The U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation tonight sponsored by Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) which would create a national commission to study the U.S. criminal justice system and make recommendations for reform. The bill passed under an expedited process that presumes unanimity unless a member of Congress objects. No member objected.
"It is a sign of how quickly the tide has turned against punitive criminal justice policies that this bill passed without opposition," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. "Prisons are overflowing at great taxpayer expense, in large part because of the failed war on drugs, and members of Congress are finally saying enough is enough, we need ideas for reform."
The bill comes at a time that the United State's growing prison population – fueled by the war on drugs - is becoming a political issue. The United States ranks first in the world in per capita incarceration rates, with just five 5 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Roughly 500,000 Americans are behind bars any given night for a drug law violation. That is ten times the total in 1980, and more than all of western Europe (with a much larger population) incarcerates for all offenses.
Across the country – from California to Texas to New York – legislatures, and in some cases voters, are passing legislation to divert offenders to treatment instead of jail, reform mandatory minimum sentencing, and treat drug use more as a health issue instead of criminal justice issue. These efforts – motivated by concerns for saving taxpayer money, reducing racial disparities, and showing more compassion for people struggling with substance abuse problems - are gaining steam.
The House bill is identical to a bill in the U.S. Senate introduced by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA). That bill has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and will most likely be voted on in the full Senate sometime this year. Sen. Webb (D-VA) has said, "either we have the most evil people in the world or we are doing something wrong with the way we approach the issue of criminal justice." And "the central role of drug policy in filling our nation's prisons makes clear that our approach to curbing illegal drug use is broken."
It is widely believed that the national commission created by Sen. Webb's and Rep. Delahunt's legislation would make recommendations for reducing incarceration, reforming U.S. drug policy, eliminating racial and gender disparities, improving re-entry efforts, and expanding access to substance abuse treatment, mental health services and health care.
"The House has spoken decisively. Now it is time for Senators to act," Piper said. "Sen. Webb's and Rep. Delahunt's bipartisan commission legislation needs to be passed quickly before the war on drugs and punitive criminal justice system bankrupt our country and destroy more lives."
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Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
For Your Kids
As a person in long-term recovery and a drug treatment professional, I know a thing or two about drugs, addiction and the drug war. As a mother and a grandmother, I know more than I care to about how all of those things affect families - including my own. Addiction is a particularly painful health issue for any family to struggle with. Like most other chronic health conditions, like cancer and diabetes, it can be treated and managed. But unlike other chronic health conditions, our government is at war with it.
The sad truth is that the war on drugs is a war on people, and they can be people you love.
Twenty five years ago I was lucky enough to find sustained recovery after struggling with my own addiction. Now I'm a grandmother of seven and am watching my youngest son struggle with his own addiction. I am hopeful that he will find recovery as I have. Until then, he struggles against decades of stigma and harmful policies. We aren't just battling addiction; we're battling the barbaric policies that continue to criminalize this medical disorder that I share with my son - and tens of thousands of other Californians. In tight economic times, it's getting harder and harder to find a place where my son can access drug treatment.
Why is it so hard to find treatment, when - somehow - there always seems to be room in jail? Why, when our state has to cut spending, it cuts drug treatment but not incarceration spending? (Drug treatment costs less than $5,000 per person; a year in prison costs almost $50,000 per person.)
Our government's response to drug addiction has moved in the wrong direction. A century ago addiction once was something handled by one's private doctor and family. By the 1980s, somehow we had decided that people who struggled with drugs, including my younger self and my son, were criminals?
Unfortunately, our drug policies are still stuck in the stone ages of the drug war-crazy 1980s. They have the veneer of compassion, but, in the end, even when you've done no harm to any one else nor posed any significant risk (like by driving under the influence), the criminal justice system will incarcerate you because of your health problem.
There is no other health condition that is criminalized this way. And it remains criminalized even as the American (and global) medical community have reached consensus that drug use and addiction are health issues.
For parents, this rejection of the medical approach for the criminal approach has become the stuff nightmares are made of. Our children were denied real prevention; instead they were force-fed "Just Say No" slogans and scare tactics that the government's own research found ineffective and counter-productive. Our children were kicked out of school under zero-tolerance policies that pushed the most vulnerable kids out of school and onto the streets rather than provide the help they needed. Our children had little or no access to drug treatment - but were dragged into the criminal justice system at rapidly increasingly rates. Our children died of preventable overdoses, because friends failed to call 911 for fear of arrest.
So-called experts infected our families with this zero-tolerance approach, teaching us to show our love by rejecting our children. We were told we would save our children's lives if we turned them in to the police. But calling the police only made matters worse. Drug treatment is not available for the vast majority of people in jails and prisons - but drugs are. And it's far easier to leave behind a drug addiction than it is a criminal record.
So what's a mother to do?
I say it's time for mothers (and fathers) to say enough is enough. We are smarter, more educated than we used to be. We see what works and what doesn't - and the war on drugs just doesn't work.
As a treatment professional, a recovering person, a mother of a former inmate and parolee, and a grandmother of seven, I say the time to end this failure of a drug war is NOW.
Join me and others' moms (and loved ones) to call for an end to this madness. Work with us to get our loved ones the support they need and the policies that would support - not demonize - them. At a rally in Los Angeles this week, Moms United to End the War on Drugs will demand an end to this war on our families. Join us!
Julia Negron, who is in long-term recovery, is a mother and grandmother with 15 years in the addiction treatment field. She is also a member of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing) and a founding member of Moms United to End the War on Drugs.
© 2010 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/147680/
The sad truth is that the war on drugs is a war on people, and they can be people you love.
Twenty five years ago I was lucky enough to find sustained recovery after struggling with my own addiction. Now I'm a grandmother of seven and am watching my youngest son struggle with his own addiction. I am hopeful that he will find recovery as I have. Until then, he struggles against decades of stigma and harmful policies. We aren't just battling addiction; we're battling the barbaric policies that continue to criminalize this medical disorder that I share with my son - and tens of thousands of other Californians. In tight economic times, it's getting harder and harder to find a place where my son can access drug treatment.
Why is it so hard to find treatment, when - somehow - there always seems to be room in jail? Why, when our state has to cut spending, it cuts drug treatment but not incarceration spending? (Drug treatment costs less than $5,000 per person; a year in prison costs almost $50,000 per person.)
Our government's response to drug addiction has moved in the wrong direction. A century ago addiction once was something handled by one's private doctor and family. By the 1980s, somehow we had decided that people who struggled with drugs, including my younger self and my son, were criminals?
Unfortunately, our drug policies are still stuck in the stone ages of the drug war-crazy 1980s. They have the veneer of compassion, but, in the end, even when you've done no harm to any one else nor posed any significant risk (like by driving under the influence), the criminal justice system will incarcerate you because of your health problem.
There is no other health condition that is criminalized this way. And it remains criminalized even as the American (and global) medical community have reached consensus that drug use and addiction are health issues.
For parents, this rejection of the medical approach for the criminal approach has become the stuff nightmares are made of. Our children were denied real prevention; instead they were force-fed "Just Say No" slogans and scare tactics that the government's own research found ineffective and counter-productive. Our children were kicked out of school under zero-tolerance policies that pushed the most vulnerable kids out of school and onto the streets rather than provide the help they needed. Our children had little or no access to drug treatment - but were dragged into the criminal justice system at rapidly increasingly rates. Our children died of preventable overdoses, because friends failed to call 911 for fear of arrest.
So-called experts infected our families with this zero-tolerance approach, teaching us to show our love by rejecting our children. We were told we would save our children's lives if we turned them in to the police. But calling the police only made matters worse. Drug treatment is not available for the vast majority of people in jails and prisons - but drugs are. And it's far easier to leave behind a drug addiction than it is a criminal record.
So what's a mother to do?
I say it's time for mothers (and fathers) to say enough is enough. We are smarter, more educated than we used to be. We see what works and what doesn't - and the war on drugs just doesn't work.
As a treatment professional, a recovering person, a mother of a former inmate and parolee, and a grandmother of seven, I say the time to end this failure of a drug war is NOW.
Join me and others' moms (and loved ones) to call for an end to this madness. Work with us to get our loved ones the support they need and the policies that would support - not demonize - them. At a rally in Los Angeles this week, Moms United to End the War on Drugs will demand an end to this war on our families. Join us!
Julia Negron, who is in long-term recovery, is a mother and grandmother with 15 years in the addiction treatment field. She is also a member of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing) and a founding member of Moms United to End the War on Drugs.
© 2010 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/147680/
Monday, July 12, 2010
Ken Williams: Homeless Deaths in Santa Barbara, A Shocking Statistic
So far this year, at least 19 of our neighbors who have been pushed to the streets by personal demons, war, untreated and mistreated mental health issues, the disease of addiction, illnesses, injuries and the fallout from the Great Recession have died — a truly disheartening statistic. We need to keep in mind that, in comparison, 27 homeless people died in all of 2009. The average for the preceding years was in the low twenties. Also in comparison, Santa Monica, a coastal community comparative to our own in population averages 14 homeless deaths yearly.
This march of Death is astounding. I hardly have time to record and verify the avalanche of bad news before reports of yet still more fatalities flood my phone. I found last year’s spike in homeless deaths to be gut wrenching, but this is shocking. Nineteen and we are barely halfway through the year. And, I have another problem with this statistic. It is cold and uncaring — numbers only that do not recognize the flesh and blood — the who of each person in this shameful statistic.
This march of Death is astounding. I hardly have time to record and verify the avalanche of bad news before reports of yet still more fatalities flood my phone. I found last year’s spike in homeless deaths to be gut wrenching, but this is shocking. Nineteen and we are barely halfway through the year. And, I have another problem with this statistic. It is cold and uncaring — numbers only that do not recognize the flesh and blood — the who of each person in this shameful statistic.
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