While it would be easy to blame our country's absurd incarceration rates on some mass public crusade against drug use, I'm a little more cynical. The so-called "War on Drugs" is big, unregulated business which has run absolutely amok due to the greed of people who profit from it, not unlike many of the players in our healthcare industry.
This is my first entry, although I have perused this site with great interest over some time. I don't think of this as an inherently political argument, but there are probably some partisan overtones to what I'm going to say. I'm going to tackle an issue that nobody other than cops, correctional officers, sheriffs, prosecuting attorneys, police chiefs, mayors and fear-ridden idiots that drink the Kool-Aid that translates to their collective axiom, "More Cops, Less Crime" would even care about.
First of all, I have nothing against police officers. They do an unenviable job and don't get a lot in return financially or in any other way I can think of. The problem is the job description, in and of itself, and a correctional system that is fatally flawed.
I spent 3 months in a county lockup in a state for possessing a very small amount of marijuana. That was 3 months in a jail without ever appearing before a judge. (Hey! they're on vacation, as I was told) Naturally, I was eventually released, but what I learned about our correctional system is important for all of us to understand.
A government-run capitalist correctional system is doomed to failure. That concept may sound like an oximoron, so I'll try to keep it simple. Jails and prisons receive state funds to put as many people in jail for as long of time as possible with no regard for the crimes these people have committed.
This is the problem: When police officers are required to maintain arrest quotas, and correctional facilities are subsidized based on how many people are behind bars, the former will naturally target easy prey rather than legitimate criminals, and the latter will do everything in their power (in collusion with the courts) to keep those people in jail for as long as possible. For the cops, it's simply a lot safer and easier to arrest those who commit minor infractions rather than target major criminals. For the correctional facilities, more prisoners equals more subsidies equals job security.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071004/ap_on_re_us/arrest_contest
Thu Oct 4, 6:57 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - Sheriff's deputies have been competing in organized contests to see who could make the most arrests, who could impound the most cars and who could question the most gang members.
The contests were meant to boost morale and motivate deputies, but some observers are crying foul, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
One of the competitions, outlined in an internal Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department e-mail, was "Operation Any Booking." The object of the contest was to see who could arrest the most people in a 24-hour period.
"It's just a friendly competition to have a little fun out here," said Lt. James Tatreau, who helped organize the events. "It's a morale booster."
Tatreau said that when he joined a station in Lakewood, he noticed some patrol deputies made 15 to 20 arrests a month, while others made seven arrests in an entire year.
The prize for winning was "bragging rights," Tatreau said.
Several police observers were not impressed.
Hubert Williams, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Police Foundation, said the competitions were "highly problematic and inappropriate."
"The arrest is one of the most potent tools in the possession of law enforcement and should be used with great thought," Williams said. "It's not a competition or a game."
Los Angeles County Public Defender Michael P. Judge, wondered if the games could prompt deputies to make illegitimate arrests to boost numbers.
"Certainly, it calls into question whether there was a legitimate reason to book any of the people who were booked during the time of the competition," Judge said.
According to a Times review of records, Operation Any Booking did not result in an increase in arrests on the day of the contest.
But the impound competition may have increased the number of vehicles seized, with records showing a spike in vehicle seizures the day of the contest.
Sheriff Lee Baca said the competitions were a well-meaning but poorly conceived idea that promoted "the wrong values."
"We're not into numbers, we're into quality," Baca said. "I don't think it will occur again."
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This is a blatant but perfect example of what's wrong with the system. Police officers should not be driven by money, or by those who profit from them locking up pseudo-criminals.
According to new data from the U.S. Department of Justice, one in 136 Americans is behind bars today, including an astounding 12 percent of all black men between the ages of 25 and 29. The United States represents 4.6 percent of the world’s population, but houses nearly 23 percent of humanity’s prison population. Certainly, part of this is likely due to politicians’ unfortunate habit of addressing every social problem with a new law, and much of it is due to our ever-more-draconian drug laws. Here are some fun facts from the folks at Common Sense for Drug Policy.
• As of 2005, drug offenders accounted for 55 percent of the federal prison population. About 45 percent of them were in prison for possession, not trafficking.
• The number of people incarcerated in federal prisons for drug crimes rose from 14,976 in 1986 to 68,360 in 1999.
• It costs U.S. taxpayers $3 billion per year to keep drug offenders behind bars in federal prisons.
• Drug offenders have accounted for nearly half the meteoric growth in prison populations since 1995.
• About half the population of U.S. jails and prisons are nonviolent offenders, more than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska.
• Forty percent of the more than 1,000 state prisons in the U.S. opened in just the last 25 years. The state of Texas alone has opened an average of 5.7 new prisons each year for the last 21 years. Despite this, about half of federal and state prisons operate over capacity.
• Total U.S. inmates numbered 488,000 in 1985, 1.3 million in 2001, and number 2.2 million today.
While it would be easy to blame our country's absurd incarceration rates on some mass public crusade against drug use, I'm a little more cynical. The so-called "War on Drugs" is big, unregulated business which has run absolutely amok due to the greed of people who profit from it, not unlike many of the players in our healthcare industry.
The ridiculous part of it is it's taxpayers who are filling the coffers of prisons, correctional facilities, police, judges and attorneys.
The ironic part of it is 45 percent of our prison population should be filling the coffers (according to our present system) of the healthcare parasites. Why do we fund police and jails to lock up drug users without any regard for legitimate medical and psychological treatment? My only answer is so we can lock them up again and get the cash cow rolling again.
There's been a lot of talk by Democrats about socialized medicine. I'm listening, because our present system sucks. But just as alcoholism is a disease, so is drug addiction. Simply locking up and then releasing (only to later incarcerate) drug users to fulfill quotas and make money at the expense of tax payers is no longer an acceptable approach. Wouldn't you feel more comfortable if the crack addict next door was receiving medical treatment under some socialized program rather than sitting behind bars only to be released, only to be arrested again? With socialized heathcare, you have a choice where your tax dollars go, so which would you chose?
Frankly, I'd simply legalize drugs, tax the hell out of them, and use that to pay for it. But that's probably too pragmatic (or intelligent) for the American people.