In These Times has a fantastic article about the effect of the “war on drugs” on women. The article is especially good about explaining how a variety of social justice issues converge in the female prison population — it’s about legal justice, reproductive justice, economic justice and racial justice. For example:
One such woman, Danielle Pascu, 29, got hooked on prescription drugs after the birth of her daughter. At first she was grateful for the prescribed Vicodin that got her though the lingering pain from a caesarean section and untreated postpartum depression.
But it didn’t take Pascu long to develop a full-blown habit, where she was eventually falsifying her prescriptions in order to get more. Pascu had no criminal record, had never used drugs before and was generally unaware of the risks involved. These days, Pascu is serving nearly three years in the sun-baked and dilapidated Arizona State Prison Complex in Perryville.
At this point, drug violations and property offenses account for a majority (59 percent) of females in state prison. By comparison, men in both of these offense categories add up to just 39.5 percent. Meanwhile, in federal prison, women and men convicted of drug offenses constitute nearly 60 percent of inmates.
Tina Thomas knows that she has a quadruple strike to overcome. She’s a black female with a former cocaine addiction, in a state that prefers to lock people up for substance abuse and that will deprive her of public assistance when she gets out. She now faces a lifetime ban on federal benefits, including contracts, licenses and grants.
As a drug offender, Thomas won’t be able to get Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) if she should ever need it. Food assistance, higher-education funding and even income tax deductions for pursuing a college degree are all yanked away from most felony drug offenders.
Yet nearly every other category of ex-offender—including sex offenders, murderers, arsonists and perpetrators of domestic violence—is eligible for these benefits. And, as if all this isn’t bad enough, Thomas will find that even getting a job will be difficult, because she must report herself as an ex-felon.
The United States has the largest prison population in the history of the world — we incarcerate a greater share of our population than did the Communist government in the notoriously prison-loving Soviet Union. We imprison black men at far greater rates than did the apartheid government of South Africa. According to Wikipedia:
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate[1] and total documented prison population in the world[2]. As of 2006, a record 7 million people were behind bars, on probation or on parole. Of the total, 2.2 million were incarcerated. The People’s Republic of China ranks second with 1.5 million, though China has over four times the population of the US.
We spend $60 billion a year on prisons. Much of that money goes to large, politically-connected corporations. The current political establishment — and Republicans in particular — have a vested economic interest in keeping the prison system large and punitive, as opposed to limiting it to violent and dangerous offenders and promoting rehabilitation instead of jail for drug addicts.
All of that impacts women, who are being imprisoned in record numbers. Just go read the article.
Thanks to Dad for the link.
yup, this is why the “war on drugs” is fucking retarded. It is all about punishing those “other” people, and nothing about prevention.
Great piece. IMHO, the War on Drugs is the biggest issue facing the country today. It touches everyone’s lives, and even moreso than the War on Terror, it’s being used to toss our civil rights out the window.
This article is awesome. I have worked in one jail where something like 99% of the female population were incarcerated for drug offenses and I know work at a rehab center for women with drug problems. The system is set up in so many ways to make people fail.
For example: one girl had to go to 4 NA meetings a week. Go to court one a week. have three therapy sessions a week (and pay for them herself). Make enough money to pay for her rent therefore she needs to have a job. Go to the in house meetings. Meet with her case manager once a week. among other, smaller rules….its enough to make me give up and I get so frustrated that people think that because some people are able to do it (usually people with money or a strong supportive family) that if others can’t they’re just not trying hard enough
A topic in which I find myself agreeing with Jill & Co.
It’s a sad, twisted irony that we title this country “The Land of the Free” when so many of us are behind bars (or headed that way). Take natmusk’s example, up above. Drowning someone in responsibility and expenses for court and probation and drug tests and NA meetings just makes them want to say “fuck all this” and just get high–because it’s a release. But if she does that then it’s back to jail for sure. And of course, black single mothers have it much worse.
One of the things that astounds me about being on parole is that–in my state–they FORCE you to parole back to a known address, usually your old one. So it’s back to the old ‘hood, the ghetto, and back around the environment that caused you so much grief to begin with.
Why not have an inmate relocation program for non-violent offenders? Send them to another area, a college campus where they’ll be surrounded by people who are aimed in the right direction. Help get them clean, help them pay for an education, get on their feet, wipe their record clean, and get a job. Oh, I suppose that’s too difficult. Better off throwing them into prison. It’s much easier.
Being poor in the US is exceptionally bad. As a friend of mine said after learning of all the extra fees (charged by banks and credit cards and the like) and crap that often comes with being poor, “I couldn’t afford to be poor in the US”.
It’s appalling that important federal benefits that are available to fucking murderers and rapists are denied to non-violent drug offenders. Exactly how is it does someone like Danielle Pascu present a greater threat to society than those who commit violent crimes? We tell drug offenders that they have to improve their lives, but then take away every tool that they have to do just that, and crush them under totally unreasonable burdens. How does a single woman take care of a child when she has to work full time (or more) and attend meeting after meeting after meeting?
Oh…that’s right…I keep forgetting the real purpose of the “drug war” – to enforce a racist, classist, misogynist system while lining the pockets of prison industrialists.
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