Should Low Level Drug Offenders Be Released?

Should Low Level Drug Offenders Be Released?



Clarence Aaron was no kingpin, yet he is serving a life-without-parole sentence for a first-time, non-violent drug conviction in 1993. The kingpin for Aaron's two large cocaine deals got out of prison in 2000. Another dealer is due for release next year. Yet, unless he wins a presidential commutation, Aaron alone will die an old man in prison for a crime he committed as a young man. Sadly, President Obama has used his commutation power only once, and not for Aaron. (Debra J. Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle )

Sentencing policies brought about by the "war on drugs" has resulted in a dramatic growth in incarceration for drug offenses. At the Federal level, prisoners incarcerated on a drug charge comprise half of the prison population, while the number of drug offenders in state prisons has increased thirteen-fold since 1980. Most of these people are not high-level actors in the drug trade, and most have no prior criminal record for a violent offense. (The Sentencing Project.)

A Department of Justice study states that a substantial number of drug law violators sentenced to incarceration in Bureau of Prisons custody can be classified as "low-level". Using one set of criteria which limited offenders to no current or prior violence in their records, no involvement in sophisticated criminal activity and no prior commitment, there were 16,316 Federal prisoners who could be considered low-level drug law violators. They constituted 36.1 percent of all drug law offenders in the prison system and 21.2 percent of the total sentenced Federal prison population.

Drug prohibition has largely driven America’s incarceration rate to unacceptable levels. Drug offenders comprise over 500,000 of the more than 2 million people in our nation’s prisons and jails, and drug offenses and failed drug tests account for a significant number of those returning to prison for parole and probation violations.

Turning to marijuana use, most of those incarcerated for marijuana offenses do not belong in prison, as they represent little or no risk to public safety. Removing criminal penalties for marijuana offenses will therefore reduce the U.S. prison population and more effectively protect the public and promote public health. The U.S. spends 1 billion annually incarcerating marijuana offenders.
Perhaps for the ultimate absurdity, Prof. Harry Levine reports that
"NYPD Spent 1 Million Hours Making 440,000 Marijuana Possession Arrests Over Last Decade"

This is not to argue that all aspects of the “War On Drugs” be abandoned. But research indicates that the stringent 3 strikes laws should be repealed because they fill our jails and prisons with low level offenders, with a huge number of them being low level drug offenders. Too, incarceration of low level marijuana users and other drug offenders must cease because, among other factors, it a waste of police time. Finally, the cost of low level arrests and incarceration costs the U.S. billions of dollars that could be better spent on infrastructure such as education, crumbling bridges, sewer systems, substandard roads, dams and the electrical grid.

Last month, Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced legislation, House Resolution 499, which would effectively end the federal prohibition on marijuana and allow states to set their own policies.

One action you can take is to call your congressperson and support House Resolution 499: The Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013. It would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, transfer the Drug Enforcement Administration’s authority to regulate marijuana to a newly renamed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and Firearms, require commercial marijuana producers to purchase a permit, and ensure that federal law distinguishes between individuals who grow marijuana for personal use and those involved in commercial sale and distribution.

Of course, you can call President Obama and ask him to release Clarence Aaron.