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March 6, 2015
Highlighting that mass incarceration is "Not Just the Drug War"
For lots of good reasons, the modern war on drugs is the focal point for lots of criticisms of criminal justice systems in the United States. But this effective Jacobin Magazine Q&A with Marie Gottschalk, author of the book "Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics," spotlights that the US affinity for record-levels of incarceration is about a lot more than the drug war. The full piece is today's must-read, and here are excerpts from its start:
[The] new book by University of Pennsylvania political scientist Marie Gottschalk, Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics, makes it clear that the problem is far worse than commonly suspected, and that the reforms on the table are unlikely to even make a dent in the forces that keep millions behind bars.
Contrary to what many progressives believe, Gottschalk argues it’s not primarily the War on Drugs that’s driving this beast. Instead, it’s an all-out assault that “extends a brute egalitarianism across the board.” Jacobin editor Connor Kilpatrick recently got a chance to interview Gottschalk.
Q: One of the most shocking stats in your book is that simply rolling back punishments for violent offenses to their 1984 levels in 2004 would have done more to lower the incarceration rate — a cut in state prison rates of 30 percent — than simply ending the drug war.
A: The intense focus in criminal justice reform today on the non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual offenders — the so-called non, non, nons — is troubling. Many contend that we should lighten up on the sanctions for the non, non, nons so that we can throw the book at the really bad guys. But the fact is that we’ve been throwing the book at the really bad guys for a really long time.
Legislators are making troubling compromises in which they are decreasing penalties in one area — such as drug crimes — in order to increase them in another area — such as expanding the use of life sentences. In doing so, they’re also fostering the mistaken idea that it is easy to distinguish the non, non, nons from the really bad guys.
March 6, 2015 at 09:36 AM | Permalink
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Comments
I guess it is simply more palatable to punish non, non, non drug offenders less than any other non-non, non, non offenders. Perhaps, punishment increases are not always appropriate for these offenders; however, it is, most likely, on average, more appropriate than punishing the non, non, nons more severely.
Posted by: Ryan Semerad | Mar 6, 2015 9:47:10 AM
Without reading the book, there's a risk of indulging a fallacy that only drug convictions should be attributed to the drug war. There's also the question of the extent to which violence stems from the unregulated, black market nature of the drug market. The violence attributed to the 80s crack epidemic was largely vendors feuding over market share. No black market, no murder motive. (Budweiser and Coors don't engage in shoot-em-ups and neither will legal weed purveyors.) So the drug war is responsible for a chunk of the violent offender population, too, it's just more difficult to measure.
That said, the point about extending emphasis beyond nonviolent offenses is well taken, but big ships turn slowly and one must begin somewhere.
Posted by: Gritsforbreakfast | Mar 6, 2015 9:49:05 AM
Not just directly violent crime, but plenty of other ancillary crime as well. Various thefts for example as people attempt to feed a habit while needing to purchase a product with an artificially high price.
Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Mar 6, 2015 10:36:35 AM
When I hear the words "Mass incarceration" I think of the few times I was subjected to such a thing at the Catholic Church where my ex wife insisted that I go to with her.
Posted by: Liberty1st | Mar 6, 2015 2:22:16 PM
I think this book raises a lot of important points. Drug offenses are the ones where it's politically easy to change but they won't make a dent until we realize even the crimes we should take seriously are crimes we take too seriously.
Posted by: Erik M | Mar 7, 2015 2:10:35 PM
More shocking than anything offending this Yale indoctrinated America Hater vile feminist was the actual crime rate of 1984. I invite to take a little walk arouond her campus after dark. That should straighten this horrible person.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Mar 8, 2015 6:40:02 AM
Keep in mind, many cases are plea bargained to drug charges alone also, so a criminal who is only convicted of said crime, may have had other crimes dismissed.
Of course let me add, the three strikes law was not only about drugs, stories abound in the media, about life sentences given to folks who simply thief an item, especially back a decade ago.
Posted by: Alex | Mar 8, 2015 12:09:44 PM
