The War On Drugs And Its Effects On The Incarceration Rates

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness was written by Michelle Alexander to expose the truth of racial injustice in the system of mass incarceration through the comparison of the racial control during the Jim Crow Era. She reveals how race plays an important role in the American Justice System. Alexander argues about the racial bias, particularly towards African-Americans, immanent in the war on drugs as a result of their lack of political power and how the Supreme Court tolerates this injustice.

For almost 40 years now the longest and most unsuccessful war in the United States has been the war on drugs. Resulting in 45million arrests and $1 trillion dollars in government spending, the war on drugs has been nothing more than a way of income for public officers and other law enforcement officials. The effort behind the war on drugs is solemnly to reduce illegal drug use and trade. This plan includes a set of drug policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of these popular and wide spread narcotics.

Michelle Alexander in her book “The New Jim Crow” makes the argument that racial inequality still exists in the United States

In the 1970s, President Nixon declared a war on drugs. The War on Drugs is a government movement aiming toward a prohibition of illegal drugs. Nixon dramatically increased drug control agencies, and reinforced the mandatory sentence. He placed the crime in the most restrictive category of drugs. The original budget for waging this war was one trillion dollars. In October of 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared a war on drugs. It marked the beginning of a long period of incarceration. Reagan increased anti-drug spending and increased the number of federal drug enforcement. During his campaign, he integrated the dog whistle strategy to discriminate against the African Americans. Since there was a mass incarceration of African Americans

In the new proactive book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander dives into the not so complicated racial issues that plague this country that we tend to ignore. In all of history, African Americans have had to constantly fight for their freedoms and the right to be considered a human being in this society. It’s very troubling looking back and seeing where we have failed people in this country. At the turn of the century, when people began to think that we had left our old ways behind, this book reminds us that we are wrong. Racism is still alive today in every way, just in different forms.

The third critical book review for this class takes a look at “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander published in 2012 by the New York Press. This book analyzes the problem with the incarceration system in the United States today that unfairly affects the African American community. This incarceration system is continuing to separate families, strip men of their freedom, and effectually make them into second class citizens upon release from prison as “free” men. She even describes that those who are convicted of these crimes are “relegated to a racially segregated and subordinated existence” (Pg. 4). Michelle Alexander is not only a published author but is also an active Civil Rights activist all while currently employed as an associate professor of law at Ohio State University. It is a very interesting read that coincides with where our class discussions have recently been. It argues that we as a country have not ended racial discrimination but just transformed it into a new type of caste system. It is an eye opening book that created an uncomfortable feeling while reading due to my level of ignorance on this topic prior to taking this class. I believe that this book will serve as an important narrative into fixing the race problems in this country because it brings to light what needs to be fixed. If any progress is made it will be because of books like this that expose the problems but starting to fix them will be the next step.

The term “War on Drugs” was first used by the Nixon administration in the 1970’s, but the country has been enforcing policies against drug use, possession, and distribution since 1914, with the passing of the Harrison Act. They do this mainly through deterrence. The government makes laws and regulations against this kind of behavior and

The War on Drugs was the United Sates government’s attempt to stop the sale and use of illegal drug use. It consisted of anti-drug legislation all with the plan to end drug abuse in America. President Nixon declared and coined the phrase “War on drugs” and increased drug control agencies and pushed for harder sentencing for drug offenses. The war on drugs is an issue that we are still fighting and many of the policies put in place did more harm than good. The drug war affected all people, but it had unequal outcomes for different racial groups and many of the historical pieces of legislation put in place impacted these outcomes and are still affecting many people of color today.

In 1971 President Nixon declared an all-out war on drugs, now over a million non-violent drug offenders live behind bars. The war on drugs has been the longest, most costly, and destructive war in the US history as of today (Booth , 2007). The war on drugs focuses on the poor people, and not the bankers that launder the money. In 1973 Nixon created the DEA, which stands for Drug Enforcement Agency. The DEA is a federal agency responsible for enforcing laws and regulations governing narcotics, and controlled substances. Their job is to immobilize drug trafficking organizations. When Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971, the federal budget was 101 million dollars, going into the year 2000; the federal budget allegation was 20 billion dollars. Half of what we spend in the court systems and prison is drug related (Booth , 2007).

The United States used War on Drugs as the reason to have mass incarceration and arrest people of color, especially the black people. The government arrest the black people into jail by accuse them selling or consuming crack cocaine, however, it is the government (CIA) who allowed guerrilla armies to bring the crack cocaine to the black neighborhood. The War on Drugs is just one of the excuse that government used to put black Americans into jail and this mass incarceration is their tool for social control. This way, they can separate the white people and people of color and maintain their racial hierarchy.

The War on Drugs began in increments, first with President Nixon and secondly with President Reagan (Hill, Oliver, Marion, 2012). While under the Nixon administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration was developed due to the thought of how drugs can affect an individual as well as a community. Drugs did not only affect the user and the community, but also the families as well as children. Out of all the presidents, it is documented that President Nixon was one who had discussions about drugs more than any other president (Hill, et al., 2012).

In the late 1960's and early 1970's, the federal government began to increasingly tighten drug laws. In 1972, President Richard Nixon formally declared a "War on Drugs", which continues

On the June 17, 1971, President Nixon declared a “War on Drugs.” During the Nixon’s announcement of the war, he declares that the number one enemy to the country was drug abuse among its citizens. A product of President Nixon’s battle with drugs was the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). At the time, marijuana became a public issue among the parents of the country because of its high use among

Just a little over a year and a half after being in office President Reagan declared a “war on drugs”, creating a zero tolerance policy. The “war on drugs” claimed that it would reduce drug use if they were made illegal. The common misconception of the idea of this solution if that by restricting the supply of illicit drugs for the demand the price would increase making it harder for users to afford the habit and further discourage users from using. When in reality this shifted individuals into digging themselves deeper into hazards through, convictions, increased health risks due to stronger drugs being the available, and dependencies. Because this can also create an increase of racial tension due to the fact that the war on drugs

The United States government “War on Drugs” efforts on regulating the use and abuse of drugs were initiated by President Nixon in 1971. Today the “War on Drugs” implementation is killing black teenagers and adults because of the increasing police violence. Throughout the 45 years of its implementation, it has affected the number of black males incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses. Moreover, there has been no progress on reducing the continued drug use in the United States on the last decade. Thus, I am against continuing the “War on Drugs” and support its end.