Introduction
The debate about mass incarceration and the concerted war on drugs in the US one which has a deep history behind it and has continued to attract the attention of many scholars. It is instructive to note and appreciate from the outset that the question of mass incarceration has had different theoretical conceptualizations or explanations from various scholars and historians who viewed the historical events in a different lens. Some of these historians have often sought to offer conservative approaches in their interpretation of the circumstances and facts surrounding incarceration and war on drugs. In contrast, others have poignantly employed progressive approaches. It is essential to note that the blacks were in many instances, segregated in these incarceration programs as compared to other races. Initially, the government used these programs for providing free labour from black Americans who were taken as slaves. This paper argues that the excessive, barbaric and uncouth way in which black Americans were treated by their masters and the government was unjust and unreasonable. This is essential because the fundamental human rights of these black Americans were outrightly breached and trampled upon.
1890-1920
This period was one of the decisive moments in the history of mass incarceration in the US. There was a litany of activities that were happening across the country and that precipitated the systemic segregation of the black American communities. It is important to note the late 19th century has already seen the end of slavery in the country which was most predominant in the 15th to 17th centuries. The institution of slavery in the country had its negative impacts on the country’s historical trajectory. The late 19th century saw the government designing and implementing gradual and progressive programs on incarceration which were conceptualized in a very strategic manner.
Historians argue that the incarceration of black Americans was a systematic way of ensuring that the labour market was kept stable. The overarching importance or justification of institutionalizing mass incarceration of black Americans was to ensure that they remained confined in specific geographical places and hence readily accessible to offer labour at no cost. For a better understanding of the underlying reasons for mass incarceration of the blacks, one has to understand that it was during this time that industries and firms were in dire need of labour due to the expansionary policies. Capitalists during this period were opening new industries and plantations in most parts of the countries and ensuring continuous and sustained production then labour had to be in free-flow[1]. There was, therefore, the need of the government introducing new models of getting free or low-costing labour from the black Americans who were high in number. To ensure that the process of mass incarceration was successful and implemented seamlessly, there was the eventual introduction of vagrancy law. This was a major turning point in mass incarceration.
The concept and term of vagrancy is both a sociological and legal one. Broadly defined, the concept of vagrancy denotes a situation where a person becomes a vagrant. In this context, a vagrant implies a person who is not only extremely poor but also homeless. Therefore, a vagrant survives by moving randomly from one place to the other. During this period, most of the states and municipalities in the country passed vagrancy statutes which were primarily made to deal with how people moved within their jurisdictions. Most of these laws extended to cover the question about prostitutes, criminals, drunkards, among others. These social groups were seen as not domiciled in one specific region but rather they remained scattered across many places.
One of the essential things one should note that is as the different states and municipals were passing this vagrancy law, the country at large was seriously grappling with its former slaves. Some historians and scholars opine that the recently freed slaves had formed a new class of citizens in the country and they had peculiar characteristics one of them being that they were homeless[2]. Notably, by dint of the fact that slaves were subjugated to second-class citizens who only survived at the mercies of their masters, it meant that they had no substantial control of anything[3]. For example, slaves were not allowed to register or own any property during the years of slavery and hence even after they were freed following the abolishment of the institutions of slavery. They remained destitute and very poor. After the civil war, slaves were recognized as normal citizens who had the right, just like other ordinary citizens, and they were to be accorded all their requisite rights and freedoms.
passage of the vagrancy laws
The biggest challenge came with the passage of the vagrancy laws, which were insensitive to the black’s history. For instance, the laws never seemed to recognize the very basic fact that slaves who were blacks had a hawkish past which made them become deeply ensnared into poverty and desolateness. Without recognizing and appreciating this fact, then it meant that the laws were made with some sinister motives which were made to achieving certain ends which were pre-conceived. It suffices to note that it would have been unfair, trying to treat equally former slaves the same way other citizens were being treated specially with regards to vagrancy. The situation was so dire for some of the former slaves that they even decided to go back and share crops and food with their former masters who had mistreated them. The major reason why the former slaves took such steps was because of the searing poverty that had engulfed them since they neither held any property nor controlled capital. For them loitering and engaging in some social evils like committing crimes were the surest ways of survival.
Due to these harsh regulatory conditions which were raised by the vagrant laws, many black Americans were arrested and placed behind bars. This method of arresting and incarcerating the blacks seemed to be very effective since, within short periods, many of them were behind bars. After being arrested, these black Americans were then transported to plantation firms and other labour-intensive firms where they were supposed to offer their free labour. It is reported that since infrastructural development across the country was also peaking up, these incarcerated black Americans were being given to railroads. In most of these farms and plantations where they were given to offer free labour, the Black Americans were subjected to largely harsh and inhuman conditions of working. For example, the free labourer’s worked for long and tiresome hours without even taking rests. Any trial of taking such breaks or resting periods were being seen as signs of laziness and hence became whipped in inhumane ways.
Also, they were not allowed to have proper access to medical care as was expected of any other citizens. This meant that when these black Americans fell sick most of them ended up in death since they could not easily get professional medical attention from practitioners. Another challenge that was the main characteristic of these incarcerated black Americans was malnutrition which was mainly caused by the incessant lack of proper diets. Since the government argued that these people were caught on the wrong side of the law, they were justified in getting low-quality meals which made many of them get malnourished. The number of resources that were set aside for nutrition and social care of the incarcerated black Americans was reducing each passing year. This was because the government never apparently seemed to care about the welfare and treatment of people who were perceived to have committed illegalities and crimes.
It is reported that most of the black men who were incarcerated during this time season were the ones caught in theft as they tried to get food for feeding their families. Researchers have noted that due to the former segregation that they had undergone during the slavery period, the process of integrating into the mainstream society was slow and laced with many challenges[4]. Although it was necessary to ensure that there were social stability and order in the society, I think that their measures that were undertaken by the government with reference to vagrancy laws were harsh and cruel. These rules and regulations were mainly made to instil pain on the former slaves who would then find it difficult to get integrated into their societies easily. Instead, the government should have taken more lenient measures and policy-interventions, which recognized the dull and dark past that was faced by black Americans. During this period, many mass incarceration centres were opened and commissioned across the country, especially in the Southern states where slavery was most prevalent.
The 1920’s
The period of the 1920s took a radical shift in terms of the major or primary reasons that led to the incarceration of black Americans. Before the dawn of this period, the major reason why black Americans were being subjected to mass incarceration was because of vagrancy reasons which were seen as a strategic tool or mechanism of getting free labour. However, past 1920, the major reason that was given to the arrest of black Americans was engaging in property crimes. Both at the Federal and state levels, it became very obvious that any black Americans who engaged in any simple act of crime, including shoplifting were arrested and imprisoned for many days. The concept at this time was to put tough and unbearable punishments for the black people that were not commensurate of the crimes that they had committed. This reason explains why unjustifiable term limits with reference to imprisonments were put in place to ensure that once caught the blacks could never leave prison easily.
It is instructive to note that although other races also engaged in similar or related crimes like the blacks, they never got the same severe punishments like the latter group. History records that races like the Mexicans and the Latinos were also prevalent in their commission of criminal activities though they never got high incarceration rates. This assertion only serves to indicate and show the systemic and institutionalized ways in which racial segregation was done at the time. The police used brutal force while dealing with the blacks since they considered them to be a nuisance due to their perceived gang prevalence. It, therefore, shows that despite having existed high numbers of petty crimes among the blacks, the largest number of them were unfairly targeted by the authorities at the time courtesy of their race. The major weakness that the blacks faced at the time were that they never had organized societies. The importance of having well-organized societies cannot be overemphasized.
First, if they had such groups, it would have been easy for them to start some form of welfare programs where they may have helped those who were excessively poor to go along with their lives without committing any form of crimes. To the contrary, blacks only survived on their own without any form of assistance even from their colleagues. It, therefore, meant that committing crimes was the only viable survival antic that as available to them owing to the deep-rooted poverty that they were undergoing. The social and economic misfortunes that the blacks found themselves in at this time had history behind it. Unlike the other races which previously had been given the platform and freedoms of progressing their lives economically, the blacks were segregated and subjected to uncouth regulatory regulations. Another casualty that was precipitated by the lack of organized groups for the blacks was insecurity. This was the case because once the blacks were arrested by the police using brute force which could not be justified in law, there were no people who would agitate for the rights of the arrested blacks. Therefore, that lacunae augmented further the police in use of their extra-legal efforts in incarcerating the blacks. The government had made sure that no black society could be formed since doing would have emboldened them to agitate for change and respect for their rights[5]. The crackdown on any perceived black American leaders was so dire that no one even dared take such a move of mobilizing another black at the time.
The level of property crimes that were being committed by the blacks hence necessitating their mass incarceration was being blown out of proportion. Primarily, this means that the vandalism and shoplifting cases that were being reported to the authorities were exaggerated immensely for sinister reasons. For example, in some instances where the blacks were only involved in stealing foods that were left in shops, the police went on to report that the culprits also burned down properties. These crimes would be preferred upon the blacks without even any single iota of evidence produced to that effect hence leading to their long-term incarceration by the courts, which also had unfair targeting of the blacks.
It is worth noting that the burglaries and vandalism that were committed by the blacks during this time was because of the peculiar circumstances that they found themselves in. First, it is instructive to appreciate that most of the blacks were facing homelessness courtesy of the previous segregation policies that they were faced within the previous decades. Since they were hitherto no allowed to won any property, then there was no way they would have owned homes where they will be living. The only few options that were available to them with regards to getting places of spending their nights would be either requesting their former masters to host them or breaking into shops[6]. Since most blacks had a tainted image of what their master had done to them in the previous years, they then opted to explore the latter option. This was the reason why cases of burglary were rampant among the blacks as they sought places where they could be spending their nights. Appreciating this kind of historical background is very important in that it gives some perspective as to why the blacks were the only people among other races who had high cases of burglary. Since shelter is a basic and fundamental human right, it was only justifiable to try and get it in any place possible. However, the most surprising thing was the fact that the government never seemed to understand and appreciate this kind of historical record that the blacks had gone through. Therefore, to the government and whites in general, the commission of these crimes was intentional and deliberate aimed at insubordination.
To prevent such acts from happening, therefore it was important to ruthlessly deal with the black perpetrator without caring to listen and act on their grievances. Whereas it was important and crucial for the government to take on all precautionary measures to ensure that no group of people engaged in criminal activities, it would have also been good for them to appreciate the history of the black Americans. This would have meant that no blacks would have incarcerated for long periods unjustifiably because of committing a petty offence such as stealing food to eat. Also, the government would have taken other relevant interventions such as social welfare programs that would have helped these blacks to alleviate the extreme poverty that they were mired in. Without these intervention measures, then it meant that the targeted arrests and incarceration were ill-motivated and only aimed at alienating certain groups of people.
The criminal justice system during this period was also an unfair one which was not dispensing off justice on an equal basis. Despite the frivolous arrests that were carried out by the police due to harsh policies by the executive arm, the court systems were also inherently skewed and not objective in rendering their rulings. It was because of this unbalanced justice systems in the US that racial inequalities became a deep-rooted problem. In some instances, during the 1920s, there were many cases of lynching and dispensation of gang-chains that were mostly targeted to the blacks. Despite all these illegalities that were committed against the blacks, the high levels of judicial bigotry combined with lack of independence by the prosecutors meant that justice was a mirage of the black Americans. These cases were on many occasions reported in the Southern states where black segregation was very prevalent
. Notably, the trial and prosecutorial processes were all filled by the whites who were hell-bent to punishing the blacks, notwithstanding the trivial crimes that were committed. Due to these instances of overt discrimination in the judicial system, most prisons across the country were filled with black Americans who had been imprisoned even for the pettiest crimes like trespassing. It is important to note that at the time, the blacks were not even allowed to pay bails or bonds that would have secured their reprieve from jail. This was the hallmark of disproportionate targeting since the Whites and other races were allowed to have bonds, especially on minor cases, to allow for proper investigations and fair ruling.
The Introduction ofDrugs
The question of drug misuse and trafficking in the US is an old one. There is a long history that underlies drugs misuse and trafficking in the country. At the Federal level, the government has over the years taken keen measures to ensure that its concerted efforts over the war of drugs bore fruits. This section of the paper investigates the issues of the war of drugs in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi and how that war led to mass incarceration within those jurisdictions[7]. It is essential to note that the states and municipalities across the country had the independence of deciding which regulations to put in place to ensure that they successfully waged war on drugs.
In the decade of the 1960s, New Orleans had improved its portfolio to become a major port in Louisiana. The major reason that can be attributed to this major improvement of this port was because of the phenomenal infrastructural inputs that had been undertaken by the government. Also, security had been improved gradually hence giving many investors and business people the necessary confidence. However, the dark side of these phenomenal upgrade of the port was that it had become a good loading centre for drugs not only for the state but also the country at large. Organized drug traffickers almost immediately drew strategic plans on how they would be using the port as their entry point of hard drugs into the country since they were earning them huge amounts of money. The means of those entries were very complex since they included both overt and hidden means which were hard to trace and nub by the relevant police department.
Organized crime became part and parcel of the new port of New Orleans. Hard-core criminal gangs sprouted with the main intent of ensuring that the drugs that were being ferried through the port got the requisite privacy and protection. It is also important to note that there were other criminal gangs which were not even primarily focused on the business of ferrying illegal drugs into the country because they loathed their impacts on the people. These latter criminal gags had people like Carlo Marcello, and they argued that drugs had dilapidating and long-term impacts of their people and hence it was unethical to engage in such activities. The new criminal organizations were so brutal and harsh in their business of engaging in crimes such as bootlegging and promotion and facilitation of prostitution. Another activity that became very prevalent around that the city was illegal gambling because it was perceived and seen as a quick way of making money. However, the monetary proceeds from these activities like gambling and prostitution were not enough to sustain the criminal gangs. There was, therefore, the need to diversify the sources of income, and that is how the criminal gangs that were hitherto opposed to drug trafficking ended joining in that business.
With the proceeds of the illegal drug trafficking increasingly becoming exponential, the criminal gangs became even more organized and brutish than before. There was an incremental rise of mafia leaders who commanded other gang members on how to facilitate the trading of these illegal drugs effectively. The infamous New Orleans Crime Family was the overarching mafia group that took control of the major operations of the port. Although the crime family had a long history of engaging in many criminal activities trailing back to the 18th century, the peak of its operations was during the leadership of Carlo Marcello. This was because Marcello was very influential and had deep connections within the criminal gangs and even in the government.
Some historians argue that the influential nature of Marcello was bought about by the deep and expansive financial empire that he controlled across the region. He was a very wealthy person since most of his operations and business empires were successful and hence brought him monumental profits which he used to influence other powerful people. To ensure that there was proper labour supply in the gangs that he led, Marcello established a wide strong base of gang members and associates. It is estimated by the time the Crime family reached its peak of operations under the leadership of Marcello, and it had an estimated 300 members as well as over 3000 criminal associates who aided in its operations. This was unprecedented since no other criminal gang had such a huge and strong following which made it difficult to crash it.
The gang used its strong base to supply illegally imported drugs across the city and state. However, it is important to note the fact that under the control of Marcello, the criminal gangs supplied the drugs only on the urban parts of New Orleans and Baton Rouge. This was because the gangs argued that they never wanted to spoil the young people in schools and interior parts with the negative effects of their drugs, but rather they preferred to give them to the urbanites. In the urban regions, it was quite easy to supply these drugs because of the common and distinct culture that was prevailing at the time in New Orleans[8]. The kind of music genre which existed in the city provided the ambient environment for drugs use especially amount the elite classes and many young people there. The popular genre of music at the time was jazz music that was mostly played in the evenings and on weekends during which Marcello and his drug peddlers would supply their drugs.
The most supplied drugs were opiates like Cocaine and heroin, which had a huge consumption uptake. It is essential to appreciate that the whites did not buy most of these drugs, but rather they sold to black Americans. Researchers argue that the drug mafias used to give these hard drugs to the members of the black communities at even lower prices so that they could go and share with their peers. This was a strategy by the mafia groups to ensure that the most affected people were the blacks since they showed much more preponderance to consume drugs that any other race. One of the major reasons that are given for the high rates of drugs used by the blacks was because of the joblessness that they faced. Most of the young black people were just idle as they never anywhere to work and hence decided that loitering was their preferred mode of spending their day. They used to sit in the open streets without anything to do and hence became very vulnerable to using drugs. Another major reason was poverty that they faced. Since blacks never had any stable jobs that could earn them any substantial incomes, they were faced with high rates of depression. Lack of jobs meant that these people could not even any good places for shelter, and hence the only option for them was sleeping on the corridors of shops or open streets. The net effect of this kind of hopelessness was to resort into using drugs to reduce their high levels of stress and emotional instabilities. During this period, many black people got engaged in drug misuse as well as peddling as they got to earn some small token of money.
Not far from Louisiana, the case in Mississippi was not any further different. Organized groups of criminal gangs that facilitated drugs trafficking were very much present. Whereas in Louisiana it was the Carlo Marcello family gang that had the autonomy in criminal activities, in Mississippi we had the infamous Dixie Mafia. This group used almost similar tactics like the ones used in Louisiana to ensure that drugs entered Mississippi quite seamlessly without any form of interruptions. The mafia group had an exponentially huge network of associates who were very keen on ensuring that the entire food chain of drug supply in the state was sustained. However, it should be noted that members of the Dixie mafia did not at any given time have family ties or lineages as was the case with the Marcello Family in Louisiana. The gang members came from diverse backgrounds and hence had no blood ties to each other, and the leader was not determined by any absolute terms but rather by the number of resources that one controlled.
The person who was the richest in that Mafia group was the one given the mantle to command the rest of gang members and such period of leadership was not defined. In some instances, there were many leadership wrangles among the top leaders of the group because of personal interests in attempts to try and amass more wealth than the others. Therefore, it suffices to say that the Dixie mafia group was only held together by the common core purpose of engaging in criminal activities. To ensure that they had proper access to the mainland of the state, the mafia group first had to take firm control of the Gulf Coast and the region which extended to Alabama. This region was a very good strategic location in that it offered a good entry point for drugs which were originating from the New Orleans port.
In Mississippi, the model of drugs selling was quite different from the one applied in Louisiana. Here, drugs were sold to every person despite their races. This was going against the norms and traditions of the Italians, but to them, profit accumulations were the overarching aim or goal. However, even despite the lack of segregation in how the drugs were being sold in the state, the blacks formed the largest recipients[9]. This was because the blacks were many in number in the state and also, they were in many instances jobless. It is also worth noting that the Dixie Mafia was also involved in other criminal engagements such as burglary, forceful robbery and sometimes theft. Since the members of this gang did not have any family or origin ties, they all wanted to make money by whichever means possible. The overarching goal was ensuring that they controlled every potential money-making venture despite whether it was illegal or not. The group south to sustain these illegal operations by corruption and bribing the authorities who tried to investigate their chain of operations. Public officials who refused bribes and insisted on their investigations were murdered by the mafia members as they saw them as existential threats.
The government has noted that the challenge of drug trafficking and misuse was becoming adamantly serious in Louisiana and Mississippi; it was now time to take serious measures to alleviate it. This was during the late 1970s and 80s when the reported cases of drugs trafficking and organized crimes were becoming a worrying trend in the country. During this period, the government south to introduce new laws and regulations with regards to how drugs ought to be supplied and traded in the country. The period of the 1970s saw the government through Congressional approvals pass a litany of laws that were banning drugs trafficking. Most of these laws had punitive consequences on the people who were found to have breached them. For example, it 1971, President Richard Nixon who upon receipt of a special investigative report by the FBI on drugs abuse in the country declared that the most dangerous enemy of the United States was the illegal misuse of drugs[10]. Therefore, according to Nixon, American had to fight this dragon on both supply and demand aspects of fronts. It was this declaration that made Congress pass several anti-narcotics statutes and policies. This rush to undertake these policy interventions signified the extent to which addiction had happened. It was also during this period that the government created the Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA), which was supposed to deal with drugs misuse in the country largely. Furthermore, the Federal government was persuaded to increased its net funding on drugs-related programs nationwide.
However, despite the existence of all these statutes, there were many cases of criminal gangs who went on with their activities unabated. In many of these cases, it became somehow difficult to fight these organized criminals mostly because they had a wide network of associates and also because they were monied in that they could even corrupt investigator and officials. Cracking the entire chain of criminal associates was a hard nut to crack for the government[11]. Also, the methods of survival that were being used by the criminal gangs were so brutal and inhumane that even government authorities found it difficult to intervene. For example, well-calculated murders of most investigators scared authorities in some instances. The blacks continued with their high consumption rates for illegal drugs.
However, the policies of fighting drugs misuse remained lenient until the dawn of the 1980s. This was when harsh policies and penalties began being applied in both Louisiana and Mississippi. The agencies that were mandated with the roles of fighting drug trafficking in the country started to apply harsh practical tactics to deal with the organized cartels in these two states. The first concern was on how to block the sources and eventual routes that were being followed before the drugs could finally reach the end consumers. Another major concern was also with regards to how to deal with associates of these criminal gangs since they are the ones who frequently aided the easy movement of the drugs across the states.
War on Drugs in Mississippi and Louisiana
The question about the war on drugs became a rather controversial debate in the late years in the 1970s and early 80s. Just like it was the case at the Federal level, these two states were faced with monumental criticisms and scorn because of how they handled their war on drugs. The major question that lingered in the minds of many people was whether this newly launched war was a targeted attack on certain racial groups which were being seen as evil and immoral. Even outside the overt ways of showing discrimination in the criminal justice system, the crackdown on the alleged perpetrators was another racially discriminative scheme. Notably, the community of African-Americans became the biggest casualties of this war courtesy of their skin colour[12]. However, there were also other smaller minority groups like the Hippies who were also targeted by this war. These communities were severely targeted by the authorities for their alleged overwhelming involvement in excessive drug facilitation and misuse.
Fig 1.1: A graph showing the rise of mass incarceration rate. The source is the U.S Department of Justice
There were so many drugs-related instances of arrests which were racially selective since they were mainly focused on these minorities. It is important to note that these harsh policies were being supported by the conservative political leaders both at the state and federal level of governance, and their underlying message was getting tough on drug misuse and trafficking. These leaders argued that the previous regimes had failed because of their lenient way of fighting the menace as they only relied upon soft policy interventions which never sought to break the status quo. This school of thought was mostly and poignantly espoused by the president himself when he declared that war was the only means by which they were to end the menace of narcotic drugs and opiates in the country.
Many scholars and researchers have since argued that the strong belief in repressive policies and strategies as the best means of combatting drugs misuse in the US was the hallmark of conservative political leaders during that period. These leaders strongly believed that if the war was to be successful, then it had to be draconian in the manner in which it was carried out. They accused the democrats of being soft on a matter of grave national concern which had the potential of destabilizing the country as well as causing an economic slowdown. To these conservatives, the economy of the country was starting to slow down in the late 1970s because labour was not stable in its supply since many young people had become highly involved in drugs misuse[13]. Therefore, instead of these people directing their energies to productive ventures like working in industries and firms, they were mostly concerned about staying idle consuming drugs. The net effect of such social breakdown was hence reflected in the national economic productivity, which had immensely been affected. This was evident in the manner in which repressive responses were being meted out on those who tried to contravene the laws and policies that had been laid down concerning drugs misuse and trafficking.
The states of Louisiana and Mississippi became the epicentres of application of very draconian and repressive policies that were highly inhumane. First, the number of arrests related to drugs made in these states skyrocketed within a very short span of period as the police and anti-narcotics enforcers increased their local searches even in the most remote places[14]. Additionally, prison sentence increased by huge margins compared to the previous paradigm since the conviction rate had taken a spiral jump upwards. The total number of people convicted for their alleged dealings in drugs misuse increases dramatically, especially for those who had been arrested in several previous incidences[15]. To make even the situation worse, the number of years that the convicted culprits were supposed to spend behind bars was increased without any unjustifiable explanations being given. Repeat offenders were the ones who faced the harshest punishments because the security agencies deemed them as existential threats to the war on drugs. Additionally, the central tenet in the law of judicial discretion became a thing of the past during most of these prosecutions as the security agencies were empowered to determine the sentencing periods depending on the severity of the committed crimes. The ultimate effect of this discretion given to the security agencies was that many people, especially who were from minority communities, found themselves receiving no justice at all as their fate was already sealed.
Cumulatively, the implementation of these repressive policies finally led to a dramatic increase in the total number of people who occupied the prisons. Melissa Bull opines that whereas in the years preceding the dawn of the 1980s, the imprisonment rate was quite stable and predictable, that trajectory was broken in the 80s period[16]. Previously, the average number of prisoners was 100 within a total population of 100,000 people. However, with the application of these new repressive policies, then it became quite clear that the prison population had to undergo a dramatic increase. From 1980 the average imprisonment rate was 400 prisoners within every 100,000 people[17]. It is, however, important to note that this population upsurge was led by the general increase of strategies of dealing with all known crimes. Still, much attention had been given to cases related to drugs. This explains why the kind of punishment given to drug criminals and culprits was much more severe compared to other crimes who comparatively got lenient judgements.
The number of net arrests that were made on drug-related crimes increased by 125 per cent between 1980 to 1995, which was unprecedented. This percentage increment was very high relative to other crimes without some scholars estimating it to have been four times higher. Previously, for every 100 arrests that were made on drugs cases, only two were imprisoned while after the severe launch of the repressive policies the rate increase to 10[18]. This was a five-fold increase. Therefore, it means that the incarceration rate increased astronomically within a very short span which had never been witnessed before. Due to this drastic increase in the net numbers of incarceration, the state of Louisiana became the leading one with the highest number of black Americans who were incarcerated. It was also closely followed by Mississippi, whose incarceration rate was ranking slightly lower. The most unfortunate thing in both these two states was that despite the general population of the whites being higher, the blacks dominate the prisons[19]. This contradiction was brought about by the selective and targeted drugs-related convictions which were racially driven and dominated. The government was implementing a well-choreographed script that sought to criminalize the black population.
The skewed manner in which the criminal justice system was targeting the blacks was unfair and needed not to have happened in the first place. It is important to note that the Whites were high in population in many of the states. The drug consumption rate was almost equal between the whites and the blacks in many of the states, but contrastingly the arrest and incarceration rates were skewed against the blacks. Between 1980 and 200, it was reported that among the high school students who reported on using drugs, it was the whites who dominated the list[20]. The blacks lagged somehow behind the whites in the total number of students who may have misused drugs in their lives. Even data that was retrieved from state hospitals showed that the whites were more likely to go seeking for emergency services on drugs-related complications that their black counterparts.
These colossal and damning statistics paint an image where the whites were mostly immersed in drug-related offences than the blacks. Logically, therefore, it would have meant that the whites should be more arrested and charged than the blacks if the government was seriously fighting against drugs misuse. However, the opposite was true. The blacks and other minorities formed the largest number of people incarcerated in many state prisons which as contrasted with their white population[21]. The continued increase in the rate of arrests as well as the much likelihood of conviction led to the evident racial inequality at the time. Although the war against drugs misuse was supposed to be a racially equal one with no discrimination, it turned out that such a platitude was only good in theory. This was because, in reality, races were being segregated and discriminated[22]. There were clear outright disparities in the composition of inmates in many prisons across all the main domains of crimes, namely, burglary, use of violence, drug crimes and also robberies.
At the time, the general prison admission on the part of the blacks was about four times higher than of the white counterparts. Although the use of these drugs and the means of their supply might have had serious challenges both at the individual and society collectivity, the means of fighting usage of such drugs should have been conducted within the confines of equality and fair justice. This means that no race should have received any form of preferential treatment compared to the other. This is because the only notable result from the war on drugs in the 1980s and 90s was the disproportionate number of black Americans in the prisons compared to the whites[23]. Selective admission strategies were the biggest undoing in the war of drugs.
In the mid-1980s there was the introduction of another stint or wave of war on drugs. This time around it came at the midst of the infamous Iran-Contra deal which had its effects reverberate not only in the US but globally. During this time, there was a high rate of flow of drugs which were directed to the black community. Fake cocaine became highly popular in the US because of the strong associates of criminal gangs who would import it cheaply. Many black people became highly addicted to the use of this crack cocaine due to its low prices and easy availability across the country. During this period, it was reported that the whites were much more involved in trafficking of these crack cocaine as compared to their black counterparts[24]. However, instead of the whites getting the harshest sentences once convicted, it was the blacks who were on the receiving end getting the toughest imprisonment terms. Even when a black person was found to have the slightest trace of cocaine in their blood, they were sentenced to long years in jail, unlike their white counterparts.
Conclusion
In recent days, there have been reports on the colossal amounts of money that the government spends or allocates towards the fight on drugs and also in running incarceration centres across the country. This debate should be viewed from a multi-pronged perspective since there is a long historical record that can be mined or evaluated to explain the phenomena. Since the late 19th century, there have been concerted efforts, both hidden and overt that have been applied in combatting drugs misuse and trafficking in the country. Despite achieving their intended aims, this war ended up in mass incarceration of black Americans in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. These racially selective incarcerations were just flagrant abuse of the fundamental rights of the blacks just because of their race.
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Belackova, Vendula, Alison Ritter, Marian Shanahan, and Caitlin E. Hughes. “Assessing the concordance between illicit drug laws on the books and drug law enforcement: comparison of three states on the continuum from “decriminalised” to “punitive”.” International Journal of Drug Policy 41 (2017): 148-157. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S095539591630384X
Bell, Daniel. “Crime as an American way of life: A queer ladder of social mobility.” In Transnational Organized Crime, pp. 25-48. Routledge, 2017.
Benson, Bruce L., and Brian Meehan. “Predatory public finance and the evolution of the war on drugs.” For Your Good: Taxes, Paternalism, and Fiscal Discrimination in the Twenty-First Century. Arlington, VA: Mercatus Center at George Mason University (2018). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3173785
Bull, Melissa. Governing the heroin trade: From treaties to treatment. Routledge, 2016.
Burris, S. (2017). Theory and methods in comparative drug and alcohol policy research: Response to a review of the literature. International Journal of Drug Policy, 41, 126-131. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395916303577
Cahalan, Margaret. U.S. Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States, 1850- 1984, Westat Inc., 1986, Department of Justice Bureau of Statistics
Carlos, Hayden, and Cameron Pontiff. “Trick or Treatment? Confronting the Horrific Intersection of Race, Mental Health, Poverty, and Incarceration in Louisiana.” Mental Health, Poverty, and Incarceration in Louisiana (May 4, 2019) (2019).
Clear, Todd R. 2007. Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged NEighbourhoods worse. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2007):124-136
Colbert, Soyica Diggs. “Black rage: On cultivating black national belonging.” Theatre Survey 57, no. 3 (2016): 336-357. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-survey/article/black-rage-on-cultivating-black-national-belonging/E619DFB561C4A2CA8768C9D5EB875EEC
Cole, George F., Christopher E. Smith, and Christina DeJong. The American system of criminal justice. Cengage Learning, 2018.
Colten, Craig E., Jessica RZ Simms, Audrey A. Grismore, and Scott A. Hemmerling. “Social justice and mobility in coastal Louisiana, USA.” Regional environmental change 18, no. 2 (2018): 371-383. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10113-017-1115-7
Cooper, Caroline S. “Drug Courts-Just the Beginning: How the Get Other Areas of Public Policy in Sync.” Int’l J. Therapeutic Juris. 1 (2016): 73.
Courtwright, David T. “A century of American narcotic policy.” Treating drug problems 2 (1992): 1-62.
Cover, Aliza Plener. “On Law-Breaking and Law’s Legitimacy.” U. Md. LJ Race, Religion, Gender & Class 15 (2015): 310. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/margin15&div=16&id=&page=
Felson, Richard B., and Jeremy Staff. “Committing economic crime for drug money.” Crime & Delinquency 63, no. 4 (2017): 375-390. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011128715591696
Gallagher, John R., and Anne Nordberg. “African American participants’ suggestions for eliminating racial disparities in graduation rates: Implications for drug court practice.” Journal for Advancing Justice 1 (2018): 89-107. https://www.cffutures.org/files/OJJDP/LearningAcademy/AJ-Journal%20Volume%201.pdf#page=99
Gordon, Diana R. “Drugspeak and the Clinton administration: A lost opportunity for drug policy reform.” Social Justice, 21, no. 3 (57 (1994): 30-37.https://www.jstor.org/stable/29766823?seq=1
Johnson, Christopher, and Jackson Hoopes. “The War on Drugs and the Case for Rehabilitation.” Brigham Young University Prelaw Review 33, no. 1 (2019): 17. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byuplr/vol33/iss1/17/
Moore, Leonard N. Black Rage in New Orleans: Police Brutality and African American Activism from World War II to Hurricane Katrina. LSU Press, 2010.
Stelly, Lauren. “Drugs, Gambling, and the Sport of Kings.” Gaming Law Review and Economics 21, no. 2 (2017): 167-173. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/glre.2017.2124?journalCode=glre
[1]Belackova, Vendula, Alison Ritter, Marian Shanahan, and Caitlin E. Hughes. “Assessing the concordance between illicit drug laws on the books and drug law enforcement: comparison of three states on the continuum from “decriminalised” to “punitive”.” International Journal of Drug Policy 41 (2017): 148-157.
[2]Stelly, Lauren. “Drugs, Gambling, and the Sport of Kings.” Gaming Law Review and Economics 21, no. 2 (2017): 167-173. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/glre.2017.2124?journalCode=glre
[3]Burris, S. (2017). Theory and methods in comparative drug and alcohol policy research: Response to a review of the literature. International Journal of Drug Policy, 41, 126-131. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395916303577
[4]Cahalan, Margaret. U.S. Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States, 1850- 1984, Westat Inc., 1986, Department of Justice Bureau of Statistics
[5][5]Cole, George F., Christopher E. Smith, and Christina DeJong. The American system of criminal justice. Cengage Learning, 2018.
[6]Benson, Bruce L., and Brian Meehan. “Predatory public finance and the evolution of the war on drugs.” For Your Own Good: Taxes, Paternalism, and Fiscal Discrimination in the Twenty-First Century. Arlington, VA: Mercatus Center at George Mason University (2018). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3173785
[7]Courtwright, David T. “A century of American narcotic policy.” Treating drug problems 2 (1992): 1-62.
[8]Gallagher, John R., and Anne Nordberg. “African American participants’ suggestions for eliminating racial disparities in graduation rates: Implications for drug court practice.” Journal for Advancing Justice 1 (2018): 89-107.
[9]Gallagher, John R., and Anne Nordberg. “African American participants’ suggestions for eliminating racial disparities in graduation rates: Implications for drug court practice.” Journal for Advancing Justice 1 (2018): 89-107.
[10]Clear, Todd R. 2007. Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged NEighbourhoods worse. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2007):124-136
[11]Gordon, Diana R. “Drugspeak and the Clinton administration: A lost opportunity for drug policy reform.” Social Justice, 21, no. 3 (57 (1994): 30-37.https://www.jstor.org/stable/29766823?seq=1
[12]Cooper, Caroline S. “Drug Courts-Just the Beginning: How the Get Other Areas of Public Policy in Sync.” Int’l J. Therapeutic Juris. 1 (2016): 73.
[13]Benson, Bruce L., and Brian Meehan. “Predatory public finance and the evolution of the war on drugs.” For Your Good: Taxes, Paternalism, and Fiscal Discrimination in the Twenty-First Century. Arlington, VA: Mercatus Center at George Mason University (2018). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3173785
[14]Johnson, Christopher, and Jackson Hoopes. “The War on Drugs and the Case for Rehabilitation.” Brigham Young University Prelaw Review 33, no. 1 (2019): 17. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byuplr/vol33/iss1/17/
[15]Courtwright, David T. “A century of American narcotic policy.” Treating drug problems 2 (1992): 1-62.
[16]Bull, Melissa. Governing the heroin trade: From treaties to treatment. Routledge, 2016.
[17]Bell, Daniel. “Crime as an American way of life: A queer ladder of social mobility.” In Transnational Organized Crime, pp. 25-48. Routledge, 2017.
[18]Cole, George F., Christopher E. Smith, and Christina DeJong. The American system of criminal justice. Cengage Learning, 2018.
[19]Carlos, Hayden, and Cameron Pontiff. “Trick or Treatment? Confronting the Horrific Intersection of Race, Mental Health, Poverty, and Incarceration in Louisiana.” Mental Health, Poverty, and Incarceration in Louisiana (May 4, 2019) (2019).
[20]Colbert, Soyica Diggs. “Black rage: On cultivating black national belonging.” Theatre Survey 57, no. 3 (2016): 336-357. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-survey/article/black-rage-on-cultivating-black-national-belonging/E619DFB561C4A2CA8768C9D5EB875EEC
[21]Bell, Daniel. “Crime as an American way of life: A queer ladder of social mobility.” In Transnational Organized Crime, pp. 25-48. Routledge, 2017.
[22]Felson, Richard B., and Jeremy Staff. “Committing economic crime for drug money.” Crime & Delinquency 63, no. 4 (2017): 375-390. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011128715591696
[23]Colten, Craig E., Jessica RZ Simms, Audrey A. Grismore, and Scott A. Hemmerling. “Social justice and mobility in coastal Louisiana, USA.” Regional environmental change 18, no. 2 (2018): 371-383. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10113-017-1115-7
[24]Moore, Leonard N. Black Rage in New Orleans: Police Brutality and African American Activism from World War II to Hurricane Katrina. LSU Press, 2010.
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