Blog Jun 7, 2009
Race and the Drug War, Part I
The “war on drugs” must be seen as a concerted effort (whether this has been intended is irrelevant) to keep the black population in a secondary status. Such an effort can be traced to the days of slavery and even for about 100 years after slavery officially ended, at least in the South (see Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name ; Anchor Books, 2009). Consider the following data: Overall incarceration rates (2006): White male = 736; Black male = 4,789; lifetime chances of going to prison…
Blog Apr 9, 2009
Fix the Prisons? Part II
I stated in Part I of this blog that the prison system is “functional” in that it benefits some segments of the population. One obvious segment it benefits is all of those who work inside. Indeed, with $68 billion in annual expenditures on the American prison system plus strong unions in many states you have a very strong vested interest in keeping the prison a going concern (the “reforms” would serve mostly to make working conditions and pay and benefits much better). Then too we have all…
Blog Apr 8, 2009
Fix the Prisons? Part I
Senator Jim Webb, an outspoken critic of America’s prison system, has argued that we need to “fix our prisons” (Parade Magazine ), I would like to offer a different perspective and pose the following question: Do we really need to “fix” or “reform” the prison? I ask this question for many different reasons, not the least of which is the obvious fact that despite the overwhelming evidence that prisons have not been a big factor in reducing crime (note that not only does the US have the highest…
Blog Apr 1, 2009
Locking Up Teenage Vandals in Texas
I came across this article in the Corpus Christi paper about two teenage taggers who were arrested for a “vandalism spree.” For these crimes they were placed in a juvenile hall for three weeks and then released on house arrest with electronic monitoring. This presents a good example of why the United States leads the world in youth and adult incarceration. When will be learn that incarcerating children for minor crimes does not make them better citizens. Incarceration is for…
As strange as its sounds, American history repeatedly shows that legalization of certain drugs leads to expanded, not reduced, “wars on drugs”: In the late 1800s, the crisis of middle-Americans’ addiction to new, legal patent medicines saturated with opiates, cocaine, and alcohol was buried under vicious official crusades vilifying the Chinese and opium and black men and cocaine. After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the explosion in drunk driving and abuse of newly legalized alcohol by…