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Incarceration

Marc Emery Christmas Prison Blog

Marc Emery is approaching the halfway mark of his prison term. In a blog post on cannabisculture.com, "It's a Wonderful Life," he posts a few of the 3,500 letters of support he's received and reminds us that there are hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug war prisoners in the US.

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US Prison Population in First Decline Since 1972

The number of people in prison in the US has dropped for the first time since 1972, and the number of people under correctional supervision has declined for the second year in a row. Is a sea change at hand?
screening of "10 Rules for Dealing with Police," NAACP national conference, July 2010
screening of "10 Rules for Dealing with Police," NAACP national conference, July 2010

NAACP Calls for End to War on Drugs

In a historic step, the nation's largest and oldest black advocacy group has formally come out against the war on drugs.

More Black Men in Prison Today Than Enslaved in 1850, Drug Laws the Reason

Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, told an audience at the Pasadena Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, "More African-American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began." Why have rates of incarcerated black men skyrocketed over the past 30 years? Alexander says it's the war on drugs which focuses primarily on minority communities even though multiple studies have proved that whites use and sell illegal drugs at rates equal to or higher than blacks. Despite this data, four of five black youths in some inner-city communities can expect to be incarcerated in their lifetimes.
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