since 2000.
Brody said that while the numbers are disproportionate for minorities, the greater issue of arresting and incarcerating low-level drug offenders of all racial groups is a "very costly problem" that must be addressed.
"The jail populations are much too high," Brody said.
The ACLU, an outspoken advocate for legislation supporting the decriminalization of marijuana, estimates that New Jersey spent $127 million in 2010 on enforcing marijuana laws.
"This report confirms what advocates across the country have known for a
long time: that the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ is a failure and it needs
to end,” ACLU of New Jersey Executive Director Udi Ofer said in a statement. “The ‘War on
Marijuana’ in particular has wrought tragic consequences for a
generation of young black men and their loved ones."