The Myth of Criminal-Justice Racism

Now we have somebody saying that the "victimless" crimes prison population emphasized by some groups are not really all that accurate !!

A lady named Heather Mac Donald testified before a Senate Committee the other day and that is all BS !!

She cited some "facts" that many will not agree with and readily accept.

The prison population is "in fact" made of a clear majority violent criminal element.

What do people think now?

The Myth of Criminal-Justice Racism

Nothing in this dominant narrative is true. Prison remains a lifetime achievement award for persistence in criminal offending. Drug enforcement is not the driving factor in the prison system, violent crime is. Even during the most rapid period of prison growth from 1980 to 1990, increased sentences for violent crime played a larger role than drug sentences in the incarceration build up. Since 1999, violent offenders have accounted for all of the increase in the national prison census.

Today, only 16 percent of state prisoners are serving time for drug offenses—nearly all of them for trafficking. Drug possession accounts for only 3.6 percent of state prisoners. Drug offenders make up a larger portion of the federal prison caseload—about 50 percent—but only 13 percent of the nation’s prisoners are under federal control. In 2014, less than 1 percent of sentenced drug offenders in federal court were convicted of simple drug possession; the rest were convicted of trafficking. The size of America’s prison population is a function of our violent crime rate. The U.S. homicide rate is seven times higher than the combined rate of 21 Western nations plus Japan, according to a 2011 study by researchers of the Harvard School of Public Health and UCLA School of Public Health.

That's word play.

Trafficing is defined at a local level above predetermined amounts. Not always actual distribution.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Now we have somebody saying that the "victimless" crimes prison population emphasized by some groups are not really all that accurate !!

A lady named Heather Mac Donald testified before a Senate Committee the other day and that is all BS !!

She cited some "facts" that many will not agree with and readily accept.

The prison population is "in fact" made of a clear majority violent criminal element.

What do people think now?

The Myth of Criminal-Justice Racism

Nothing in this dominant narrative is true. Prison remains a lifetime achievement award for persistence in criminal offending. Drug enforcement is not the driving factor in the prison system, violent crime is. Even during the most rapid period of prison growth from 1980 to 1990, increased sentences for violent crime played a larger role than drug sentences in the incarceration build up. Since 1999, violent offenders have accounted for all of the increase in the national prison census.

Today, only 16 percent of state prisoners are serving time for drug offenses—nearly all of them for trafficking. Drug possession accounts for only 3.6 percent of state prisoners. Drug offenders make up a larger portion of the federal prison caseload—about 50 percent—but only 13 percent of the nation’s prisoners are under federal control. In 2014, less than 1 percent of sentenced drug offenders in federal court were convicted of simple drug possession; the rest were convicted of trafficking. The size of America’s prison population is a function of our violent crime rate. The U.S. homicide rate is seven times higher than the combined rate of 21 Western nations plus Japan, according to a 2011 study by researchers of the Harvard School of Public Health and UCLA School of Public Health.

This site states differently:

Federal Bureau of Prisons

a reply to: amicktd
That is Federal Prison Statistics. They only make up 13% of the prison population as a whole.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Now we have somebody saying that the "victimless" crimes prison population emphasized by some groups are not really all that accurate !!

A lady named Heather Mac Donald testified before a Senate Committee the other day and that is all BS !!

She cited some "facts" that many will not agree with and readily accept.

The prison population is "in fact" made of a clear majority violent criminal element.

What do people think now?

The Myth of Criminal-Justice Racism

Nothing in this dominant narrative is true. Prison remains a lifetime achievement award for persistence in criminal offending. Drug enforcement is not the driving factor in the prison system, violent crime is. Even during the most rapid period of prison growth from 1980 to 1990, increased sentences for violent crime played a larger role than drug sentences in the incarceration build up. Since 1999, violent offenders have accounted for all of the increase in the national prison census.

Today, only 16 percent of state prisoners are serving time for drug offenses—nearly all of them for trafficking. Drug possession accounts for only 3.6 percent of state prisoners. Drug offenders make up a larger portion of the federal prison caseload—about 50 percent—but only 13 percent of the nation’s prisoners are under federal control. In 2014, less than 1 percent of sentenced drug offenders in federal court were convicted of simple drug possession; the rest were convicted of trafficking. The size of America’s prison population is a function of our violent crime rate. The U.S. homicide rate is seven times higher than the combined rate of 21 Western nations plus Japan, according to a 2011 study by researchers of the Harvard School of Public Health and UCLA School of Public Health.

The facts will fall on deaf ears. Everyone wants to believe there are former honor roll students serving 20 to life for having a dime bag.

Who cares what Heather Mac Donald says? They might as well have gotten Ann Coulter to testify in front of Congress — at least she's entertaining. She gave her inexpert interpretation of a few statistics and a bunch of purely political opinions and proved what exactly?

Let's start with this nonsense (from the OP's source):

The drug war was not a war on blacks. It was the Congressional Black Caucus that demanded a federal response to the 1980s crack epidemic, including more severe penalties for crack trafficking.

Absolutely false. The War on Drugs was kicked off by Nixon in 1969 actually. He's even responsible for the name. Given her revisionist history failure, it's not surprising that she also completely ignores the fact that in the 80's under Reagan, the CIA was funding and providing material assistance to the Contras and facilitating the trafficking of coc aine into the US to fund a war that wasn't authorized by Congress.

Conservatives are OBSESSED with non-scandals under the current administration but real scandals like the Iran-Contra Affair (which was investigated by 1 committee not 9) might as well have never happened.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
Who cares what Heather Mac Donald says? They might as well have gotten Ann Coulter to testify in front of Congress — at least she's entertaining. She gave her inexpert interpretation of a few statistics and a bunch of purely political opinions and proved what exactly?

Let's start with this nonsense (from the OP's source):

The drug war was not a war on blacks. It was the Congressional Black Caucus that demanded a federal response to the 1980s crack epidemic, including more severe penalties for crack trafficking.

Absolutely false. The War on Drugs was kicked off by Nixon in 1969 actually. He's even responsible for the name. Given her revisionist history failure, it's not surprising that she also completely ignores the fact that in the 80's under Reagan, the CIA was funding and providing material assistance to the Contras and facilitating the trafficking of coc aine into the US to fund a war that wasn't authorized by Congress.

Conservatives are OBSESSED with non-scandals under the current administration but real scandals like the Iran-Contra Affair (which was investigated by 1 committee not 9) might as well have never happened.

Are you saying this isn't true?

In 1986, the U.S. Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 which, amongst other things, created a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for crack vs. powder coc aine possession, which some people consider to be a racist law which discriminates against minorities,[2][3][4] who are more likely to use crack than powder coc aine. People convicted in federal court of possession of 5 grams of crack coc aine will receive a minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years in federal prison. On the other hand, possession of 500 grams of powder coc aine carries the same sentence.[2][3] Some other authors, however, have pointed out that the Congressional Black Caucus backed the law, which they say implies that the law cannot be racist.[5][6][7]

During that time period, crack was ravaging the black community and many leaders in the community wanted harsher sentencing.

a reply to: theantediluvian

I don't think anyone said the War on Drugs began with that one act.