Achieve the Political Goals of The Reagan Administration’s War on Drugs

The War on Drugs and the legislation supporting it exemplified the efficacy of legislation, yet it also brought to light the morality entailed within and beyond legislation that must be cognizant of. Due to the failure of care and case-by-case analysis, thousands to millions of people were given unjust sentences, and rather austere and disciplinary laws were enforced. and even simple offenses weren’t given the consideration they deserved. An example of this failure of reflection is a man who stole children’s videotapes from a Kmart was sentenced to fifty years without parole. Alexander explains that the reason for mass incarceration and the spike in the prison population wasn’t on the account of a change in crime, but a change in law.

These changes in laws are an example of when our democracy strategized for specialized interests. Our democracy doesn’t fully account for the effects of this phenomenon because in order to achieve the political goals of the Reagan administration’s war on drugs, local law enforcement was bribed with cash grants, and was also allowed to keep the equipment on drug prohibition. Local police departments aren’t funded by the state, thus compliance within law enforcement was highly incentivized. This by definition is the opposite of what democracy stands for. Distrust between communities and local law enforcement greatly grew and heightened in this era because the majority of civilians felt as though the state wasn’t protecting them. If anything the state was encouraging crime.

This is also the period of time that focused and placed emphasis on broken-windows policing and perimeter policing. Alexander explained by how Obama funded anti-drug task forces that this drug war is not only unopposed but, “it is simply the way things are done” (Alexandar 93). Alexander argues that the real problem is not the length in prison sentences, but rather the prison label branded a felon. However, to be honest removing this prison label is politically unfeasible. It’s more politically feasible to provide felons or those branded with the prison label more government benefits than to remove their labels altogether. As Alexander previously explained it was a change in laws that brought this spike in incarceration and prison population. Therefore, it would only need a change or reform in laws to resolve this phenomenon.

I’m not convinced that only changing the prison labels would resolve or prevent a great amount of this second-class status that we are seeing. For this second-class citizenship was created as a byproduct of laws. This drug war has been a matter of flawed policy. Where preventative efforts would’ve been a more convalescent and effective path they found penalization to be most desirable, seeing that the profits were most advantageous. Then, with little to no regard people were herded away behind bars. I refuse to believe that this is just the way things are done, but I will cling to the hope that with incremental change one day this damage can be concluded and resolved.