CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

Tuesday, June 10, the Hammer Museum hosts Judge James P. Gray,
retired police chief Norm Stamper, and author and activist Marc Mauer
in "The Crime of Punishment," a discussion forum about the inequity
in which the American criminal justice system is steeped and Tricky
Dick's still-lumbering "War on Drugs."

Mauer indicates that although there's (probably) no conspiracy afoot
to cultivate this racism, Americans have tacitly consented to it by
allowing clearly discriminatory policies to be enacted and enforced.

"There's been a very concerted effort to arrest and incarcerate
record numbers of people, most of them people of color. Most of the
policy making has been very publicized," says Mauer, who has directed
programs on criminal justice reform for more than 25 years.

For example, he condemns the "two-tiered war on drugs" being waged in
America. In affluent communities, drug abuse is treated as a disease
with which users are afflicted, and rehab is the solution. But in
low-income, non-white communities, drug abusers become criminals, and
punitive incarceration is the solution. A dearth of resources
available to members of these communities often makes counseling and
treatment impossible.

According to Mauer, the maladies of America's justice system run
deeper than biased sentencing policy and torpid progressive
legislation - higher rates of violent crime, availability of
firearms, and a decidedly punitive approach to sentencing keep more
Americans in jail longer. This helps explain why the U.S. has less
than five percent of the world's population, but more than a quarter
of its prisoners.

"The massive prison system translates into limitations on democracy,"
he says, citing the disenfranchisement of more than five million
people during the upcoming election, including 13 percent of all black males.

But Mauer isn't humming America's funeral dirge just yet; he posits
some solutions.

"We should have a dramatic reduction in the use of incarceration - in
particular for people convicted of nonviolent property and drug
crimes," he says. He adds that the resources previously used for law
enforcement and imprisonment should be reallocated to fund policies
and programs designed to provide treatment for users.

These suggestions - along with institutions designed to ensure a
successful transition from prison back into society, promote a frank
dialogue concerning drug policy, and emphasize the importance of
community and family involvement - could comprise a more sensitive,
multifaceted solution.

"Research shows that prison has at best a modest impact on reducing
crime," Mauer says.

"The Crime of Punishment." Tues. at 7 p.m. Free. Hammer Museum, 10899
Wilshire Blvd., Westwood, (310) 443-7000. hammer.ucla.edu.