Pubdate: Mon, 09 May 2016
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Michelle Alexander
Note: Michelle Alexander ,a senior fellow at the Ford Foundation, is 
the former director of the Racial Justice Project at the ACLU of 
Northern California. She is the author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass 
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness."

MORE PRISON TIME DOESN'T HELP

Ten years ago in Los Angeles, Theresa Martinez was finally making 
progress in her long, painful struggle against drug addiction and the 
cycle of incarceration it fueled. But in order to continue her 
methadone program, she needed $200. Homeless, unemployed, and 
terrified of falling back into heroin addiction, she tried to get the 
money the only way she knew: selling drugs.

Martinez was arrested for a $5 sale of cocaine, a felony that, absent 
aggravating factors, carried a three-year prison sentence. By global 
standards that penalty would have been unusual and harsh, especially 
since she plainly needed help and support - not incarceration. But 
here in the United States, Martinez faced an even worse fate. 
California law prescribes sentencing "enhancements" for anyone who 
has a prior drug-related felony conviction. Martinez was threatened 
with a nine-year sentence. Anguished, she took a plea deal for six 
years, bringing her lifetime total to 23 years behind bars, all for drugs.

The sentence enhancement that doubled, and could have tripled 
Martinez's third time behind bars is a brutal tool of the ineffective 
war on drugs, a war that has been waged primarily against poor 
communities of color, even though studies consistently show that 
rates of illegal drug use and sales are similar across racial lines.

California now has an opportunity to close down one front in this 
war. Senate Bill 966, authored by Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los 
Angeles), would repeal the three-year sentence enhancement for prior 
drug convictions. Sentence enhancements like these were marketed as 
deterrents to drug use and sales, supposedly out of concern for the 
harm drugs cause people. But drastic sentences impede rehabilitation 
and treatment and worsen the odds of successful reintegration.

There is no evidence that enhanced sentences reduce drug availability 
or the number of people harmed by illicit drug use. After decades of 
the war on drugs, it is clear that purely punitive approaches to drug 
crime are counterproductive. Drug use has not declined, controlled 
substances are now cheaper and more widely available than ever 
before, and the death rate from drug overdoses continues to rise.

Here in California, thousands of families have been broken apart and 
communities throughout the state have been destabilized. Instead of 
helping those targeted by the war on drugs, we have sentenced them 
not just to prison but to the lifetime of discrimination and stigma 
that follows it.

It is no secret that the war on drugs has had a grossly 
disproportionate impact on people who are black, brown and poor. 
People of color are far more likely to be stopped, searched, 
arrested, prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated for drug violations 
than are whites, who can typically commit the same acts in upper- and 
middle-class neighborhoods without criminal consequences. Sentence 
enhancements based on prior drug convictions magnify these 
disparities, falling on those who have been unable to successfully 
re-integrate into society after earlier prison sentences.

Labor unions, healthcare providers, and more than 125 other 
organizations support SB 966. It has been met with resistance 
primarily from law enforcement, including district attorneys, 
sheriffs and police chiefs.

In its first vote in the California Senate April 25, the bill's 
opponents resorted to racially coded fear-mongering about 
"perpetually arrested drug dealers." The bill fell three votes short 
of a majority, with senators voting primarily along party lines - 
with the exception of three Democrats who joined Republicans in 
opposing the bill. Five other Democrats abstained.

SB 966 could be brought back for another vote this week. It deserves 
to be passed by the Senate, moved to the Assembly and passed there as 
well. The state's lawmakers can stop the unnecessary suffering caused 
by sentence enhancements.

After Theresa Martinez served her sentence, she was homeless for two 
years, moving between shelters, her husband's truck and the homes of 
various friends. Her drug convictions made her ineligible for help 
from Calfresh and Calworks, the state's food stamp and family aid 
programs, until the ban was lifted a year ago. Now she is getting 
back on her feet and is trying to build her life - minus 23 years of 
incarceration.

Automatically adding years to a drug sentence is a weapon of 
individual and community destruction disguised as an expression of 
concern. Passing SB 966 is an important step in the state's belated 
journey toward justice and healing in our communities.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom