The War on Justice
by Bill Shein

Mitchell Lawrence, the Otis teen who sold 1.12 grams of marijuana to an undercover police officer in the summer of 2004, is now in prison for two years, with no possibility of parole.

He was convicted of a school-zone violation after the Berkshire County District Attorney, David Capeless, decided that this nonviolent, first-time offender should get a taste of the Big House.

In the simplistic language of modern American criminal justice, Lawrence is "off the streets." He's "doing time" because he "did the crime." There's a "war on drugs" under way, and we can have "zero tolerance" for "criminals."

But are our communities safer with Mitchell Lawrence in jail? Is public safety enhanced by spending tax dollars on months-long sting operations aimed at our young people — including pot-smoking kids? And is the valuable time of our police and prosecutors and courts best used bringing the cases of nonviolent, first-time offenders to trial?

Meanwhile, are Berkshire County children best served when police officers walk the halls of our schools with German shepherd dogs, searching lockers and backpacks for contraband? Do such "lockdown" tactics of fear and intimidation really help kids who have drug-related problems? By treating our young people like criminals, are we creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Unfortunately, in a national political atmosphere where Reinhold Niebuhr's "emotionally potent oversimplification" is the order of the day, it's not surprising that some elected officials choose the politically expedient course.

It's far easier to put "I'm tough on crime!" on a campaign poster than "I responsibly apply the law and, when appropriate, guide nonviolent and first-time drug offenders into alternative programs that ultimately have the best outcome for them and our communities."

But it's not just politicians and district attorneys who are to blame; we are all complicit. For nearly a quarter-century, we have allowed developments like the misguided "war on drugs" and the growth of a multi-billion-dollar private-prison industry to distort our system of justice.

Here in the land of the free, more people are incarcerated — both in absolute numbers (2.2 million) and in proportion to population (724 per 100,000) — than in any other country in the world, except perhaps China, whose official claim of 1.5 million prisoners is likely off by as much as a factor of 10.

We also still execute people, part of the ever-more-exclusive global club that includes Iran (stoning), Saudi Arabia (beheading), and Uzbekistan (firing squad). According to Amnesty International, 123 countries have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice — 40 of them since 1990. But not the world's leading democracy.

Since the start of the "war on drugs" in the early 1980s, the rate of incarceration has skyrocketed. Including those on probation or parole, nearly 7 million people are now under the supervision of the American criminal-justice system, or 1 in 31 adults. In 1980, it was just 1.8 million people.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, nearly one-quarter of those in state prisons are drug offenders. And nearly 60 percent of those in today's "correctional population" are black and Hispanic, evidence of the drug war's outsized impact on people of color.

While waging a "war on drugs," we have become addicted to sending people to jail.

There's little question that the school-zone law that put Mitchell Lawrence behind bars is outdated and was applied inappropriately. It should be modified or eliminated. No doubt it will be the topic of a long-overdue debate in this year's local elections.

But in addition to eliminating phony "tough on crime" sentencing guidelines that tie the hands of prosecutors and judges, it's time to end what has become a broader war on justice. Americans should not abide a criminal-justice system that increasingly relies on widespread incarceration as social policy. We can do better.

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Bill Shein likes German shepherd dogs. As pets.

(This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle newspaper on April 19, 2006. Join a discussion about this column in Bill's blog. And read Bill's previous column, "Tax Filing Do's and Don'ts").