by Sarah Coleman
Executive Summary
In 1971, when President Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” it resulted in a dramatically increased size and presence of federal drug control agencies. Since then, longer mandatory minimum sentencing and federal incentives to limit parole eligibility have led to an increase in our prison population. In order to cut spending in prisons and reduce the prison population, policies that end or reduce the role of criminalization on drugs needs to be enacted.
Introduction
There are currently 2.2 million people in the United States’ prisons and jails—a 500% increase over the last 40 years. Out of the 2.2 million people in prisons, one in five people incarcerated are locked up for drug offenses. As our prison population increases, our state and federal budgets have to spend more money in order to keep these prisons in business. Today, the United States uses about 1.3 billion dollars of tax payer spending on federal and state prisons. Not only have the prison populations increased since the 80’s, but so have the disparities in the racial composition of these populations in prison. As of 2014, the U.S. Census stated that Blacks are incarcerated five times more than Whites are, and Hispanics are nearly twice as likely to be incarcerated as Whites. Although drug use is comparatively equal among White, Black, and Hispanic populations, the representation of each demographic in prison is very disproportionate.
Approaches and Results
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which mandated a minimum sentence of 5 years without parole for possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine while mandating the same for possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine, increased drug enforcement and criminalization in our courts. This law was based on the ideology that crack cocaine was a more dangerous and harmful drug than powdered cocaine. Coincidentally, the majority of crack cocaine users were black compared to the powdered cocaine users who were typically white. This law added to the increase in prison populations, since many offenders had to stay in jail for longer periods of time, and added to the disparity between the amount of white and black people in the prison population. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-220) was one of the first major laws put in place to counter act the criminalization of crack cocaine. This was enacted by Congress and signed into federal law by President Barack Obama on August 3, 2010. This law reduced penalties and eliminated the five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the possession of crack cocaine. This law also enabled more equal drug sentencing in the courts and began to shift the focus of drug crimes to more health-based approaches.
Conclusion
Increasing punishments and sentencing time in prisons just isn’t working. A meta-analysis of fifty studies dating from 1958 involving 336,052 offenders produced a correlation between an increase in recidivism with increased time spent in prison. If our Nation’s goals have been to increase incarceration rates, then we have been successful. However, if our goal is to reduce crime rates, and decrease tax payer spending on prisons, then there is still a need for reformation.
Implications
Drug control cannot continue to be centered on increasing the population in prison but instead focus on rehabilitation and even preventative measures. One organization that is focusing on reforming the federal prison system is the Families Against Mandatory Minimums, which proposed The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 (S. 2123). This bill would reduce several federal mandatory minimum drug and gun sentences; make the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive; and allow many federal prisoners to earn time credits for completing rehabilitative programs in prison. Although this bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate on October 1, 2015, it did not become a law in the 114th Congress.
Recommendations
- Tell your local representatives to support the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act and other policies like it. (Learn more about this act at famm.org)
- Donate your time or money to organizations that are focused on the support and rehabilitation of our prison populations like the Education Justice Project.
- Get more informed by visiting the https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/rates.html and continue to talk to people about these issues in order to spread awareness.