THE DRUG WAR: A WAR ON WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES

The newest victims of the war on drugs are women and if Drug Czar Gil
Kerlikowske was sincere when he said that the war on drugs is not a
war on the people of this country then it is time to evaluate how our
policies affect the women of this country.

Since 1977, the rate of female imprisonment has increased by nearly
800% and is still rising.

Much of this increase can be attributed to the war on drugs since,
according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 40% of criminal
convictions leading to incarceration of women at the turn of this
century were for drug-related crimes.

Mothers, sisters and daughters are the latest victims of this system
that focuses on punishment instead of rehabilitation. The gravity of
the economic and social costs for these policies cannot be overstated,
especially considering that more than three quarters of women in
prison are mothers.

For many mothers, however, incarceration for a drug-related crime
results in the termination of parental rights.

Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, states initiate the
termination of parental rights proceedings if a child has been placed
in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months.

According to a study released by the U.S. General Accounting Office,
the median prison sentence for women is 60 months, meaning the
majority of mothers in prison lose their parental rights. Many of
these broken families are a direct result of the war on drugs, as
almost three quarters of the women incarcerated in federal prisons are
incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses.

Even after a mother is released from prison, she faces reentry
challenges such as bans on access to food stamps, public housing, and
student aid for individuals with drug convictions. These restrictions
inhibit her ability to reintegrate into society, and maintain a stable
and nurturing environment for her children.

Women, who are often involved in the drug trade through a domestic
partner, are particularly vulnerable to conspiracy laws, which hold a
participant in a drug interaction responsible for the full quantity of
drugs involved, whether or not the participant physically touched
those drugs. In fact, Kemba Smith was sentenced to 24.5 years in
prison with no possibility of parole under a conspiracy statute.

Smith found herself in a relationship with Peter Hall, an older man
whom, unbeknownst to Smith, was the leader in a crack cocaine ring.
She made several unsuccessful attempts to leave Hall, who was
physically and emotionally abusive. Due to mandatory minimum
sentencing, the court could not consider that Smith may have aided
Hall out of fear for her life. In December 2000, President Clinton
granted Smith clemency after she had served almost seven years of her
sentence.

Many women, like Smith, suffer draconian punishments for superficial
involvement in drug conspiracies to the detriment of their families
and communities. Smith, who was seven months pregnant at the time of
her sentencing, gave birth in prison.

Fortunately Smith's parents were able to raise her
child.

According a study issued by the Sentencing Project, 1,706,600 minor
children had an incarcerated parent in 2007, and half of these
children were under ten years old. One out of every 15 African
American children had an incarcerated parent, one in 111 white children.

In fact, having an incarcerated parent is the single greatest
determinant of whether or not a child will be incarcerated in her lifetime.

Statistics show that the school to prison pipeline is a reality; many
of these children will be incarcerated as juvenile offenders,
perpetuating a cycle contact with the criminal justice system.

From 2007 to 2008 the women's prison population grew about three
percent while the male population only increased by 1.9%. This
disparity proves disturbing given that women usually play a peripheral
role in the drug trade.

They are, however, still more likely to serve time for drug offenses
than men, particularly if they happen to be African American.
According to a study conducted by the PEW Center on the States, 1 out
of every 355 white women ages 35-39 in the U.S. is in incarcerated.
For African American women, 1 out of 100 is serving time. Rather than
an indication of higher drug usage among minorities, this study is a
representation of how a system suffering from ingrained racism has
broadened its reach to include women as its newest victims.

Pregnant women struggling with addiction also face a multitude of
challenges under current drug policies, as childbirth complications
can make them vulnerable to extreme legal repercussions. Such was the
case for Regina McKnight, who was sentenced to twenty years in prison
for homicide after experiencing a still-birth, even though it could
not be definitively attributed to her cocaine use. Cases such as
McKnight's depict a woman struggling with drug dependency as a violent
criminal, and dangerously devalue a woman's relationship to her own
body.

Women suffer exploitation in the drug war not only from unjust
policies, but from drug traffickers as well. According to the U.S.
State Department roughly 20,000 people are trafficked into the U.S.
every year, most of these being women sold into the sex trade and drug
cartels use their networks to traffic both drugs and women.

Women are also increasingly acting as drug mules since they are less
likely than men to draw suspicion, and often are the only members of
their families without criminal records.

When one considers the penalties for pregnant drug users and the price
women pay for minimal involvement in the drug trade, the War on drugs
appears, almost literally, as a war on women's bodies.

Women, their children, and society in general, would benefit from
treating drug use, misuse, and abuse as a health issue.

Treatment is more cost-effective and does not necessitate the
dissolution of families, unlike our current incarceration craze.