The ‘war on drugs’ benefits the prison system
BY DARRELL KING – POSTED ON NOVEMBER 4, 2014
In the ‘70s, former President Richard Nixon popularized the term “war on drugs,” but 43 years later it would be more fitting to say there is more of a profit on drugs than a war.
The costly enforcement of drug policy has not stopped drug crimes and the spread of drugs into poor communities.
Additionally, much of the drug enforcement policy that we see today is racially biased and targets African-Americans and Latinos more than any other groups.
In order to understand the war on drugs, people must go back to when the drug crisis began in America.
The Iran-Contra Scandal is that start.
Secretary of State John Kerry was responsible for exposing how cocaine was brought into the U.S. by cartels in order to fund the contras in Nicaragua during Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the ‘80s, something officials at the CIA were apparently aware of.
In 1996, reporter Gary Webb published a three-part series in the San Jose Mercury News entitled, Dark Alliance, where he also alleged that there was CIA involvement in drug trafficking.
He detailed how a San Francisco drug ring sold drugs to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions of dollars from those drug sales to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contras.
Drugs were dumped in predominantly black neighborhoods.
Publications like the New York Times and Washington Post tried to discredit Webb’s work, but his series has been turned into a film, Kill the Messenger.
There continues to be a high prevalence of drugs in our country.
However, our justice system seems to be more concerned with the benefits of keeping people incarcerated than helping people who struggle with addiction.
It’s imperative for people to recognize that prison is a business.
There are more people in prison in America than China, despite China having four times the population of the U.S.
More than 50 percent of inmates currently in federal prison are there for drug offenses.
Every 42 seconds, a person in the U.S. is arrested for marijuana, a relatively harmless drug in comparison to others.
According to a report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, 27.6 percent of drug offenders were arrested for marijuana between 2012-2013.
Nearly a million American prisoners were making office furniture, working in call centers, fabricating body armor and taking hotel reservations, while making wages as low as 93 cents an hour according to a 2012 Huffington Post article.
In the 1980s, for-profit prisons started to come onto the scene.
One of these was the Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company in the country.
CCA opened its first facility in 1984, and has grown by 1,600 percent over a 20 year period ending in 2009.
CCA have numerous correctional facilities in 20 states.
They also sell stock. The more people they house in one of their facilities, the higher the stock goes.
It’s a business, and the main concern of every business is the bottom line.
Drug arrests, as well as mandatory and minimum drug sentencing laws, have racial undertones to them.
Federal penalties for crack cocaine are 100 times harsher than possession of powder cocaine.
African-Americans are more likely to be caught with crack, while caucasians are more likely to be caught with powder cocaine.
African-Americans account for 14 percent of regular drug users, but account for 37 percent of drug arrests.
Similar to African-Americans, Latinos are disproportionately arrested for drug crimes.
In California, seven out of 10 Latinos are in favor of reducing penalties for drug possession.
When analyzing the drug problem in this country, one must factor in the racial component as well, so while whites are more likely to use drugs, whether it be cocaine or marijuana, African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to be arrested and spend time behind bars.
A recent report released by Fiscal News stated that America has wasted $7.6 billion to stop Afghan heroin production. Despite America’s efforts, opium poppy has been cultivated at record levels in Afghanistan, which affects the U.S. and the current heroin epidemic in the country.
Petty offenses for marijuana and other drugs should be done away with, but that would mean less prisoners, and less prisoners means less money for the prison industrial complex.
http://www.dailytitan.com/2014/11/the-war-on-drugs-benefits-the-prison-system/
BY DARRELL KING – POSTED ON NOVEMBER 4, 2014
In the ‘70s, former President Richard Nixon popularized the term “war on drugs,” but 43 years later it would be more fitting to say there is more of a profit on drugs than a war.
The costly enforcement of drug policy has not stopped drug crimes and the spread of drugs into poor communities.
Additionally, much of the drug enforcement policy that we see today is racially biased and targets African-Americans and Latinos more than any other groups.
In order to understand the war on drugs, people must go back to when the drug crisis began in America.
The Iran-Contra Scandal is that start.
Secretary of State John Kerry was responsible for exposing how cocaine was brought into the U.S. by cartels in order to fund the contras in Nicaragua during Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the ‘80s, something officials at the CIA were apparently aware of.
In 1996, reporter Gary Webb published a three-part series in the San Jose Mercury News entitled, Dark Alliance, where he also alleged that there was CIA involvement in drug trafficking.
He detailed how a San Francisco drug ring sold drugs to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions of dollars from those drug sales to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contras.
Drugs were dumped in predominantly black neighborhoods.
Publications like the New York Times and Washington Post tried to discredit Webb’s work, but his series has been turned into a film, Kill the Messenger.
There continues to be a high prevalence of drugs in our country.
However, our justice system seems to be more concerned with the benefits of keeping people incarcerated than helping people who struggle with addiction.
It’s imperative for people to recognize that prison is a business.
There are more people in prison in America than China, despite China having four times the population of the U.S.
More than 50 percent of inmates currently in federal prison are there for drug offenses.
Every 42 seconds, a person in the U.S. is arrested for marijuana, a relatively harmless drug in comparison to others.
According to a report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, 27.6 percent of drug offenders were arrested for marijuana between 2012-2013.
Nearly a million American prisoners were making office furniture, working in call centers, fabricating body armor and taking hotel reservations, while making wages as low as 93 cents an hour according to a 2012 Huffington Post article.
In the 1980s, for-profit prisons started to come onto the scene.
One of these was the Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company in the country.
CCA opened its first facility in 1984, and has grown by 1,600 percent over a 20 year period ending in 2009.
CCA have numerous correctional facilities in 20 states.
They also sell stock. The more people they house in one of their facilities, the higher the stock goes.
It’s a business, and the main concern of every business is the bottom line.
Drug arrests, as well as mandatory and minimum drug sentencing laws, have racial undertones to them.
Federal penalties for crack cocaine are 100 times harsher than possession of powder cocaine.
African-Americans are more likely to be caught with crack, while caucasians are more likely to be caught with powder cocaine.
African-Americans account for 14 percent of regular drug users, but account for 37 percent of drug arrests.
Similar to African-Americans, Latinos are disproportionately arrested for drug crimes.
In California, seven out of 10 Latinos are in favor of reducing penalties for drug possession.
When analyzing the drug problem in this country, one must factor in the racial component as well, so while whites are more likely to use drugs, whether it be cocaine or marijuana, African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to be arrested and spend time behind bars.
A recent report released by Fiscal News stated that America has wasted $7.6 billion to stop Afghan heroin production. Despite America’s efforts, opium poppy has been cultivated at record levels in Afghanistan, which affects the U.S. and the current heroin epidemic in the country.
Petty offenses for marijuana and other drugs should be done away with, but that would mean less prisoners, and less prisoners means less money for the prison industrial complex.
http://www.dailytitan.com/2014/11/the-war-on-drugs-benefits-the-prison-system/
