Ethan Brown
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There are approximately 7 million people in the U.S. under some form of correctional supervision. The United States is now the world's leading jailer, surpassing even Russia. INCARCERATION NATION: An Inside Look at Crime, Punishment and the Failing U.S. Justice System In his eye-opening lecture "Incarceration Nation," journalist and author of Snitch: Informants, Cooperators and the Corruption of Justice, Ethan Brown, draws on nearly a decade of experience interviewing drug kingpins, drug abuse experts and criminologists to argue that federal and state law enforcement must re-direct their attention away from non-violent drug offenders and toward violent criminals because of an expensive, overburdened prison system that is punching a gigantic hole in the budgets of states such as California and Ohio. Brown traces the explosive growth in the prison system to the mandatory minimums for drug related offenses, which were established by Congress during the height of the hysteria surrounding crack cocaine in the mid-late 1980s. Since the establishment of highly punitive drug laws in the 1980s, drugs such as cocaine and heroin are as available as ever, use of hard drugs remains high, and worse, drugs have actually become cheaper and more pure. • In 1990, the cost of cocaine was approximately $300 per gram. In 2006, the per gram price of cocaine was just $100, according to a recent report by the Brookings Institution. • Since the Mid 1980s, the number of cocaine and heroin users has remained basically unchanged: currently there are approximately 1 million heroin users and 3.3 million cocaine users in the United States. • Rates of drug use in the United States are some of the highest in the world. According to Brookings, “Despite some of the world’s strictest drug laws, combined hard core user prevalence rates for hard drugs are four times higher in the United States than in Europe.” We need look no further than New Orleans for a dramatic illustration of the catastrophic dangers of our punitive drug policy. New Orleans has one of the highest rates of arrests for drug offenses in the nation and Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the United States. Yet New Orleans is the murder capital of the United States and because of law enforcement’s focus on drug crimes, in 2007, a mere 2% of all arrests made by the NOPD were for violent offenses. Worse, the DA’s office in New Orleans is clogging criminal courts by bringing up people arrested for second and third marijuana possession offenses on felony charges. Brown demonstrates how two decades of harsh drug laws have done little to curb drug use and availability. I"Incarceration Nation" explores how the drug war has put millions behind bars without making any discernible success in reducing the price or availability of drugs. Brown points to the way forward - non-violent drug offenders should be rerouted through drug courts instead of prison, and funding for publicly available rehab should increase in order to make a dent in the demand for drugs. Indeed, it is the huge demand for drugs in the United States that is driving the increasingly bloody wars between drug cartels in Mexico, battles that threaten to turn Mexico into a failed state. If we do not act quickly to end the drug war, we will face states bankrupted by the soaring costs of imprisonment, increasingly high levels of drug use and drug related crime, and a failed state-Mexico-just across our border. ABOUT ETHAN BROWN Ethan Brown is the best-selling author of the Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Hustler. From 1999-2004, he was a staff writer at New York Magazine, where he wrote numerous features and cover stories about street crime, drug policy and the music business. Brown writes about criminal justice issues for New Yor, The Guardian, Men's Vogue, GQ, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and Wired among many other publications. Ethan has appeared on Fox News, Court TV, MSNBC, Hot 97, BET and NPR. BLURBS Snitch: Informants, Cooperators and the Corruption of Justice "Must reading for anyone concerned about the future of law and order in America" -- Glenn C. Loury, Brown University Economics professor "Just-the-facts reporting that shows how and why the War on Drugs has destroyed the very black communities it was designed to help" --John McWhorter, Manhattan Institute fellow and best-selling author of Winning the Race: Beyond the Black Crisis in America. "Brown's evidence is overwhelming." --The Legal Times "Hip-Hop Book of the Year" --Davey D, talk show host on San Franciso radio stations KFPA and KMEL Snitch was also just banned from ALL federal prisons: allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/ 2008/03/20/19503566.aspx Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent, and the Rise of the Hip Hop Hustler "Diligently researched and trenchantly observed…a fascinating look at the way one generation's reality becomes the next's mythology." --The Boston Globe "One of the first reliable accounts [of the crack era]…the fact that Brown was able to publish so thorough an account is itself notable." --The Village Voice "A vigorous account of an American subculture that's colorful, influential and, given the body count, tragic." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "If somebody doesn't get shot because of this book, I will be fucking amazed." --Chuck Klosterman |