Last week's federal court ruling that Washington should allow incarcerated people to vote was based on a finding that the racial imbalance in Washington's criminal justice system cannot be explained in race-neutral ways.

Our state's population is less than 4 percent Black. Our state prison population is nearly 20 percent Black. Washington's Sentencing Guidelines Commission reports that our state's 3-strikes population is 40 percent black.

We know that this difference in incarceration rates does not reflect the rate at which people commit crimes. At every step in the criminal justice system, from arrest to conviction to sentencing, Black people get the harsher treatment.

Every year, the federal government reports on the level of illegal drug use among people of various demographic groups. For decades, these surveys have shown that Black people and White people use illegal drugs at about the same rate. Yet the incarceration rate for drug crimes for Black people in Washington is about ten times higher than for White people.

Racial inequity is severe in Washington's criminal justice system, eroding its credibility and effectiveness. Laws like 3-strikes that impose outsized sentences on lower-level street crimes must be amended to be fair.

Tajuan LaBee
Seattle