By Alexandra D. Datig
Reduction of mandatory minimum sentences for low level,
non-violent, drug offenders is a novel concept.
In my opinion it is even a very good idea that will save the taxpayer
money and might show a glimmer of promise that a drug offender can get the help
and understanding he or she needs form a community. But what exactly are we talking about? Did Attorney General Eric Holder cover all the bases?
The United States has around 330 million people. Of those people many do not understand the
difference between jail and prison. Most
also don’t understand the difference between state and federal prison or the
private prison system. Therefore, when Attorney General Eric Holder goes before the American Bar Association and says
there are more than 50% of people in federal prison on drug charges, the
general population has no concept of what he is talking about. Most people are not aware that state prisons
have, give or take, 1.4 million inmates and federal prisons have roughly 210,000
inmates (Bureau of Prisons, 2011). In 2007, 95,446 federal prisoners were
drug offenders (Bureau of Prisons, 2007).
But what does that exactly mean?
The criminal justice system relies heavily on
plea-bargaining, charge bargaining and sentence bargaining. Without those tools the criminal justice
system would implode. Only 2% of all cases
in the United States actually go to trial.
What this really means is that most cases have charges for a variety of
crimes that are bargained down to a lesser sentence. Therefore, the 95,446 federal prisoners who
were drug offender in 2007, were in fact plea-bargained down to a lesser charge
ending in a sentence for a drug offense.
Fact is we don’t really know what their crimes actually were. Only less than 1% of those drug offenders
were in federal prison for drug offenses only.
For state prison, in case you were curious, the percentage of drug offenders is 19%.
Attorney General Eric Holder also spoke about the racial
disparity in the United States prison system.
This is a serious issue and one of the main reasons for it is the lack of a
full-spectrum approach with a working addiction recovery program and a job
program that has a direct linkage to a job in the community once a prisoner is
released. The simple truth is,
communities are not willing to embrace prisoners back into the community as
rehabilitated human beings because there is wide-spread evidence that
rehabilitation programs are ineffective, especially in the under served
communities.
In 2007, the racial breakdown in the overall prison system was
34.1 percent white, 38.2 percent black, 20.8 percent Hispanic, and 6.9 percent
other minority. Blacks represent 12.6%
of the U.S. population where whites represent 72.4%. Latinos represent 16.4% of the
population. The number of blacks in
prison clearly shows a disparity of incarceration, yet at the same time blacks are also
committing half of the murders in the Untied States.
The U.S. incarcerates more people than any other country in the
world. The U.S. also has 5% of the
world’s population and consumes 66% of it’s drugs (Take Back America Campaign). Therefore, we should be very careful to buy
into the argument of allowing shorter prison terms without a solution for a
working recovery program which solves the problem of addiction. More than 70% of all recovery establishments
use the 12-Step program which is a great program if taught correctly. Unfortunately, only 3-7% of those who enter
the 12-Step program at the community based level actually find solid
recovery. That means most people who
enter the 12-Step program do not make it in his or her first year. History has also shown that most addicts, who
die, do so from relapse at a far more rapid rate when compared to first time
use.
We would be well served by not treating every drug offender like a nail that is hit with the same hammer a drug trafficker is hit with. However, we are still sending these offenders
back into a community with problems they have not learned how to deal with on their own and are thereby overwhelmed because they are not able to find
solutions.
Over the years, the Department of Justice has reaffirmed again and
again, that drug abuse and criminal behavior are strongly connected. If we are going to deal with the staggering
recidivism rate and the overcrowding of prisons by reducing mandatory minimum
sentences, we must also be able to offer something to the non-violent drug
offender that makes his or her life tolerable and does not end in going back to
addiction and committing crime.
