An interesting and thought-provoking section of the documentary is the programs that are in the communities who susceptible to drug use. The “Bluff” needle exchange program was a program that helped advocate aids and promoted a more hygienic approach to drug use. In turn, this helped combat the transmissions of HIV. Because the Drug Paraphernalia Law made it illegal for people to carry needles, it caused people to turn to shooting galleries instead. Instead of the law combating the use of drugs, the sharing of needles caused an increase in the spread of the disease.…
In chapter two of Michelle Anderson’s “The New Jim Crow,” Alexander explains how the system of mass incarceration works. Anderson argues that the War on Drugs has led to the increment of African Americans in state and federal prisons for non-serious drug violations (possession). Most of these men have no serious criminal histories and are rarely drug kings or high ranked drug dealers. Due to the government’s persistence in making the community safer by removing “criminals,” they have developed programs to crack down on drugs. Law enforcement agencies were using illegal tactics, which became legalized, to capture people.…
These laws filled the prisons with low-level drug users(Newman 8). Ronald Reagan passed these laws with the intent to put all drug users in prison. Yet the majority of people in prison were African American. In other words, best put by the Drug…
In Michelle Alexander’s TedxTalks, other speeches and papers she touches on a few examples of institutionalize racism as well as America’s need for a much more reformed drug policy. She argues that while it should be almost statistically impossible to have this unprecedented level of racial bias in the United States justice system and prison community, America still finds itself putting a disproportionate amount of blacks and Latinos into the prison system every year, when in fact on average white males between the ages of 12 to 25 years of age are more likely to experiment with, sell, and become chronic users of illicit drugs and alcohol (Washington Post). Despite this trend and the fact that 6.6 percent of white adolescents and young adults…
However, although crime has decreased, drug use has not decreased, and imprisonment rates are growing more drastic. Between 1993 and 1996, serious crime decreased by 5% and adult arrests increased by 12%, but adult arrests for serious crime only increased by 3%; in contrast, arrests for less serious crimes, like drug possession, grew by 14% (Cunniff 9). Yet despite the lack of impact of anti-drug programs, the government continues to take the same approach. Even despite the increase in prison populations, there are little to no regulations of prison populations (Schlanger 199). Clearly, the federal government must discontinue the emphasis on drug sentences and begin to put more effort into decreasing prison populations.…
“The most important problem in America is drug abuse. ”- Richard Nixon The House I Live In is an eye-opening documentary that informs people of what the war on drugs truly is.…
Mass Incarceration is a nationwide epidemic that affects predominately the African – American and Latino population. America has five percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s prison population. Various policies dated back centuries helped to create this problem of mass incarceration. In 1971, our prison population was approximately 500,000 but after President Nixon proclaimed drug abuse was “public enemy number one” the prison population slowly began to increase.…
Tabitha Jackson SPC 3513 Dr. Lindsay December 2, 2015 Our Prison Population The United States has more citizens incarcerated than any other country in the world (ACLU). According to the American Civil Liberties Union, between 1978 and 2014, the prison population grew over 400% (ACLU). This number means that one in 110 people in the United States are incarcerated in our prisons or local jails (ACLU). An even more staggering number, one in 35 people in the United States is under some type of correctional control, from jail, parole, or probation (ACLU).…
In addition to his legal and research work, Boyd is also a political strategist who has drafted and campaigned for drug policy reform. He is the founding director of the American Civil Liberties Union Drug Law Reform Project. This article seeks to demonstrate that the war on drugs is failing. He also argues that drug policies were created with race in mind. While this article was published in 2001, its relevance is still measurable.…
Reagan ranted and raved about the War on Drugs, started the ridiculously ineffective “Just Say No” campaign, and significantly increased the budgets of many federal law enforcement agencies; it was pure hypocrisy (73). The populations of jails and prisons increased exponentially all across the country, becoming incredibly overcrowded. The War on Drugs makes it nearly impossible for people like Susan Burton and the many women she has helped to break the cycle. A profoundly flawed criminal justice system, systemic racism, redlining, education policy, and poverty are surely all to blame (8). It is a system that survives on a culture of power, a system that runs on the “idea that punishment was always the answer and was always deserved, that getting tough would solve everything” (123).…
“The Prison Problem” Known op-ed columnist and writer, David Brooks, in his essay, “The Prison Problem”, describes how this destructive era of mass incarceration came about. Brooks’ purpose of this essay is to insinuate how much the ‘prison world’ has changed from many years ago, to the society that we know of today. He creates a concrete tone in order to convey us readers to the idea of how the incarceration rates have skyrocketed since past decades. Brooks begins his essay by acknowledging the fact that the war on drugs has gotten out of control back in the 1970’s.…
It has been stated that the cost of the war on drugs in the US has exceeded 1 trillion dollars since aggressive enforcement began, and in Canada Vago (2015) states approximately $500 million is spent each year by federal agencies just to fight the drugs, this figure does not include costs of incarceration of offenders or other institutional costs in relation to drug crime. If you look at the costs of incarcerating drug offenders, the government of Canada website states that at any given time in 2013/2014 there were approximately 139,337 adult offenders serving time in provincial or federal correctional services and that the operating expenditures for correctional services for that same time period was $4.6 billion. If Canada’s ratio of drug offenders is similar to that of the states (as previously mentioned 52% of the federal prison population in the US in 2012’s primary offence was drug related), that puts it at 2.4 billion dollars in incarceration costs for drug offenders, per year. These are certainly rough numbers but based on a country very similar in many ways to Canada. That is an enormous amount of money to spend incarcerating these people, and for what?…
Worse, if they are caught using it, they are immediately locked in jail. Since they are already prejudiced about African Americans, they are treated even more severely by the law when they are caught using drugs. The principle which was to overcome poverty is completely forgotten when they are caught and they are put in jail, which in returns add on to the prison mass. Alas, Ron Paul exclaimed in Chaney and Robertson’s article “[Black people] are tried and imprisoned disproportionately. They suffer the consequence of the death penalty disproportionately.…
Due to this, America has been losing in the drug war, unable to stop people from using, while incarcerating these individuals giving them a record and minimal chances to find work…
Major companies in many different sectors all support, and spend money lobbying for, the continued criminalization of drugs. The continued criminalization of drugs is critical to the drug war, and includes strict punishments and sentences for those convicted of crimes involving drugs. It has been shown that groups such as private prisons, and prison guard unions lobby for strict punishments to increase incarceration, and reap the profits. These company’s contributions promote the war on drugs, by giving the state no incentive to scale back their policies. What many fail to realize, however, is the impact the war on drugs and subsequent policies has internationally.…