Race Prison Case Study

Race, Prison, and Drug Laws—Impact of drugs upon the African American Community

Studies show that “there are an estimated 1.5 million Black men in prison and another 3.5 million on probation. Black males make up more than 70 percent of the total prison population, even though they make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population” (Nealy, 2008). This can be due to the lack of education, the livelihood that person lived, drugs, violence, or many other situations, but my focus will be on the drug issue. Law enforcers have a drug control strategy that is they use to gain control of the drug issues, and they are as follows: • Disrupting the market for drugs • Prevention efforts that rely on community activism, public information campaigns to educate the public on the potential dangers of drug use • Law-enforcement efforts against current users, through medical screenings, workplace testing and Drug Courts • Law-enforcement efforts against elements of the supply chain, through surveillance and undercover work • Providing effective and targeted substance abuse treatment to dependent users (Drug Laws)
In 1996, 59.6% of prisoners were drug-related criminals. U.S. population grew by about +25% from 1980 to 2000. In that same 20 year time period, U.S. prison population tripled. To make room in prison for incoming drug users and dealers, all inmates, including violent criminals are having their sentences shortened or are being paroled early” (Drug Laws). As one can see the use of drugs among Americans is shortening the sentences of violent criminals to make room for drug users and dealers. This matter will decrease if we begin to intervene in the home, next, the schools, and last but not least the individual