Pubdate: Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Source: Toledo Free Press (OH)
Column: Libertarian Perspective
Copyright: 2013 Toledo Free Press
Contact:  http://toledofreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4392
Author: Kenneth Sharp

CAPTIVE SOCIETY

These names are familiar to all Northwest Ohioans: Victoria's Secret, 
JCPenney, Target, AT&T, Microsoft, IBM - I could list many more. 
These names will be foreign to most Northwest Ohioans: Toledo 
Correctional Institution, Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio and 
Lucas County Corrections Center. The names may be unfamiliar, but it 
is likely you know someone who has spent at least a short while in 
one of these institutions, or, as we call them, jails or prisons. 
That is because the United States has the largest number of people 
incarcerated or under some form of judicial control in the world. 
That is not per capita, but in raw numbers of people. We imprison 
more of our citizens than China, a country with four times our 
population and a reputation for being repressive. We imprison more of 
our countrymen than Iran or Russia.

This hasn't always been so. In fact, our incarceration rates were 
generally steady for decades and violent crimes have, even in recent 
times, declined overall. The rate of in incarceration began to pick 
up in the early 1970s. From that time, it has climbed dramatically. 
In 1970, there were 3,384 nonviolent drug offenders in federal prison 
and 17,302 violent criminals. In 2005 the number of violent offenders 
had increased by 294 percent but the nonviolent drug offenders rate 
had increased by 2,558 percent [numbers provided by Law Enforcement 
Against Prohibition (LEAP)].

LEAP is probably also unfamiliar. It is comprised of more than 1,000 
police, judges, prosecutors, prison wardens more than 70,000 civilian 
supporters in 119 countries. They are spread over the globe because 
America's drug prohibitions have spread violence and death to many 
nations. In Mexico, it has cost tens of thousands of lives in recent 
years, many of them innocent. At home, the cost has been no less in 
lives destroyed and money wasted.

Ever since President Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs, we have 
made more than 46 million arrests and spent more than $1.5 trillion. 
What have we accomplished with all this capital spent and these lives 
destroyed? Have crimes been reduced by all the drug-related arrests? 
Have drug use and addiction rates gone down? What about overdoses? We 
all know the answer is no. In fact, in 1914, when the first U.S. drug 
law was introduced, the government stated our addiction rate was at 
1.3 percent of the population. In 2012, after all we have done, they 
say our addiction rate is still at

1.3 percent of the population.

But elsewhere they have abandoned our criminal approach to a health 
and education problem. In Portugal, in 2001, they decriminalized all 
drugs. Contrary to the prohibitionists' beliefs, the country did not 
become a drug user's haven; their society did not fall apart. In 
fact, drug use overall declined by 25 percent and treatment sought 
increased 300 percent. All because they weren't spending money to 
arrest, convict and warehouse people with health issues, and users 
were not afraid of arrest if they sought help.

Our prohibition has not been enforced uniformly. Studies don't show 
that black males use drugs at a higher rate than white males. Yet the 
arrest, conviction and incarceration rates of minority males are many 
times higher than those for whites.

We have effectively destroyed the family in our urban areas as these 
men get hung with nonviolent felony convictions and can no longer get 
education access or decent jobs. Oh, remember that list of companies 
I began with? They are willing to employ these prisoners for 
practically nothing.

Because you are already deeply involved in our culture of 
incarceration, and because I can only scratch the surface here, I ask 
that you keep some time free to join some of your fellow citizens, 
along with special invited guests, for a week of varied programs on 
this subject. It will be in the first full week of April under the 
banner Toledoans for Prison Awareness.

For more information, visit http://toledoprisonawarenessgroup.org and 
watch these pages. This is a community problem that spans all 
political and religious ideologies. It requires we all work together.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom