Pubdate: Thu, 29 Jun 2006
Source: Las Vegas City Life (NV)
Copyright: 2006sLas Vegas City Life
Contact:  http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1653
Author: Randall G. Shelden
Note: Randall G. Shelden Is Professor Of Criminal Justice At Unlv. 
His Website Is Sheldensays.Com.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women)

DRUG WAR TARGETS WOMEN

The drug war has come down on women like a huge hammer in recent 
years. During the 1990s, drug offenders accounted for the largest 
source of the total growth among female inmates (36 percent). As of 
2004, almost one-third of all women prisoners were convicted of drug 
offenses; in federal prisons, this figure was 65 percent.

In 1979, only 10 percent of women in state prison were drug offenders.

Much of the increase in women prisoners comes from the impact of 
mandatory sentencing laws, passed during the 1980s crackdown on 
crime. Under many of these laws, mitigating circumstances (e.g., 
having children, few or no prior offenses, non-violent offenses) are 
rarely allowed. A majority of women in prison are there for the first 
time; many had no prior felony convictions. When the harsh 
Rockefeller drug laws (New York) were passed in 1974, only 400 women 
were in prison and only 100 were in for drugs.

By 2004 about 3,000 women were in prison (40 percent for drugs); 
almost 87 percent of the women in for drugs were either black or Latina.

What needs to be underscored is the fact that arrests on drug charges 
for women reflect their secondary status in the big world of illegal 
drug-dealing (estimated to be around $500 billion yearly). Figures 
from the Department of Justice show that women are "overrepresented 
among low-level drug offenders" and are "not principal figures in 
criminal organizations or activities." Regardless, they nevertheless 
receive sentences that are similar to "high level" drug offenders.

A detailed study of New York state found that in 1998 a total of 63 
percent of those sent to prison were convicted of the lowest-level 
drug offenses, what are called felony classes C-E. Another study 
notes that women most often serve as "mules" (those who carry drugs 
for the drug cartels and other high level dealers) for boyfriends or 
lovers, often doing so because of threats to their lives.

Still another report notes that "Just as male counterparts, female 
couriers are small time players in economy controlled by narco 
dictators, drug lords and barons, military and intelligence agencies, 
the police, organized crime, and so on." Continuing, the report notes 
that "male couriers are able to realize a greater share of profits, 
unlike females who are paid a flat rate, tricked or simply coerced 
into trafficking in drugs." Many of these women have been used by 
drug-dealers "as decoys for smugglers on their flight who pass easily 
through customs with large quantities of cocaine or heroin."

A recent report by the American Civil Liberties Union notes women are 
indeed very small cogs in the illegal drug market, with many getting 
involved as "a means of supplementing income in the face of 
unemployment, low-wage and unstable jobs, lack of affordable housing, 
and cuts to social programs such as child care, social assistance, 
and health care." In many cases, their role is "limited to answering 
telephones or living in a home used for drug-related activities." The 
case of Chrissy Taylor is typical, as this report explains: "Chrissy 
Taylor was incarcerated at the age of 19 based on her marginal 
involvement in her boyfriend's scheme to manufacture methamphetamine. 
Her boyfriend asked her to go to a store in Mobile, Ala. to pick up a 
shipment of chemicals.

Based on his assurance that the mere purchase and possession of the 
chemicals was legal, she went to the store and bought them. As it 
happened, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were 
working with the chemical store in a reverse-sting operation. The 
agents sold Chrissy the chemicals and then arrested both her and her 
boyfriend, not for possession or purchase of the chemicals -- neither 
of which is in and of itself illegal -- but for possession with 
intent to manufacture methamphetamines."

A study of more than 60,000 federal drug cases by the Minneapolis 
Star Tribune found that "men were more likely than women to offer 
evidence to prosecutors in exchange for shorter sentences, even if 
the information placed others, including the women in their lives, in 
jeopardy." Because women are such minor players in the drug business, 
they rarely have any useful information for prosecutors. Whatever 
information they do have, they are reluctant to divulge it, since 
doing so might endanger loved ones. Thus, they have "less currency 
with which to bargain their way out of harsh sentences."

Like the drug war in general, the "little fish" get caught while the 
"big fish" get away.

Randall G. Shelden Is Professor Of Criminal Justice At Unlv. His 
Website Is Sheldensays.Com.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman