America has more than two million citizens behind bars, the highest absolute and per capita rate of incarceration in the world. Black Americans, a mere 13 percent of the population, constitute half of this country's prisoners. A tenth of all black men between ages 20 and 35 are in jail or prison; blacks are incarcerated at over eight times the white rate.

The effect on black communities is catastrophic: one in three male African-Americans in their 30s now has a prison record, as do nearly two-thirds of all black male high school dropouts.

-----------------------

How, after decades of undeniable racial progress, did we end up with this virtual gulag of racial incarceration?

Part of the answer is a law enforcement system that unfairly focuses on drug offenses and other crimes more likely to be committed by blacks, combined with draconian mandatory sentencing and an absurdly counterproductive retreat from rehabilitation as an integral method of dealing with offenders.

--------------------------

The circumstances that far too many African-Americans face -- the lack of paternal support and discipline; the requirement that single mothers work regardless of the effect on their children's care; the hypocritical refusal of conservative politicians to put their money where their mouths are on family values; the recourse by male youths to gangs as parental substitutes; the ghetto-fabulous culture of the streets; the lack of skills among black men for the jobs and pay they want; the hypersegregation of blacks into impoverished inner-city neighborhoods -- all interact perversely with the prison system that simply makes hardened criminals of nonviolent drug offenders and spits out angry men who are unemployable, unreformable and unmarriageable, closing the vicious circle.

The Des Moines Register had an article about the an increase in the B/W prisoner ratio for new court commitments which account for about  30% of all prison admissions (most are parole/probation revocations and returns from work release). I think the timing of the article is interesting because there is a conference coming up on disproportionate minority confinement. it may be the editorial board thinks that Gov. Culver may actually try to do something about this problem.

For the first time in many years the Governor, Senate and House (just barely) are controlled by Democrats so there is a chance that some of the damage done by the Republicans can be repaired but the rethugs have already made it clear they will smear anyone who tries to reduce penalties no matter what party.

disproportionate incarceration rates, by themselves, are meaningless. the issue is: why?

do blacks in iowa commit crime disproportionate to their % of the population? are they arrested at a higher rate than other groups, under the same circumstances?

If it hasn't already begun, expect plenty of heroin coming in from Afghanistan any day soon. During the Iran-contra swindle there was heroin coming in through Beruit via people like Monzer al-Kassar, who was also a big arms dealer on the Iran end of that secret war. On the contra end weapons went south and cocaine (some remanufactured into crack) came back on the return flights. Back during the Vietnam War we had Air America and the Golden Triangle. There was the French Connection where the Guerini Gang in Marseilles got a pass on their heroin business in return for beating up and killing Communists on the docks there. Even before that there was the deal with Lucky Luciano in WWII.

In short most military interventions since WWII have a component of drug trade as part of the operation, usually handled by CIA contract agents. Having a war on drugs while supplying the drugs guarantees an endless war.

There was an interesting interview over at Truthdig! a few months back with someone positing that putting drugs into the black community is a means of keeping a class of Americans economically depressed and thus depressing wages among the working class.

The mass disenfranchisement of minorities and the poor becomes more imperative as right-wing politicians need to campaign to their "middle class" Read 'white' constituencies.

American consumer demand for intoxicant drugs is worth between $ 322-500 billion a year depending on the estimate. US Illicit drug market value calculator

Offer poor people the choice between hunger and breaking the law and many will choose to break the law.

As populations of criminalized people return to their communities they becoem easy targets for lazy police and prosecutors looking more to rack up high arrest and prosecution rates than to protecting society.

I highly recommend listening to the two hour hearing by the U.S. congress Joint Economic Committee this past week titled, "Mass Incarceration in the United States: At What Cost?"