The War on Drugs in Middle America

This news story from New Albany, Indiana, is the best example I've seen in a while of what's wrong with the drug war.

Running under the headline: New Albany Drug Problem 'Bigger Than Anyone Can Ever Imagine,' the story lays out the work of the New Albany Police Department's 'Flex Team' in making 145 arrests in five months in the small city of New Albany, Indiana. First of all, someone could probably imagine bigger, sometime. But that's just a figure of speech - I should save my criticism for the tactics.

More importantly, 100% of the 145 arrests they're proud to announce were of two varities. Thirty-three were for selling drugs, usually in person to an undercover agent. Those are street-level dealers, not traffickers or anyone whose arrest might affect the supply of drugs. The other 112 arrests were for possession.

From the article:

Officers on the street are too busy responding to calls to go out searching for crime...Before the Flex team formed, they say drug dealing arrests were rare.

The Southern Indiana Drug Task Force, which formed in 1992, fizzled out about a year ago as more federal money went from fighting the “War on Drugs” to the “War on Terror,” one officer said. The drug task force had been made up of officers from agencies in Floyd, Clark, Harrison and Scott counties, who combined resources and expertise to fight drug activity in the region. Now, departments are mostly on their own to figure out how to combat the drug problem.

The team had high praise for the Floyd County Prosecutor’s office. They said Prosecutor Keith Henderson usually only accepts plea deals that call for 10 to 20 years of jail time on felony drug charges. They hope the message spreads to drug dealers in Louisville to stay away.

So they created a special team to make hand-to-hand drug arrests because other officers were super busy with real crime. And they basically have an informal mandatory minimum plea deal in place. A defendant's chances at trial may not be much better. It's a perfect recipe to fill prisons and destroy communities while allowing the drug trade to continue, keeping the flex team in business for years to come.

The recently-defunct Southern Indiana Drug Task Force was funded by the federal Edward Byrne Memorial State Justice Assistance grants, the same money that fueled dozens of fraudulent drug arrests and convictions in Tulia, Texas.

Scratch under the surface of Byrne-funded drug task forces around the country, and you'll probably find more Tulias. And New Albany is worried that money shifted from "war on drugs" to "war on terror" (both false advertising), but the "war on recession" might start funding those nice anti-drug programs again - the stimulus package included $2 billion for the Byrne grants. We, as the taxpayers, should be vigilant that we don't pay for high-tech regional drug stings to chalk up low-level arrests of poor people but rather fund drug courts, treatment centers, job training, prison education, early childhood education and more innovative programs that will prevent crime from happening and help people rebuild healthy lives after a criminal conviction.

(The photo above is actually from New Albany, Pennsylvania, but I couldn't resist).