9 Men and women who have served extensive prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are not only left with little or no social support but also clearly marked by the criminal justice system as potentially threatening repeat offenders. The repercussions of removing people from their families and communities and then depositing them back later, without any assistance or substantial rehabilitation, are grave. The consequences of “clean streets” are antithetical to what it takes to build healthy communities the residual effects of systematic removal and efficient imprisonment of drug users creates a much larger challenge. It would be convenient to consider this the end of the problem, to wash our hands of drugs and felons and move on to something else, something more deserving of attention from both the criminal justice system and public policy. 6, 8 In the eyes of many politicians, police commissioners, community leaders, and affluent citizens, the war on drugs may appear to be a successful one-incarceration rates are on the rise and prisons are built almost as quickly and the threat of drugs is, in theory, being removed from neighborhoods, school playgrounds, and public parks. The war becomes a never-ending battle that distorts the face of communities by removing crucial members: parents, spouses, friends, and employees. They inadvertently place themselves directly in the midst of our nation’s war on drugs.
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Because these laws are not enforced equally, most often the poor and people of color who are financially or socially unable to remove themselves from environments that are labeled “drug areas” are persecuted.
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7 The outcome has increased incarceration produced by tougher laws and prosecution, less judicial discretion, and greater policing. Should it be responsible for the resulting collateral damage to families and communities? 5, 6Ī broad moral panic about crime fueled by media headlines and political expediency created the need to escalate the war on drugs. The criminal justice system accepts responsibility for making our neighborhoods and cities safe for all. Regardless of any analysis of the success or failure of the war on drugs, its impact on lives and communities is much less controversial. 4 Given the politics of the war on drugs, skyrocketing incarceration rates are deemed a sign of success, not failure. 1, 3 In fact, the decreased costs of opiates and stimulants and the increased potency of cannabis might lead one to an opposing conclusion. Since 1972, the number of people incarcerated has increased 5-fold without a comparable decrease in crime or drug use. This “war on drugs,” which all subsequent presidents have embraced, has created a behemoth of courts, jails, and prisons that have done little to decrease the use of drugs while doing much to create confusion and hardship in families of color and urban communities. The justice system that was designated to “protect and serve” took on the challenge of the war on drugs in 1968 when the Nixon administration decided to redouble efforts against the sale, distribution, and consumption of illicit drugs in the United States. The stories of convicted felons and their families, friends, and communities are shaped by the overreaching arm of the prison industrial complex.
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We also hope to highlight an area of public health that has escaped adequate recognition and begin the dialogue necessary to meet the challenges facing people of color in and out of prison while at the same time supporting public health policy changes to meet these challenges. By framing the issue this way, we hope to add an often ignored or poorly understood factor to analyses of health disparities. We aim to reframe the growth of the prison industrial complex and the war on drugs from the perspective of those incarcerated for nonviolent, drug-related crimes. But the consequences of their imprisonment-social, economic, political, and personal-are evidenced daily in every major city, suburban town, and rural hamlet. WITHOUT A PERSONAL connection, scientists, researchers, and those who set public policy rarely know the stories of those who are convicted of felony crimes and sentenced to prison: how they came to be convicted, whom they left behind, and what they went home to once released.