In 2003 black adults in Virginia were 13.2 times more likely to be sent to prison on drug convictions than whites - eighth highest of 34 states studied in a report released today by Human Rights Watch.

An accompanying study by the Sentencing Project of 43 of the nation's largest cities found that from 1980 to 2003, the drug arrest rate for whites in Virginia Beach dropped 24 percent, but the black rate rose 729 percent during the same period.

In Virginia Beach, the likelihood of a black being arrested for drugs over a white increased in Virginia Beach during that period by a factor of more than 10 - the highest among the cities examined, the study found.

Human Rights Watch said the disparities are pronounced even though there is no evidence that black Americans abuse or sell illegal drugs more than whites. It said the phenomenon is complex and did not accuse authorities of overt racism.

Jerry W. Kilgore, a former federal prosecutor, Virginia secretary of public safety and Virginia attorney general, said that particularly during the 1990s, authorities were faced with growing violent crime and gang problems in inner cities.

"Correctly, the law enforcement communities focused resources on the crime areas in an effort to better protect their citizens," he said.

Another former Virginia attorney general, Republican Mark L. Earley, now president of Prison Fellowship, said the disproportionate incarceration of minorities is, "an unfortunate state and national trend."

"Of the 2.3 million behind bars in the U.S., over 900,000 are African-Americans. As I visit prisons across the U.S. it presents a haunting visual image," said Earley. The problem, he agrees, is a complex one involving sentencing and policing policies.

According to the Virginia Department of Corrections, in the year that ended June 30, 2006, just under 22 percent of the men and women entering Virginia's prisons and 14 percent of those being held there had a drug crime as their most serious offense.

More than 62 percent of the states' 36,000 inmates that year were African-American, while African-Americans account for roughly 20 percent of the state's population.

Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or fgreen@timesdispatch.com.