DRUG WAR TARGETS WOMEN

The drug war has come down on women like a huge hammer in recent
years. During the 1990s, drug offenders accounted for the largest
source of the total growth among female inmates (36 percent). As of
2004, almost one-third of all women prisoners were convicted of drug
offenses; in federal prisons, this figure was 65 percent.

In 1979, only 10 percent of women in state prison were drug offenders.

Much of the increase in women prisoners comes from the impact of
mandatory sentencing laws, passed during the 1980s crackdown on
crime. Under many of these laws, mitigating circumstances (e.g.,
having children, few or no prior offenses, non-violent offenses) are
rarely allowed. A majority of women in prison are there for the first
time; many had no prior felony convictions. When the harsh
Rockefeller drug laws (New York) were passed in 1974, only 400 women
were in prison and only 100 were in for drugs.

By 2004 about 3,000 women were in prison (40 percent for drugs);
almost 87 percent of the women in for drugs were either black or Latina.

What needs to be underscored is the fact that arrests on drug charges
for women reflect their secondary status in the big world of illegal
drug-dealing (estimated to be around $500 billion yearly). Figures
from the Department of Justice show that women are "overrepresented
among low-level drug offenders" and are "not principal figures in
criminal organizations or activities." Regardless, they nevertheless
receive sentences that are similar to "high level" drug offenders.

A detailed study of New York state found that in 1998 a total of 63
percent of those sent to prison were convicted of the lowest-level
drug offenses, what are called felony classes C-E. Another study
notes that women most often serve as "mules" (those who carry drugs
for the drug cartels and other high level dealers) for boyfriends or
lovers, often doing so because of threats to their lives.

Still another report notes that "Just as male counterparts, female
couriers are small time players in economy controlled by narco
dictators, drug lords and barons, military and intelligence agencies,
the police, organized crime, and so on." Continuing, the report notes
that "male couriers are able to realize a greater share of profits,
unlike females who are paid a flat rate, tricked or simply coerced
into trafficking in drugs." Many of these women have been used by
drug-dealers "as decoys for smugglers on their flight who pass easily
through customs with large quantities of cocaine or heroin."

A recent report by the American Civil Liberties Union notes women are
indeed very small cogs in the illegal drug market, with many getting
involved as "a means of supplementing income in the face of
unemployment, low-wage and unstable jobs, lack of affordable housing,
and cuts to social programs such as child care, social assistance,
and health care." In many cases, their role is "limited to answering
telephones or living in a home used for drug-related activities." The
case of Chrissy Taylor is typical, as this report explains: "Chrissy
Taylor was incarcerated at the age of 19 based on her marginal
involvement in her boyfriend's scheme to manufacture methamphetamine.
Her boyfriend asked her to go to a store in Mobile, Ala. to pick up a
shipment of chemicals.

Based on his assurance that the mere purchase and possession of the
chemicals was legal, she went to the store and bought them. As it
happened, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were
working with the chemical store in a reverse-sting operation. The
agents sold Chrissy the chemicals and then arrested both her and her
boyfriend, not for possession or purchase of the chemicals -- neither
of which is in and of itself illegal -- but for possession with
intent to manufacture methamphetamines."

A study of more than 60,000 federal drug cases by the Minneapolis
Star Tribune found that "men were more likely than women to offer
evidence to prosecutors in exchange for shorter sentences, even if
the information placed others, including the women in their lives, in
jeopardy." Because women are such minor players in the drug business,
they rarely have any useful information for prosecutors. Whatever
information they do have, they are reluctant to divulge it, since
doing so might endanger loved ones. Thus, they have "less currency
with which to bargain their way out of harsh sentences."

Like the drug war in general, the "little fish" get caught while the
"big fish" get away.

Randall G. Shelden Is Professor Of Criminal Justice At Unlv. His
Website Is Sheldensays.Com.