End The War On Drugs - Chapter 10

Prisons and the Corrections Industry

EDITOR’S NOTE: A few years ago, I penned a first draft of a short book, “End The War On Drugs” I offer an updated version, in serial form, here on Substack, for my paid subscribers. I will publish a chapter each week.

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CHAPTER 1: A Catastrophic Failure
CHAPTER 2: A Brief History
CHAPTER 3: A Society Rooted in Individual Liberty
CHAPTER 4: Use vs Abuse
CHAPTER 5: Societal Cost
CHAPTER 6: Use and Addiction
CHAPTER 7: Free To Choose
CHAPTER 8: Prohibitions Create Business Opportunities
CHAPTER 9: Inner City Youths and the Permanent Stigma of Drug Convictions

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Of about two million people in American jails and prisons, nearly half are there for drug offenses.  Close to a million people, locked up due to the War on Drugs.  Prisons rank ahead of Wyoming, Vermont, DC, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Delaware in terms of population. If gathered in one place, prisons and jails would be the fifteenth most populous city in the nation, and that’s before we add in the four hundred thousand jailers currently employed across the nation.

Some will argue that all these people in jail are proof of success, but recall the giant drug busts I mentioned earlier?  What is the goal of the War on Drugs, after all?  Isn't it, ultimately, to alter people's behavior regarding drugs? To halt the use of recreational narcotics and all the problems it creates? 

Shouldn't 75-100 years of prohibition and half a century of drug war have accomplished that by now?

There are mountains to be written about incarceration in America, but here I want to just touch on two aspects:  the "industrialization" of corrections and the self-interest that motivates lobbying efforts.  The California corrections officers union spent a million dollars in 2008 to lobby against efforts that would reduce incarceration rates of drug offenders.  A company called The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) owns or operates 66 prisons in 19 states.  According to several web sources, it has spent millions lobbying politicians over the years.  A lot of that lobbying was for other-than-drug-war stuff, but drug legalization certainly isn't something that would make the company's employees, shareholders or officers happy.