The War On Drugs And Its Effects On The Incarceration Rates

The War on Drugs is a term that is commonly applied to the campaign of prohibition of drugs. The goal of this campaign is to reduce the illegal drug trade across America. This term â€Å" War on Drugs† was used during Nixon’s campaign in which he declared War on Drugs during a press conference in 1971. Following this declaration many organizations were created to stop the spread of drugs, like the DEA and Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement. Note that Nixon’s approach to this problem was to fund treatment rather than law enforcement. After Nixon’s retirement from office, most of the funding went from going into treatment to the law enforcement. Which militarized the police force giving the officer’s military weapons and gear. With this, the sentencing for possessing drugs was changed as well, resulting incarcerations rates to increase overtime. The increase of incarceration rates started to create many patterns that were soon noticeable. The fundi ng’s that go into the law enforcement has shown to greatly have an affect on the incarceration rates. In the book The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, her main focus was to show how racism and segregation never really ended since the Civil War. Instead of ending they took a new different form. Michelle Alexander supports this argument using a fair amount of evidence. In the first chapter Michelle Alexander notes, â€Å"The valiant efforts to abolish slavery and Jim Crow and to achieve greater racial equality have brought aboutShow MoreRelatedLegislation and Incarceration in United States956 Words   |  4 PagesLegislation and Incarceration (Order #A2068178) The incarceration rate in the United States has steadily risen since 1973, and Franklin Zimring has examined the relationship between penal legislation and the incarceration rate. He has discovered three distinct periods which demonstrate three differences in the way legislation effects penal practices. 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