a) There is a stark racial discrepancy between those who use and sell drugs but avoid arrest and incarceration-mainly middle and upper-class white people-and those who are arrested on drug offenses and incarcerated under the drug laws-mainly poor people of color.

• Although studies such as the Health and Human Services National Household Survey show that the majority of people who use and sell drugs are white, African-Americans and Latinos comprise about 92% of the drug offenders in New York State prisons: African Americans, 53.6%; Latinos, 38.5%; whites, 6.5%.

b) The need for economic development in depressed upstate, rural areas has been met by the construction and staffing of prisons. Largely because of the drug laws, these upstate prisons are filled with poor people of color. The drug laws thus work to benefit upstate, rural, mainly white areas and drain resources, funding and political power from poor communities of color.

• Since 1982, New York has opened 38 prisons, not counting annexes, all in rural, mainly white areas, all represented by Republican State Senators.

• Ninety-three percent of New York State inmates are housed in prisons located in Republican senate districts.

• Nearly sixty-five percent of New York State prisoners are from New York City- almost all from poor communities of color. However, two-thirds of all prisons are located more than three hours by car from New York City, cutting many inmates off from family and community ties.

• The United States Census Bureau records inmates as residents of the district where the prison that confines them is located, not as residents of the community they come from, where their families still reside.

• New York has transferred thousands of people from its inner cities to upstate areas and, along with them, the government fundind and electoral influence that are based on district population. Moreover, inmates and parolees cannot vote.

• Each year, after being kept for years in upstate correctional warehouses, thousands of former prisoners return to their communities, often embittered, with few vocational skills and stigmatized as ex-offenders.

• The prison system employs almost 30,000 people to operate the prisons located in Republican senate districts.

• Prisons in Republican senate districts receive more than $1.1 billion dollars annually to cover their operating expenses.