The Problem of Felon Disenfranchisement

Representative of what?

 

What are we discussing?

Shouldn't arrests be in near proportion to the percentages of those breaking the law?

What percentage of African-Americans are breaking drug laws vs. whites?

 

As I recall, mandatory minimums and three-strikes and all that came out of two trains of thought:

1. The "tough-on-crime" movement that went ahead in force after Reagan's election.

2. A reaction to the violence surrounding crack and street drug wars in the early 1990s.

The crime rate has come down considerably since then (the aging of the population is a big factor -- more young people tend to equal more crimes), but the policies haven't changed. No one wants to appear to be "soft" on crime, plus there are whole economies now built on the prison system. I just returned in vacation from Upper Michigan where prisons have been a growth industry. When I went up there growing up, there was one prison -- in Marquette. Now there are six more, five of which were built between 1989 and 2000. One is in my birth town of Munising, a maximum security prison that is the biggest employer in the county, and, next to the paper mill, the most lucrative.

http://www.michigan.gov/corrections/0,4551,7-119-1381_1385---,00.html

http://ref.michigan.org/medc/miinfo/places/AlgerCounty/?section=all

On the other hand, state budget cuts are pushing back against prison expansion. I left out one of the UP prisons, built in 1985, because it was shut down in 2009. Michigan has shut down other facilities, too. Reason: the prison population is declining not because of falling crime, but because it's too expensive to house prisoners.

http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/573267/Michigan-s-prison-population-continues-to-decrease.html?nav=5136

 

Seriously?

You think there are more African Americans using drugs than Caucasians?

 

Do you know they aren't?

 

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:QdHU9S-GxAAJ:blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/10/19CGSENTENCE1.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESigxCqX1351QYY6awDk4CnfExclFtyjZpQaQxj56tbI9bsjys5_D2fCDVptKKncSOjd9uqYDfQ7QAS6F-GtYlKw3D3foKbd6II7BNh4s19aqxjy7qW5Tb-EqS9h5EH6KEnyV-ul&sig=AHIEtbR9lyX47Lt2NZU2BCrlI79NEEszBA

healthland.time.com/2011/11/07/study-whites-more-likely-to-abuse-drugs-than-blacks/

www.hrw.org/news/2009/06/19/race-drugs-and-law-enforcement-united-states

 

Law enforcement tends to go after dealing, distribution, and possession of large quantities of drugs.

Now, maybe you think that's wrong, and that we should go after drug users. Is that what you think?

That would probably lock up more whites.

But, I'm not sure law enforcement priorities should be determined in a way designed to arrest the "proper" number of folks from various races.

 

I think I understand your question, but I am not sure. I guess my point is that there's a heavy element of policy-making in policing -- we're really cracking down on this, but this, while it's still against the law, we're not going to focus too much on. If it's the case that what we're focusing on is strongly associated with something that's especially toxic for law-income/minority communities (and I doubt that's the case with marijuana), then disparities in arrest rates might not necessarily be a bad thing for those communities.

 

Oy.

 

Then why the racial disparity in marijuana arrests?

 

Allocating money to the "War on Drugs" is a much easier sell than spending money on other programs designed to help disadvantaged communities.

 

Oy, what, Az?

I get that you think the whole "war on drugs" is misguided.

But, it seems to me, that if you want the racial figures to balance out more, we need to either stop arresting so many African-Americans, or start arresting more whites.

How do we accomplish this?

Do you think the laws, or enforcement policies, are inherently racist?

I'm more willing to consider racial disparities in conviction rates and/or sentencing than in simple arrest rates.