Pubdate: Thu, 05 Oct 2000
Source: Michigan Daily (MI)
Copyright: 2000 The Michigan Daily
Contact:  420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327
Website: http://www.michigandaily.com/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm racial issues clippings

MORE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE

New Drug Laws Target Minorities, Poor

Our criminal justice system is in dire need of reform. Nothing has 
contributed more to this problem than the "War on Drugs." The concern is 
specifically highlighted in laws that target minorities and deal out harsh 
sentences based on mandatory minimums. According to Mark Mauer, assistant 
director of "The Sentencing Project," a national organization based in 
Washington, D.C., these "get tough" policies have led to a rise in black 
incarceration rates across the board by attaching harsher penalties to 
those drugs used by minorities and the lower socio-economic classes.

To add to this already discriminatory system, Congress has recently passed 
a new law that will only exacerbate the problem of overcrowded prisons and 
the racial disparity in the criminal justice system. This new law 
incorporates methamphetamines (most notably, crystal meth) into mandatory 
minimum drug laws. Ecstasy, on the other hand - which is in fact meth-based 
- - will be excluded from the law.

According to salon.com, Ecstasy is a drug used mostly by upper and middle 
class white kids, while mostly minorities and lower classes use 
methamphetamines. Absurd congressional initiatives like this expose 
fundamental and perhaps unintentional trend of race and class-based 
warfare, especially considering the fact that those arrested by these 
unjust laws deny a large number of minorities the right to vote.

Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and columnist Arianna Huffington are two 
prominent figures that have compared drug laws to racially discriminatory 
"Jim Crow" laws in the late 19th century. Statistics show a blatant trend 
of laws that support these claims.

For instance, according to Huffington, 13 percent of African-American males 
cannot vote because they have been convicted of a felony. Considering 4.6 
million black males voted in 1996, this is a staggering percentage of 
minorities barred from entering the voting booth. Even worse, while blacks 
are only 13 percent of drug users, they compose 74 percent of all drug 
offenders in prison. Something is clearly wrong with this picture, and it 
is not just at the national level.

Not long ago, in a similar vein, Michigan passed a law that defined the 
legal amount of powder cocaine or crack cocaine which could lead to 
mandatory minimum sentencing. The amount of crack necessary - a drug 
associated with lower class, urban populations - was disproportionately 
less than the amount needed to lock away the typically affluent cocaine user.

What lawmakers at the state and federal level have failed to realize is 
that these laws, racist or not, are a waste of taxpayer money and fail in 
practice. Rather than snag drug kingpins, they should rehabilitate users, 
treat addiction or reduce the supply of drugs. Current quick fix laws 
wrongly punish minor, nonviolent users. People who need rehabilitation are 
stuck in prison for 20 years despite the fact that treatment options are 
cheaper and more effective than lost prison terms. And once again, prisons 
are clogged with a disproportionate minority population.

Perhaps most egregiously, these laws allow Congress to usurp the power of 
our legal system by taking power out of the hands of judges with mandatory 
minimums. Judges are supposedly allowed discretion in the interpretation of 
laws, but mandatory minimums deny them this power, almost universally at 
the expense of minority drug offenders. Judges should be allowed to weigh 
previous convictions and the severity of the crime possibly allowing 
offenders a treatment option; instead, mandatory minimums place 
across-the-board the power in the hands of legislators. Not one aspect of 
these laws can justify the results of this flagrantly unfair system.

Our drug laws are flawed on financial, legal and moral grounds. New laws 
that continue the bias against minorities and the poor only compound the 
program. Add to that mandatory minimum sentencing and the lack of emphasis 
on rehabilitation and it is no surprise that we have unfair, ineffective 
legislation that helps no one but the people in power.
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