Pubdate: Sun, 8 Jun 2008
Source: Los Angeles City Beat (CA)
Copyright: 2008 Southland Publishing
Contact:  http://www.lacitybeat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2972
Author: Alfred Lee

CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

Tuesday, June 10, the Hammer Museum hosts Judge James P. Gray, 
retired police chief Norm Stamper, and author and activist Marc Mauer 
in "The Crime of Punishment," a discussion forum about the inequity 
in which the American criminal justice system is steeped and Tricky 
Dick's still-lumbering "War on Drugs."

Mauer indicates that although there's (probably) no conspiracy afoot 
to cultivate this racism, Americans have tacitly consented to it by 
allowing clearly discriminatory policies to be enacted and enforced.

"There's been a very concerted effort to arrest and incarcerate 
record numbers of people, most of them people of color. Most of the 
policy making has been very publicized," says Mauer, who has directed 
programs on criminal justice reform for more than 25 years.

For example, he condemns the "two-tiered war on drugs" being waged in 
America. In affluent communities, drug abuse is treated as a disease 
with which users are afflicted, and rehab is the solution. But in 
low-income, non-white communities, drug abusers become criminals, and 
punitive incarceration is the solution. A dearth of resources 
available to members of these communities often makes counseling and 
treatment impossible.

According to Mauer, the maladies of America's justice system run 
deeper than biased sentencing policy and torpid progressive 
legislation - higher rates of violent crime, availability of 
firearms, and a decidedly punitive approach to sentencing keep more 
Americans in jail longer. This helps explain why the U.S. has less 
than five percent of the world's population, but more than a quarter 
of its prisoners.

"The massive prison system translates into limitations on democracy," 
he says, citing the disenfranchisement of more than five million 
people during the upcoming election, including 13 percent of all black males.

But Mauer isn't humming America's funeral dirge just yet; he posits 
some solutions.

"We should have a dramatic reduction in the use of incarceration - in 
particular for people convicted of nonviolent property and drug 
crimes," he says. He adds that the resources previously used for law 
enforcement and imprisonment should be reallocated to fund policies 
and programs designed to provide treatment for users.

These suggestions - along with institutions designed to ensure a 
successful transition from prison back into society, promote a frank 
dialogue concerning drug policy, and emphasize the importance of 
community and family involvement - could comprise a more sensitive, 
multifaceted solution.

"Research shows that prison has at best a modest impact on reducing 
crime," Mauer says.

"The Crime of Punishment." Tues. at 7 p.m. Free. Hammer Museum, 10899 
Wilshire Blvd., Westwood, (310) 443-7000. hammer.ucla.edu. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake