The United States of America has become notorious for being the country with the highest number of incarcerated people in the entire world, surpassing even its closest followers by hundreds of thousands of prisoners. In order to understand why this has occurred, it is important to look at the campaign that set the stage for mass incarceration to become as big of a problem as it has: The War on Drugs. Nixon’s War on Drugs set the standard for drug arrests for the next few decades, leading to an exponential increase in those in the prison system.

Additionally, the War on Drugs disproportionately targeted African American and Latinx individuals, which led to an exponential spike in the number of black and Latinx prisoners. As incarceration rates have grown significantly, overcrowding in prisons began to occur, and out of this dilemma, the prison for profit system was born. This system was created to combat both overcrowding as well as the fact that prisons were spending more on prisoners than they could reasonably afford. To deal with this, prisons began using extremely low wage labor to offset these costs, but now, the private prison sector has evolved into an industry with powerful corporations that bring in billions of dollars each year. Despite the fact that incarceration for drug related offenses has been proven to be ineffective in terms of recovery for drug abusers, this is still the default in many states in the country, due to lobbying from this industry. It is clear that history is repeating itself, and those with money and power are continuing to exploit African Americans and Latinx individuals for labor under the guise of protecting the American people.

Although the War on Drugs was portrayed as a movement to save America from the evil drug abusers making the country unsafe, in practice, it became an excuse to put black and Latinx individuals in prisons. Mandatory minimums were implemented during the War on Drugs, setting minimum sentences for drug related crimes. This meant that even smaller crimes such as possession, which made up over 80% of drug related arrests in 2016, would have long sentences. Because the rate of incarceration has become so high, it is obvious that certain groups are targeted excessively. Nearly seven percent of black men that are high school drop outs under 35 were incarcerated compared to fifteen percent before the War on Drugs began, and to this day, prosecutors are two times more likely to push for a mandatory minimum sentence for a black person compared to a white person. An example of how black people were targeted in the War on Drugs is explained in a video narrated by Jay Z. While both crack cocaine and powder cocaine have the same chemical make-up, there were differences in how cases were treated based on sellers of both drugs, because sellers of crack cocaine tended to be predominantly black.

Even to this day, in New York, where possession of marijuana is not an arrestable offense, citations for possession are given out at a much higher rate in predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods than other neighborhoods with similar rates of possession. Additionally, although marijuana has been legalized in states such as California and Colorado, the industry is extremely exclusive, and a majority of the time, only wealthy people are able to start marijuana related businesses. Former felons, on the other hand, many of whom were people of low socioeconomic status arrested for drug related charges, cannot participate in the legal marijuana business. Even further, in states such as Louisiana, low level drug offenders still face mandatory minimum sentences, while venture capitalists can make millions of dollars off the same industry.

Drug abuse, especially for certain groups such as black people, Latinx people, and those with a low socioeconomic status, has extremely high costs in terms of both money and consequences. Drug related citations and arrests often have large fines tied to them, making it more difficult for targeted groups to recover from arrests and incarceration. Even for prisons, the costs are high, with each inmate costing on average, $30,000 per year, but can range between $14,000 and $69,000 depending on the state. Because these costs have become so high and incarceration rates have been continuously rising, private prisons filled the need for a new system to house inmates. In recent decades, this has grown into an incredibly large industry, with the largest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, making over $1.6 billion in just 2010. The need for private prisons would be eliminated without the overcrowding that plagues so many of America’s prisons. This, combined with an incredibly powerful industry, has led to increased lobbying in favor of increased sentences and stricter punishments for crimes.

However, the reason that this industry has even been able to become this big is off of the backs of exploited laborers. Because there is still debate over what rules legally private prisons have to follow compared to state prisons, as well as significantly fewer opportunities for oversight on these prisons, the mistreatment of prisoners being used for cheap labor is difficult to document. Private prisons have been shown to have higher levels of violence, as well as higher rates of recidivism. Drug offenders are unlikely to reform from prison as is, so with increased recidivism – which benefits the prison – they are being set up for failure. The private prison system has no motivation to reform offenders, and with such limited oversight, they are able to continue to exploit marginalized groups that have been exploited since the founding of this country.

Despite incarceration rates growing exponentially since the War on Drugs began, there is little evidence to indicate that incarceration actually helps with drug abuse and reform. Over 75% of prisoners who receive treatment for drug related offenses stop abusing drugs out of prison, but only 19% who do not receive treatment stop abusing drugs. Additionally, in a system where prisons have incentives to keep prisoners there longer or make sure they come back, there is little chance that prisoners will get better.

However, there are alternatives to prison that have been shown to be significantly more effective in helping drug offenders. For example, implementing drug courts can save thousands of dollars as shown in Pinellas County in Florida. Drug courts diverted nonviolent offenders to treatment rather than prison, and the county saved approximately $589,000 in 2005. Further, expensive drug rehabilitation programs cost only approximately $10,000 per person, compared to imprisonment which is, on average, three times higher. Even the Human Rights Watch recommends rehabilitation programs and drug courts, specifically for the United States of America in order to combat the mass incarceration issue. They also recommend law enforcement to focus less on low level offenders and more on major distributors and importers of drugs.

While drug possession has resulted in hundreds of thousands of poor, black, and Latinx people ending up in jail to this day, wealthy individuals are still able to profit off of the same industry. There has been clear evidence as well as recommendations from well-known human rights groups that suggest that moving away from imprisonment for drug related offenses will both help drug offenders in staying away from these crimes as well as helping the mass incarceration problem faced by the United States. With all of these facts, and the common knowledge that drug related incarceration is ineffective, why do we continue to use imprisonment as a solution? This raises the question of whether Nixon’s War on Drugs and current drug laws exist to protect people or whether they exist to keep historically oppressed groups of people in that same position. Coupled with intense lobbying for longer and harsher sentences from the private prison industry, it is obvious that money speaks louder than factual evidence in this case. Even if slavery has been “officially” abolished, the inhumane conditions in which prisoners have to work is comparable, and since it has been repeatedly shown that poor, black and Latinx people are much more likely to go to jail for drug related offenses, it is important to question whether slavery ever really entirely disappeared in America.

Evidence clearly indicates that the War on Drugs specifically targeted black and Latinx communities, and to this day, many drug related arrests and incarcerations have racial biases involved, as these existed from the moment the War on Drugs began. Prejudices are apparent in both written legislation as well as implicitly in arrest rates, likelihood of conviction, and sentencing. Race and socioeconomic factors are important to consider with drug related arrests, as well as whether nonviolent drug related incidences should even be criminal offenses, as those who view drug abuse as a disease rather than a moral decision typically lean towards drug treatment programs for offenders. As it is also evident that prison is not the most effective way to reform drug addicts, alternatives that exist such as special drug courts and rehabilitation must be implemented. However, due to the private prison industry, this will be difficult to accomplish, but with changes in legislation, the racially motivated War on Drugs must and will end.