Oklahoman Tina Thomas has been caught up in the American war on drugs. In many respects, she fits the common profile of a woman doing time for a drug-related offense. Her crimes have ranged from possession to check forgery and theft, including an arrest for trying to steal a $64 comforter from Wal-Mart. Eventually sentenced to a two-year state prison term,… return to article
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Reader Comments (12)Page 1 of 1 pages“At this point, drug violations and property offenses account for a majority (59 percent) of females in state prison. By comparison, men in both of these offense categories add up to just 39.5 percent. Meanwhile, in federal prison, women and men convicted of drug offenses constitute nearly 60 percent of inmates.”
What a huge waste of resources, both financial and human. Guess we learned even less than nothing from Prohibition.
Posted by wolf on Feb 8, 2008 at 4:57 PM From what I gather, making these drugs illegal was what they needed to replace Prohibition to keep the G-men employed. Now, of course, we have many privatized prisons which make big bucks for their corporate owners. It’s become quite an industry with lobbyists and all. I read a quote circa 1997 by a leader in the prison industry who talked of stepping up efforts to fill more beds. Recidivism is profitable. Thus there is a disincentive to rehabilitate. In states where felons lose their voting rights, there is a political motive to arrest and convict black offenders. It’s another way for corporate big business to milk tax payer money. We have a prison population of 2.2 million and growing. Of those, more than 1.7 million are employed at slave wages by outside private corporations. And here US workers are worried about cheap goods from China made by prison labor. Go figure.
Posted by urthsong on Feb 10, 2008 at 12:39 PM Now that we have privatized prisons where people can work the chase on arrest are shown.after they get out they get helped by employment by same institutionSo it seems it is to expensive to build more social work places were all races can work for a same salarie as ohers.They are even investing in these prisons the prisoners get treated better it is a shme there is no other way! Unless people are forced to hire diploma ex-inmates who can handle the job as proven the Government should oversee this!!
Posted by anthony on Feb 13, 2008 at 11:44 AM Silja Talvi miss quoted the statistic on female incarceration rates in Oaklahoma. Oklahoma’s imprisonment of women rose 1,237 percent from 1977 to 2004, not from 1997 to 2004.
Posted by Chandra on Feb 13, 2008 at 4:55 PM “It’s been a full-throttle battle since, even through the Clinton years.”
It’s great that people are addressing this issue. But I have to question the use of the word “even” in this statement. It really should read “especially through the Clinton-GORE years.” I know liberals like to blame everything on the Republicans, but the fact is that imprisonment for drug use skyrocketed during the Clinton-GORE years, especially for women. And, of course, for people of color, which you’d expect from an administration of two white southerners. Clinton-GORE were even worse than Reagan-Bush in this area. Much worse. It actually has plateaued somewhat during the Bush administration, meaning the rate of incarceration hasn’t decreased but it hasn’t increased much either.
And, of course, no Democratic politician has bothered to even mention this, including GORE, Kerry, Edwards, Obama, et al. Hillary, of course, couldn’t care less about women who are suffering; just another example of her profoundly misogynistic policies and attitudes, her lack of concern for the many women being raped in Iraq and Afghanistan being another.
The fact is that the Democratic party has been just as bad, if not worse, on this issue ever since the Reagans started this war. And still are. And it’s about time the liberals admitted it. It’s a major reason that the Democrats have become so discredited, and seen as just another branch of the Republican party.
It should also be pointed out that one of the primary purposes of the war on drugs, maybe the most important one, is simply to disenfranchise poor people and people of color. Hardly anyone ever mentions that, or notes that by disenfranchising so many people, Clinton and GORE clearly laid the groundwork for the Bush administration, who would never have gotten into power if everyone had been allowed to vote. I personally find nothing in the constitution that allows them to disenfranchise people for anything at all.
I personally won’t vote for any Democrat, including Obama, until they address this issue, and I urge others to join me in standing up to them. I don’t care what happens, I ain’t voting for anyone who thinks that me and my friends and many others should be put in prison and denied all of their rights. Especially for something that most of them themselves admit that they have done at one time or another.
Posted by mikep on Feb 14, 2008 at 10:01 PM The entire legal and philosophical foundation that underlies the War on Drugs is bogus. It makes a crime out of something that isn’t criminal, sets up conditions for contraband markets to evolve that result in unholy amounts of wealth going to the most ruthless people, and reinforces the idea that we need a paternalistic government to “protect” us from unhealthy influences.
And, as though it’s an aside, it hasn’t led to the abandonment of recreational drugs. If anything, America is more drugged up than ever (but of course, rampant and unhealthful use of antidepressants, on top of our love for a simple grass- or beer-buzz, isn’t technically a criminal issue, just a frightening health issue).
Finally, mikep’s point is not to be forgotten. Drug warriors come in many flavors, and plenty of them taste like Democrat… not least the Clintons! That simplistic “conservative or liberal” division Americans are so fond of can make one forget the culprits on both sides of the aisle.
But really, regardless of party label or where one falls on the political scale, the basic idea needs to be promoted that you own your body, and it is not a justifiable use of power for government to punish you for altering your own consciousness.
It’s the kind of thing that should never come up on a referendum, like who has the right to marry, or who has the right to educate themselves. Doesn’t matter what the neighbors think, regardless of whether they’re a minority, plurality, or majority. Some things are not up for a vote!
Another in a series of power-grabs that ordinary Americans could quash, if they only had the resolve to do so. If they believed in actual, inborn rights, instead of just authoritative permissions they have to obtain, which seems to have replaced the concept of rights in the US.
Posted by Kuya on Feb 15, 2008 at 8:22 AM There was a misprint here: the OK rates are indeed from 1977 to 2004. Thanks for catching that.
Posted by Silja J.A. Talvi on Jun 30, 2008 at 5:50 PM Additional waste is the children left behind in crisis while their parents, especially mothers, languish in prisons. These lost children will contibute mightily to the next generation of school dropouts, homeless and future incarcerated.
Posted by urthsong on Jun 30, 2008 at 7:53 PM Weed will leed to more other drugs thats why its the most evil of all.But Private Pisons.Get a job that way you can at least buy stock or so.Working in a institution Id say let them give you a apprenticeship in all areas knowing its hard to get work outside again..last but not leasty make sure there is no chasing down of people for imprisoment.Private Prisons what will we invest in next??
Posted by anthony on Jul 1, 2008 at 10:56 AM If we are staying or not in Afganistan -Irak why not destroy the OPIUM POPPIE ?? we have war on drugs? but it seems the governments wants criminals!No drugs less crime but no guards,policeless in that area,jails close,no lawyers,less dockets,courts would meet all other cases on time.So why leave that poppie thereburn it all since we are there anyway??
Posted by anthony on Jul 1, 2008 at 11:21 AM A bar keeps them away from family, lovers and the society. How much we know about those women behind bars? I don’t want to talk about why they should be in prison. I just want to know once they become prisoners, how many of them regain people’s respect and love, and how many of them have the determination to stand up again.
As a woman, a wife, a Mother, and a daughter, no matter what crime they commit, they can’t be cut off their social relationships.
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Posted by replicahandbags on Jul 28, 2009 at 10:02 AM The drugs indeed do not spare any one. Do they? Hence it is no surprise that we find several drug treatment centers around us today. their effects on a woman is more intense. She can be a mother, or sister or a daughter. One would have to think about its implications on her kids or siblings. But there are alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, that are used by some practitioners to alleviate the symptoms of drug addiction. In 1997, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted as policy the following statement after a report on a number of alternative therapies including acupuncture. There is little evidence to confirm the safety or efficacy of most alternative therapies. Much of the information currently known about these therapies makes it clear that many have not been shown to be efficacious. Well-designed, stringently controlled research should be done to evaluate the efficacy of alternative therapies.
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