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The Unfair Sentencing Act: Racial Disparities And Fiscal Consequences Of America's Drug Laws, Kristin Zimmerman
The Unfair Sentencing Act: Racial Disparities And Fiscal Consequences Of America's Drug Laws, Kristin Zimmerman
Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science
In 1986, the United States government attempted to combat the perceived war on drugs by enacting mandatory drug laws, with a primary focus on incarcerating crack offenders. The result of this was a mass influx of African Americans to US penitentiaries and minimal to zero reduction of crack convictions. Because the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 recognized 100 grams of cocaine as equivalent to one gram of crack, it has been perceived not as a war on drugs, but as a war on a war on minorities. The mass incarceration of drug offenders also led to severely damaging fiscal consequences …