Justice Update: Drug Law Reform, Pay-to-Stay Fees, and California's Prison Crisis

September 17, 2013

Stumbling Toward Real Drug Law Reform

Following Colorado and Washington’s vote to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examined emerging tensions between federal and state marijuana policy. Inimai Chettiar writes on MSNBC.com that the government has yet to find a permanent solution to the question of how to reform marijuana laws. “The new approach will do little to mitigate the failed ‘war on drugs’,” she explained. “To create genuine and lasting progress, federal drug laws must be completely revamped.” Removing harsh mandatory minimum sentences, Chettiar said, should be the first step.

Trying to Make Inmates Pay

Citing a 2010 Brennan Center report, Time recently published a story on how cash-strapped municipalities are charging jail inmates for items such as pants, blankets and even each sheets of toilet paper. Echoing the Brennan Center’s findings, the magazine noted that such efforts are often futile. “Legal experts point out that prison fees don’t yield much revenue because the majority of prisoners in the U.S. are poor,” the story said. Discussing the subject on Washington Post TV, Lauren-Brooke Eisen pointed out that these policies can lead to the re-incarceration of ex-offenders who have done nothing wrong other than fail to pay their jail fees. “You’re talking about a population that just doesn’t have the funds creating a debtor’s prison,” Eisen said. “Most of the counties that have done this have spent more money trying to collect these fees than they have actually received.”

A Bright Idea for California’s Prisons

More developments in the long-running battle to end overcrowding in California’s prisons: Instead of releasing any inmates, Gov. Jerry Brown proposes to spend $1.1 billion during the next three years to house state inmates in private prisons or county jails. Meanwhile, some California state senators have offered a different plan: Spend $800 million in the next two years on incentive grants to counties to expand their rehabilitation, drug and mental health treatment programs. Inimai Chettiar says that the latter does a better job of addressing California’s long-term incarceration crisis. “These types of performance-based funding structures can usher in a new wave of criminal justice decision-making that can move us away from mass incarceration,” she told Andrew Cohen. Cohen agreed that now is the time for real change. “The least those politicians can do is use this crisis as an opportunity to bring meaningful reform to this grim area of public policy,” he writes. “It’s time for a new idea. And time to stop trying to ease the costs of prison by spending more on prisons.”

Research Roundup

A new Bureau of Justice Assistance-sponsored RAND Corporation study looks at the effectiveness of the 2007 Second Chance Act, which funds reentry programs for the incarcerated. The results were striking. For example, recidivism rates for inmates who received training were cut nearly in half.
The National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) has released a new report examining long-term state corrections spending. It finds that while reforms have succeeded at arresting the growth in state prison populations, further criminal justice reforms could lead to significant cost-savings.
A report from the Washington Lawyer’s Committee examines the civil rights implications of District of Columbia criminal justice policies from 2007-11. It found glaring racial disparities. For example, although there was little disparity in drug use between whites and blacks, nine out of ten individuals arrested for drug offenses were African-American.

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