A DOLLAR OR A DAY - SENTENCING MISDEMEANANTS IN NEW-YORK-STATE

This research estimates disparities in sentencing for 105,000 persons arrested for misdemeanor crimes and convicted of misdemeanor or violat ion offenses. Black and Hispanic defendants are categorized as minorit y defendants, and all other defendants are categorized as White. After controlling for differences in arrest charges, prior criminal records , conviction charges, and county of processing, the analysis shows tha t Whites were sentenced to pay fines more often than minorities. Minor ities without prior arrest records were sentenced to conditional disch arge more often than Whites, and minorities with prior arrests were se ntenced to jail more often than Whites. Minorities and Whites were sen tenced to the same length of incarceration. In most counties, minoriti es were fined fewer dollars than Whites. The disparities suggest that judges lacked alternatives for sanctioning offenders who had prior cri minal records and lacked resources needed to pay fines.