Here’s an anti-poverty program: End the war on drugs

[Chip (OP)]

http://smartremarks.lancasteronline.com/2015/08/05/heres-an-anti-poverty-program-end-the-war-on-drugs/

Here’s an anti-poverty program: End the war on drugs

And the funny thing is, I never really watched that much of “The Wire,” mostly just clips on line, nor have I seen much of his other stuff. But every time I read an interview with David Simon, I come away nodding my head – the dude’s right about a lot of things. And particularly this, about how the war on drugs is the root of much evil in cities like Baltimore:

…the drug war, it allowed the culture of policing to include just about any behavior. It said there were no rules. The Fourth Amendment, out the window. Probable cause? That’s a joke. This is Soweto. This is Gaza. That’s how it feels to be policed in a place like West Baltimore. …

The dynamic is so complicated in the sense that, yes, the drug war allowed the poor to be over-policed to the point of toxicity, but what it’s done is destroy all relationship to the community so that nobody picks up the phone when somebody shoots somebody else. Nobody’s a witness in front of a grand jury.

Nobody wants to testify in court. Nobody wants to be a juror and convict anybody of killing someone else. What’s the clearance rate in Baltimore right now for murder? Thirty-six percent, and the only people dying are black males. Same thing in Compton. Or in Florence, in south central [Los Angeles].

Jill Leovy’s book [“Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America], which just came out of L.A., argues the opposite: Black communities are being under-policed. Are both things true? Absolutely. They’re being over-policed with the shit that doesn’t matter, which is destroying police work, which is destroying the relationship between the police and minority communities, and they’re being under-policed for things that might actually make those communities more livable. That’s a horror show.

But the horror show involves more than just violence and community-police relations. It involves poverty, yesterday’s topic.

Specifically – the war on drugs perpetuates poverty. And if Lancaster and other cities, states and the nation ever wants to get serious about addressing poverty – it has to address, and maybe radically dial back, the war on drugs.

Due to the war on drugs, you have people getting arrested, charged, maybe going to jail. Great for law-abiding society! Maybe. But how about for the people who get arrested, particularly those arrested for mere possession? They’ve now got a record. And that might pose a problem down the road:

A mere arrest without resulting criminal charges may not seem like a big deal to you — if you haven’t been arrested. Here are researchers Alfred Blumstein and Kiminori Nakamura, writing in the New York Times:

The ubiquity of criminal-background checks and the efficiency of information technology in maintaining those records and making them widely available, have meant that millions of Americans — even those who served probation or parole but were never incarcerated — continue to pay a price long after the crime . . .

More than two-thirds of the states allow hiring and professional-licensing decisions to be made on the basis of an arrest alone . . .

Employers could apply their own judgments around those estimates, but the real problem is the state and local rules — often embedded in statutes — that restrict employment or licensing for the rest of the individual’s life. In New York, former offenders can be forever denied licenses for certain jobs, ranging from beer distributor to real estate broker.

An arrest—particularly a drug-related arrest—can also be used to deny citizenship to immigrants, even if the arrest never results in a criminal charge.

And those are just the consequences of an arrest. We should also look at the effects of a conviction and incarceration. Even a misdemeanor drug conviction can mean up to 2.5 years in jail, depending on the state. It means a bona-fide criminal record, which can limit eligibility for student aid. That of course has a disproportionate effect on the young and poor, who are most likely to need aid to attend college.

And as noted, the poor are much more likely to be arrested for these crimes than people in higher income brackets. Blacks and Latinos are much more likely to be arrested and convicted than whites. In some states, a misdemeanor drug conviction can limit or even eliminate the possibility of attending a state college or university. It can get you evicted from public housing.

Felony convictions are of course much worse. In addition to the consequences for a misdemeanor conviction, in many states a felony conviction comes with a ban on a variety of other forms of government assistance, including job training programs. Civic participation? As of 2010, about 6 million Americans couldn’t vote due to felony convictions. Many of those are of course convictions for violent crimes or major property crimes. But many are for relatively low-level drug convictions.

So how about this instead:

Dial back the drug war. Particularly where it comes to marijuana, either legalize it – or, if the legislature can’t be convinced to do it, the cops themselves can just lay off. When they pull someone over, if he’s got a baggie – ignore it. Don’t charge him. Take it, OK, but particularly where it’s a person with no prior record, it’s not worth the economic damage to that person, or that person’s community, nor is it even worth the administrative time it takes to prosecute the case, whatever the fine may be.

Because if that guy with the baggie can avoid being charged, can avoid the record and the stigma. Because even for those who would say – hey, he broke the law and should pay the price – is the loss of employment or educational opportunities a fitting punishment?

What does that do to the individual’s economic future – and what does it to his family, his community?

Ending the drug war, or dialing it back, might actually be seen as a form of economic development, addition by subtraction. I have about zero confidence we’d ever actually do this – we’re too invested in the notion of “Drugs bad!!!” to change course.

Because sure, drugs are bad. But some things are worse than drugs.

This entry was posted in Cities, crime, Drugs, Poverty, War on Drugs by Gil Smart. Bookmark the permalink.