It appears that Congress is finally about to take some action to reverse the mistakes of the War On Drugs and the burgeoning prison population. A number of conservatives and liberals seem to agree that something needs to be done to reduce the prison population which is the highest per capita of any developed nation. Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has announced his intention to have a bipartisan bill that addresses this problem ready prior to the summer recess.
When President Nixon declared drugs as “public enemy number one” and initiated the War On Drugs in 1971, few Americans could have foreseen the outcome of this policy. During his second term, Nixon had a few other issues to deal with, and the War On Drugs became secondary. But it was revived and expanded in the early 80s by the Reagan administration.
Much of the hysteria surrounding drug use may have had to do with the lifestyle of the “hippies” that had become popular in the 1960s and the fear by conservatives that more youngsters (and perhaps their own children and grandchildren) would be attracted to the drug culture. Timothy Leary’s directive to young people to “turn on, tune in, drop out” in 1966 was seen by the establishment as a threat to society and the social order. African-Americans were perceived as the major sellers of these drugs that were corrupting the nation’s youth, though in actuality all races and ethnic groups were involved.
However, a number of developments that emerged from the War On Drugs particularly impacted African-Americans. Though the possession or use of all illegal drugs was deemed a crime, from the outset, African-Americans were targeted disproportionately by law enforcement for non-violent drug offenses. Suspicious activity (being black) could cause the police to stop and frisk a young man, perhaps finding small quantities of marijuana or cocaine which would result in a prison sentence. In a number of states, blacks made up 80-90 percent of those arrested on drug charges. Because they were in prison, African-American men were often unavailable to be fathers for their children or wage-earners for their families. On the other hand, white college students smoking marijuana in their fraternity houses or dorm rooms, or even selling it on campuses, were rarely arrested. Similarly, most middle or upper class whites who abused cocaine or prescription drugs almost never went to jail.
The dichotomy in sentences involving cocaine is illustrative of the way blacks bore the brunt of the war on drugs. Penalties imposed initially in the 80s for crack cocaine (smoked mainly by poor blacks), were much stiffer than for equivalent amounts of powdered cocaine (sniffed mainly by affluent whites). The mandatory minimum sentence for possession of five grams of crack was five years by federal law, with five hundred grams of powdered cocaine imposing the same sentence. In other words, one hundred times the amount by weight of powdered cocaine compared to crack cocaine was necessary to generate the same prison sentence.
The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 decreased the ratio of crack to powdered cocaine that induced federal criminal penalties to eighteen to one from a hundred to one and ended the minimum mandatory sentence of five years for possession of crack. But it should be remembered that most drug possession cases are handled on a state rather than a federal level, so state laws and penalties are operative, which can vary greatly. (Black men wind up in state prisons at a rate exceeding thirteen times that of whites.)
In 1980, before the War on Drugs started in earnest, the total prison population of the United States was about 350,000. By 2008, it had grown to 2.3 million people, 70-80 percent of them black or Latino. Millions more were on parole or probation, supervised by the correctional system. The majority of those imprisoned or being monitored were for non-violent offenses; the possession or selling of drugs.
The explosion in the prison population was seen by some Americans as a business opportunity, leading to the formation of private correctional corporations to build prisons to house the increased numbers of felons. In addition, according to Michelle Alexander in The New Jim Crow, 2.4 million men and women were employed by the justice system in 2003, 89 percent at the local or state levels. If the majority of non-violent prisoners were released, hundreds of thousands of workers, or more, would lose their jobs. And investors in private prisons would lose huge sums of money. Obviously, these are incentives to keep the current system going, and lobbyists in Washington and the state capitals are arguing against any changes.
Drunk driving kills many more people than the use of street drugs, yet initial DWI offenses are usually punished with a slap on the wrist- a fine or a minimal jail sentence, unlike drug possession. And marijuana usage is legal now in some states, while others still impose a prison sentence on individuals caught with this drug. The disparity in sentencing among states, and between alcohol abuse and drug abuse makes no sense, as does much of the war on drugs.
Notwithstanding the job losses that would result and the investments in private correctional corporations that would decline in value, it is time to end imprisonment for non-violent drug possession. Marijuana should be uniformly legalized in all states like alcohol. Usage of other drugs should be treated by society as alcoholism is treated: as an illness and not as a crime. Rehabilitation, education, and jobs for non-violent offenders are what are necessary, not imprisonment. (Also important is keeping marijuana away from young people in states where it is legal, as there are adverse effects on the developing brain.) And all the vestiges of racism need to be eliminated in the way people with drug problems are handled.
Though onerous sentencing laws came from politicians who wanted to be seen as tough on crime, both liberals and conservatives now realize the war on drugs cannot be won and that a different approach must be taken. Too much money is being needlessly squandered. The sums saved by cutting or ending prison sentences for non-violent drug users can be put to better use. Mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession must stop at both the federal and state levels and judges must be allowed discretion in sentencing. Alternatives to imprisonment must also be available. Besides the waste of money, many lives are also being wasted by unnecessary incarceration. It is past time for the above noted changes in the justice system.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
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Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020