Mass Incarceration And The War On Drugs

In recent years, as, largely because of the heroin epidemic, attitudes towards drug use have shifted, America has stepped towards taking a “public health” approach to ending drug use. If the government continues to address drug use and abuse as the public health crisis it is, the issue of mass incarceration can be effectively tackled. The “War on Drugs” has primarily been responsible for the dramatic increase in the number of Americans under the control of the criminal justice system, with one in every 31 adults in prison or under parole or probation today. Effectively, national drug policy has encouraged police officers and prosecutors alike to go after low level drug offenders and has done very little to curb addiction and stop drug use (73). Consequently, any attempt to decrease America’s prison population and fight mass incarceration will have to drastically change the way in which substance abuse is addressed by the government. As the Director of National Drug Control Policy, Michael Botticelli says, the fight against drug addiction “[needs] to be focused on increasing prevention, treatment, [and] supporting people in recovery,” rather than punishing addicts. With the rise of crack cocaine use, America had a choice between waging a war against drugs and drug users or helping addicts fight their addictions and preventing the spread of the drug epidemic; although, in 1985, under …show more content…
Though drug abuse may not be the root cause of mass incarceration, it is difficult to imagine that, in Alexander’s words, a different system of “social control” would emerge once the “New Jim Crow” is abolished. Therefore the true path to tackling mass incarceration and eliminating the existence of an “under-caste” in American society is to change the way in which drug abuse is dealt