Throughout his campaign Bernie has made it one of his key points to put a close to the many factors that have led the U.S. to have the most incarcerated people per capita. He has talked about pulling the plug on the failing war on drugs, legalizing marijuana on a federal level, ending the privatized prison industry and ending the incentive to make arrest, and more. As the next Democratic Debate is right around the corner, there can be no better time than now to look at these insanely important policies.
The war on drugs has gone on for too long now, it was designed from the very beginning to target blacks and Latinos and the lower class in general. Upon arrest, the bail is often set too high for anybody of the lower class to pay, then they are given a public lawyer who might have about ten minutes to review the case, and very often a judge is forced to hand out harsh mandatory minimum sentences that aren't worth the crime. To learn more about mandatory minimums and their hard and unjust affects, watch the John Oliver segment on the topic below:
He talks about how some people get life sentences, the equivalent to murder, for charges on meth and heroin and he shows the clear disparity between crack and cocaine and how the laws clearly target the crack users, who are more likely to be poor and black over the cocaine users, who are more likely to be upper class young adults.
The war on drugs has been a way for the upper white class of society to lock away those they deem unfit for modern society and simply throw away the keys. When Killer Mike interviewed Bernie, he even noted that lots of prisons were using the prisoners as basically "indentured servants", forcing them to do work so the prison could make a profit.
On top of this, we now have privatized prisons, something that is now a multi-billion dollar industry with a need to have more prisoners to continue making a profit. If that isn't enough incentive, many police officers get paid on the amount of arrest they produce, and it is much easier to bust someone using or selling drugs than it is to catch a killer or a robber.
Even presuming people get out after their arrest, having the arrest on their record might prevent them from getting a real job so they go back to selling drugs to provide, and many addicts might just fall right back into the cycle since they never got real treatment for their addiction.
On top of all this, many states don't allow anyone with a felony level drug charge to vote, cutting off the voices of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people.
Now let's move on from the bad and on to the beacon of light that is Bernie Sanders.
Bernie believes in the process of rehabilitation over incarceration. Instead of throwing addicts in jail, treat their addiction like it's a disease and help cure the patient. He is also against mandatory minimum, because he understands very well that every situation is different. On top of all this, he wants to take out a major player in the war on drugs, and federally legalize marijuana.
Legalizing marijuana is a move that can bring nothing but good, countless of new legal jobs, lower incarceration rates, and billions in tax revenue for the U.S. government.
He also plans to stand up to the major private prison companies and wants to change the way prisons are being run. On top of this he wants to demilitarize the police and change their need to arrest to make a living.
Bernie is standing for the people in this system, not for the system our society has grown to loath, but accept. He knows it's time to not spend money on incarceration, but maybe move it to rehabilitation for the people who need it, and even on education so we won't have people ending up incarcerated.
It's time for America to accept these policies and bring Bernie into office with them.
As a Native American, my people face the same problems with incarceration and police. The private prison/privatized parole system has created a revolving door that is keeping brown and black from being a force in and protection for their communities. In and out, in and out, most of the time with not even the option to just serve their time and get I over with. Now even small local governments are adopting this corrupt system, that keeps minories down, and at a profit. Jail is becoming a profitable business. A white man we could help elect, who has long recognized and spoken about this problem, who wouldn't take big money for his campaign because he is about justice for all, not profit, is being ignored by us. This is a once in a lifetime, or more, opportunity to help elect a man who does care. Wake up and FeelTheBern! Help elect President Bernie Sanders. Bern Baby Bern! Don't take my word, study up on him and you will see.
ReplyDelete