Thundering silence no more: On Thursday Senator Webb (D-VA) held his second hearing on the topic: Mass Incarceration. At What Cost? Senators and Congressmen heard more testimony from experts on the massive impact locking up 2.3 million people has on the country. Though media was scarce, our issue is finally receiving the attention it deserves.

After the hearing I spoke to Senator Webb for a minute, providing an answer to a question which the panel was unable to ask (how does expenditure of time arresting 845,000 for cannabis impact the other aspects of public safety/police work?). Thanks to the suggestion of Ethel in Florida & Eric here in DC, the next day I submitted that answer in writing which was made part of the permanent record for the hearing. As I made office visits on Friday, it was simply wonderful to tell the aides that, ‘look to Senator Webb on this issue. He is lighting a candle & speaking out.’ Small steps.

Below I am including the text of my statement given to Webb’s committee:

Testimony for the Joint Economic Committee, June 19, 2008

Assessing U.S. drug policy and providing a base for future decision

Howard J. Wooldridge

Bath Township, MI Police Detective Howard J. Wooldridge, (retired)

At the hearing of the Joint Economic Committee which Senator Webb chaired on June 19, 2008 two questions asked by the Members were not fully answered. Therefore, I would like the following information be included as part of the record for that hearing.

Regarding Senator Webb’s question on how the expenditure of time to arrest some 845,000 persons per year on marijuana charges impacts other areas of law enforcement: During my fifteen (15) years of police service I learned that my profession often searches and does not find anything illegal. Thus, one can not simply extrapolate the number of arrests times X hours of time per arrest. An average of ten (10) vehicle searches must be conducted in order to find one containing marijuana. Conservatively, 7-8 million hours of patrol time are spent enforcing marijuana prohibition laws. This results in less time for effective DUI, reckless driving and other traffic enforcement priorities.

Regarding Congressman Hinchey’s question of the percentage of prisoners whose crime touches in someway drug prohibition laws: My experience as a detective and in speaking with colleagues show 70-75% of felony crime touches drug prohibition policy.

Whether crimes committed go up or down, drug prohibition continues to be the engine driving the vast majority of felony crime in America.

Like the rest of inner city America, Bridgeport, Connecticut's 130th District has for decades been ground zero in the war on drugs.

[Courtesy of Drug Policy Alliance]

For Immediate Release: June 17, 2008
Contact: Tony Newman, tel: (646) 335-5384 or Bill Piper, tel: (202) 669-6430

Wednesday, June 18th: House Judiciary Committee to Renew Controversial Drug Enforcement Grant Program Linked to Racial Disparities, Police Corruption and Civil Rights Abuses

Twenty Civil Rights and Criminal Justice Reform Groups Urge Congress Not to Renew Byrne Grant Program without Reforming It

Renewal of Program without Reform a Slap in the Face to Victims of Tulia and Hearne, TX Scandals—the Basis of Two Forthcoming Feature Films

Last week the U.S. House Crime Subcommittee voted to renew the controversial but politically popular Byrne Justice Assistance grant program without debate or amendment. The House Judiciary Committee is set to take up the issue tomorrow, Wednesday June 18th. The Senate has already passed legislation renewing the program, which has been linked to racial disparities, police corruption and civil rights abuses. Twenty civil rights and criminal justice reform groups released a letter today urging the House Judiciary Committee not to renew the program without first reforming it. The groups include included the ACLU, the Brennan Center, National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, National African-American Drug Policy Coalition, National Black Police Association, the National Council of La Raza and the Drug Policy Alliance.

“There are clear steps Congress can take to reform this program, from providing better oversight to requiring law enforcement agencies receiving federal money to document their traffic stops, arrests and searches by race and ethnicity,” said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. “If Judiciary Committee Members renew this program without fixing it, they will be responsible for the racial disparities and civil rights abuses it breeds.”

In a deeply troubling example of the consequences of the Byrne grant program, a magistrate judge found that a regional narcotics task force in Hearne, Texas routinely targeted African Americans as part of an effort to drive blacks out of the majority white town. For the past 15 years, the Byrne-funded task force annually raided the homes of African Americans and arrested and prosecuted innocent citizens. The county governments involved in the Hearne task force scandal eventually settled a civil suit, agreeing to pay financial damages to some of the victims of discrimination.

The most notorious Bryne-funded scandal occurred in 1999 in Tulia, Texas where dozens of African-American residents (representing 15% of the black population) were arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to decades in prison, even though the only evidence against them was the uncorroborated testimony of one white undercover officer with a history of lying and racism. The undercover officer worked alone, and had no audiotapes, video surveillance, or eyewitnesses to corroborate his allegations. Suspicions arose after two of the defendants accused were able to produce firm evidence showing they were out of state or at work at the time of the alleged drug buys. Texas Governor Rick Perry eventually pardoned the Tulia defendants (after four years of imprisonment), but these kinds of scandals continue to plague the Byrne grant program. The program has been linked to numerous scandals and civil rights abuses across the country.

“Every dollar Congress spends on the Byrne grant program is a dollar used to perpetuate racial disparities, police corruption and civil rights abuses,” said Piper. “Unless this program is reformed this year, members of Congress should consider cutting funding to it.”

What: Markup of H.R. 3546, a bill to reauthorize the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, and other bills.

When: Wednesday 06/18/2008 - 10:15 a.m.

Where: 2141 Rayburn House Office Building

Key Points of Interest:

- Oscar-nominated actors Alfre Woodard and Michael O'Keefe star in the recently completed feature film American Violet. Based loosely on the Hearne scandal, the film follows the harrowing journey of a young mother fighting the devastating consequences of America's drug task force programs. The film is scheduled to begin festival screenings worldwide early this fall.

- Lionsgate films is currently producing a feature film based on the Tulia, Texas scandal starring Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry.

- Twenty civil rights and criminal justice reform groups have released a letter today urging the House Judiciary Committee to not renew the program without first reforming it. The groups included the ACLU, the Brennan Center, National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, National African-American Drug Policy Coalition, National Black Police Association, the National Council of La Raza and the Drug Policy Alliance.

- Four leading conservative groups have urged Congress to completely eliminate the Byrne grant program, because the program “has proved to be an ineffective and inefficient use of resources.” (American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens against Government Waste and National Taxpayers Union).

- A 2002 report by the ACLU of Texas identified 17 scandals involving Byrne-funded narcotics task forces in Texas, including cases of falsifying government records, witness tampering, fabricating evidence, false imprisonment, stealing drugs from evidence lockers, selling drugs to children, large-scale racial profiling, sexual harassment and other abuses of official capacity. Recent scandals in other states include the misuse of millions of dollars in federal grant money in Kentucky and Massachusetts, false convictions based on police perjury in Missouri, and making deals with drug offenders to drop or lower their charges in exchange for money or vehicles in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin.

- A 2001 study by the General Accounting Office found that the federal government fails to adequately monitor the grant program or hold grantees accountable.

Senator Jim Webb will be presiding over this hearing dedicated to an examination of the economics of U.S. drug policy.

Witnesses include:

MEDIA ADVISORY: Tuesday May 27, 2008
Contact: Tony Newman, t: 646-335-5384 or Roseanne Scotti, t: 609-610-8243

Groundbreaking Report “Wasting Money, Wasting Lives: Calculating the Hidden Costs of Incarceration in New Jersey” to be Released

Report Finds Incarceration Costs Far Exceed Previous
Estimates, Increase State Budget Deficit and Waste Taxpayer Money

Press Conference Scheduled at Statehouse on Wednesday, May 28, 11:30 AM with Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan

Trenton- A groundbreaking report, “Wasting Money, Wasting Lives: Calculating the Hidden Costs of Incarceration in New Jersey” will be released today at a statehouse press conference featuring legislators, community members and advocates. The report was commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance and authored by Meredith Kleykamp, Jake Rosenfeld and Roseanne Scotti.

What: A press conference to release a report on the hidden costs of incarceration in New Jersey

Who: Newark Mayor Cory Booker
Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D, Union)
Roseanne Scotti, Esq., Director, Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey
David Kerr, President, Integrity House of Newark
(additional speakers to be announced)

When: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 11:30 A.M.

Where: New Jersey State House, Room 209

The economic cost of New Jersey’s explosive prison growth has been astronomical. Twenty years ago, the New Jersey corrections budget was $289 million. Today the budget is $1.33 billion. Corrections budget growth has outstripped all other parts of the state’s budget. From 1979 until 2006, the corrections budget grew by a factor of 13 while the overall state budget grew only by a factor of 6.

New Jersey spends more than $46,000 annually to incarcerate each prisoner, and about $331 million dollars a year just on incarcerating all nonviolent drug law violators—more than what is spent by 16 other states for their entire corrections budgets. During the 1980s and 1990s, corrections spending in New Jersey rose at three times the rate of spending on higher education.

But looking at the direct costs of incarceration tells only part of the story of the economic burden placed on New Jersey by the current system. In addition to the direct costs of prisons, New Jersey also incurs substantial indirect and hidden costs by incarcerating large numbers of nonviolent drug offenders. To get a complete understanding of the costs of incarceration for New Jersey, costs such as lost wages while incarcerated, lost lifetime wages after release from prison due to reduced employability, and lost taxable income must be calculated. This groundbreaking report analyzes the comprehensive and hidden costs of New Jersey’s overuse of incarceration and offers suggestions for saving taxpayers’ money and reinvesting savings into families and communities.

# # #

Marijuana is big business in the Netherlands, if estimates from the Dutch TV program Reporter are to be believed -- and no one

EDITOR'S NOTE: Kalif Mathieu is an intern at StoptheDrugWar.org. His bio is in our "staff" section.

I traveled to the city of Istanbul last week to stay for a few days with my school program of Peace and Conflict Resolution. Istanbul (and Turkey as a whole) is the perfect conduit for heroin being produced in the middle-east to reach Western European markets. Heroin and other drugs are commodities like anything else, and travel through the same general trade routes as other goods. Turkey is so strategically placed that according to Le Monde diplomatique in 1995 “An estimated 80% of the heroin on the European market is being processed in Turkish laboratories." (La Dépêche Internationale des Drogues 1995, Nr. 48)

So you might ask, “what’s so special about heroin traveling through Turkey? It’s just like any other trade between the middle-east and Europe.” The troublesome point is who controls the trafficking through the country and receives the profits of the trade. This happens to be the PKK, or Kurdistan Worker’s Party, a militant organization with a 30-year history of fighting the Turkish government to establish a separate Kurdish state. “According to Interpol […] the PKK was orchestrating 80 % of the European drug market” back in 1992, and “[o]ther sources similarly indicate that the PKK controlled between 60 % to 70 %” in 1994 reported the Turkish Daily News.

The state of Turkey has been increasing its process of Westernization recently in its desire to join the EU, and this has meant adopting a Western policy on drugs. Turkey has been very successful recently in increasing its police and border control effectiveness and eliminating corruption. The Turkish Daily News gave some convincing numbers: “According to the deputy customs undersecretary, there was a 400 percent increase in drug-operation success in the period between 2002 and 2006, when compared to the 1999-2002 period.”

However, even though Turkey has been, in recent years, dealing more and more forcefully with both the PKK militants and the drug trade, has this actually reduced the trafficking of drugs and the profits of the PKK? In the Turkish Daily News: “[t]he annual revenue made by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has increased to 400-500 million euros, a top Turkish general said late Tuesday.” If the PKK’s revenue has increased, then it is logical to assume Turkey’s military campaign against them may not be considered a huge success. Not only that, but “200-250 million euros of [the PKK’s] revenue comes from drugs […] Gen. Ergin Saygun, deputy chief of General Staff said.” That makes drug trafficking 50% of the organization’s income!

The Turkish state has had a history of valuing the effectiveness of force. It was born from war, and the constitution has a controversial but often-utilized article that allows the Turkish army to organize a coup to eliminate the possibility of having a religious party in power. What is the point of these so-called ‘hard-line’ approaches to dealing with the nation’s problems if they are rather ineffective? Very little of course. The trouble comes from what the state could say to its citizens, to the international community, if it negotiated with the violent PKK or began to take the drug trade into the light by moving it towards legalization and either private or state control? If Turkey tried to clean up its smuggling and black market in such a way the majority of Europe, if not the greater ‘global community,’ would probably condemn the entire nation of betraying humanity and literally becoming evil. The reaction of many Turkish citizens would be perhaps lighter, but of a similar nature if the state sat down to negotiations with the ‘terrorist’ PKK. These are strong influences on the Turkish state, and severely limit its options. Therefore it seems Turkey doesn’t have much of a choice but to pursue the same policy of force it has pursued for more than 30 years, whether it benefit the people or not.

The US Senate voted last Friday to restore funding to the federal grant program that pays for the multi-jurisdictional state and local anti-drug task forces that roam the land enforcing the drug la

[Courtesy of Drug Policy Alliance]

For Immediate Release: March 12, 2008
For More Info: Tony Newman (646) 335-5384 or Bill Piper (202) 669-6430

Drug Czar John Walters Testifying in Congress Today in Support of Bush’s 2008 National Drug Control Strategy

Drug Policy Alliance: Walters is Covering Up a Record of Failure

Fatal Overdoses on the Rise, Transmission of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C from Injection Drug Use Continues to Mount, 1 in 100 Americans Now Behind Bars

Drug Czar John Walters will testify today at 2pm before the House Domestic Policy Subcommittee. He is expected to defend the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s 2008 Drug Strategy, which continues to fund failed supply-side strategies at the expense of more effective prevention and treatment. Below is a statement from Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.

Every year the drug czar tries to put a good spin on the failure of the drug war, and this year is no exception. Americans should ask themselves, ‘Are drugs as available as ever?’ Answer: Yes. ‘Do our communities continue to be devastated by astronomical incarceration rates and death and disease related to drug abuse and drug prohibition?’ Again, yes.

Despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars and incarcerating millions of Americans, experts acknowledge that illicit drugs remain cheap, potent and widely available in every community. Meanwhile, the harms associated with drug abuse—addiction, overdose and the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis—continue to mount. Add to this record of failure the collateral damage of drug prohibition and the drug war—broken families, racial inequity, wasted tax dollars, and the erosion of civil liberties. The evidence is clear and it is foolish and irresponsible to claim success.

What matters most is not whether drug use rates go up or down but whether we see any improvements in the death, disease, crime and suffering that are associated with both illegal drugs and drug prohibition. The current approach, with its “drug-free America” rhetoric, and over reliance on punitive, criminal justice policies costs taxpayers billions more each year, yet delivers less and less. It’s time for a new bottom line in drug policy, one that focuses on reducing the harms associated with both drug misuse and the collateral damage from the drug war.

The Bush administration's proposed Fiscal Year 2009 spending for drug treatment, prevention, and recovery includes significant funding cuts for some programs, and that has critics ranging from form

California's prison system is in crisis.

In the latest move in his ongoing war against Mexico's powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations -- the so-called cartels -- President Felipe Calderón last month sent some 6,000 Mexican

Even as law enforcement and its allies in Congress move to restore funding for the embattled Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG

[Courtesy of Drug Policy Alliance]

For Immediate Release: January 23, 2008
For More Info: Tony Newman (646) 335-5384 or Ethan Nadelmann (646) 335-2240

Governor Spitzer Proposes Tax Stamp on Illegal Drugs

Statement from Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance

“I have my doubts regarding Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposed bill to require all marijuana and other controlled substances in the state to have a tax stamp.

“On the one hand, it seems perfectly reasonable to require people and businesses to pay taxes on the revenue earned from selling products of any sort, whether they are legal or illegal. Indeed, in the dozen states where marijuana has been legalized for medical purposes, many of those who sell marijuana to patients are willing and even eager to pay taxes on their revenue.

“On the other hand, these tax stamp bills and laws smack of the gratuitous piling on of punitive sanctions that permeates the overall drug war. The United States already locks up people who violate the drug laws more readily, more frequently and for longer periods of time than in almost any other country – at a national cost of tens of billions of dollars per year. We also subject drug law violators to civil and criminal asset forfeiture and deprive them of all sorts of rights and privileges after they have served their sentences - - to an extent far greater than in almost any other country. More than half a million people come out of prison each year but face daunting prospects getting a fresh start, in part because they are obliged to pay fines – like this tax stamp – that end up causing far more harm than good.

“The Governor could accomplish far greater tax savings for New York taxpayers if he would move forward on his campaign commitments regarding reform of the Rockefeller drug laws. The modest reforms of 2004 and 2005 already have saved the state tens of millions of dollars – but far greater savings could be attained, with no risk to public safety, if he were to support the drug law reforms passed by the Assembly in recent years.

“And, quite frankly, New Yorkers would most benefit from a serious proposal to tax, control and regulate marijuana more or less like alcohol is today. Even though New York decriminalized marijuana possession in the 1970s, it still arrests people for that offense more frequently than most states that never decriminalized it. New Yorkers spend many tens of millions of dollars per year for this foolish excess, when instead the state could earn even greater amounts from taxing this ever popular consumer product. Overall consumption would likely rise only modestly given the widespread and easy availability of marijuana today notwithstanding its illegality. Virtually all New Yorkers – both those who like marijuana and those who have no interest in it – would benefit.”

As part of a massive just unveiled state budget, New York Gov.

Faced with a $14 billion budget deficit next year, California Gov.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign took a major hit as Congress finalized the fi

Drug Policy Public Health or Criminal Justice Issue?

This is part a free series being held over three Wednesdays, February 13, 20, and 27.

Facilitator: Stephen Owen, UBC Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations

Last week, the Chronicle reported on yet another record high number of marijuana arrests, with more

What do you do when you've been kicked out of Iraq for killing civilians and your company's reputation is in shambles? Fear not, the drug war is always hiring, and there's nothing on earth you could do to disqualify yourself from employment in the accountability-free industry of international drug prohibition.

While Blackwater's mercenaries beg for mercy for killing a baby and 19 other people in Baghdad on Sunday, they're already working on another lucrative government contract on yet another foreign adventure: the "war on drugs." [Village Voice]

Details are sketchy since the government doesn't report eagerly on the creepy deals it makes with baby-killing mercenary groups. But Village Voice says they're building giant remote-control surveillance blimps.

It remains unclear what these blimps will be used for or what other secretive drug war endeavors Blackwater will be undertaking, but this much is for sure: it will all be phenomenally expensive and it won't change a damned thing.