In These Times has a fantastic article about the effect of the “war on drugs” on women. The article is especially good about explaining how a variety of social justice issues converge in the female prison population — it’s about legal justice, reproductive justice, economic justice and racial justice. For example:
One such woman, Danielle Pascu, 29, got hooked on prescription drugs after the birth of her daughter. At first she was grateful for the prescribed Vicodin that got her though the lingering pain from a caesarean section and untreated postpartum depression.
But it didn’t take Pascu long to develop a full-blown habit, where she was eventually falsifying her prescriptions in order to get more. Pascu had no criminal record, had never used drugs before and was generally unaware of the risks involved. These days, Pascu is serving nearly three years in the sun-baked and dilapidated Arizona State Prison Complex in Perryville.
At this point, drug violations and property offenses account for a majority (59 percent) of females in state prison. By comparison, men in both of these offense categories add up to just 39.5 percent. Meanwhile, in federal prison, women and men convicted of drug offenses constitute nearly 60 percent of inmates.
Tina Thomas knows that she has a quadruple strike to overcome. She’s a black female with a former cocaine addiction, in a state that prefers to lock people up for substance abuse and that will deprive her of public assistance when she gets out. She now faces a lifetime ban on federal benefits, including contracts, licenses and grants.
As a drug offender, Thomas won’t be able to get Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) if she should ever need it. Food assistance, higher-education funding and even income tax deductions for pursuing a college degree are all yanked away from most felony drug offenders.
Yet nearly every other category of ex-offender—including sex offenders, murderers, arsonists and perpetrators of domestic violence—is eligible for these benefits. And, as if all this isn’t bad enough, Thomas will find that even getting a job will be difficult, because she must report herself as an ex-felon.
The United States has the largest prison population in the history of the world — we incarcerate a greater share of our population than did the Communist government in the notoriously prison-loving Soviet Union. We imprison black men at far greater rates than did the apartheid government of South Africa. According to Wikipedia:
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate[1] and total documented prison population in the world[2]. As of 2006, a record 7 million people were behind bars, on probation or on parole. Of the total, 2.2 million were incarcerated. The People’s Republic of China ranks second with 1.5 million, though China has over four times the population of the US.
We spend $60 billion a year on prisons. Much of that money goes to large, politically-connected corporations. The current political establishment — and Republicans in particular — have a vested economic interest in keeping the prison system large and punitive, as opposed to limiting it to violent and dangerous offenders and promoting rehabilitation instead of jail for drug addicts.
All of that impacts women, who are being imprisoned in record numbers. Just go read the article.
Thanks to Dad for the link.