Is the War on Drugs a War on Women?

Article by Julia Lutsky and Brigette Sarabi

According to Amnesty International, much of the “dramatic increase [in the rate of incarceration for women] ... is due, in large part, to a massive rise in the number of women incarcerated for violating drug laws.” In 1997, the largest single category of women prisoners - over a third - were convicted of non-violent drug-related crimes, an increase from a little over one-eighth eighteen years earlier. Violations of drug laws were the most serious offense committed by 72% of women in federal prisons and over 32% of women in state prisons. Between 1986 (the year many federal mandatory drug sentences were enacted) and 1996, the number of women sent to state prison for drug crimes increased 10 fold (from around 2,370 to 23,700).

In the 1980s, crack cocaine was the big drug scare, and harsh mandatory sentences were enacted for simple possession. Many women, primarily women of color, were caught up in the dragnet that ensued. As of 2000, African Americans made up 84% of all prisoners doing time for crack. The sentences for crack cocaine are exceedingly harsh, averaging 119 months – far longer than the average sentences for robbery, arson, and manslaughter. The harsh drug sentences like those for crack cocaine, and the targeted enforcement of drug laws and arrests in minority communities, are a major reason African American women are 8 times more likely to be in prison than white women.

But throughout the country there is a new, additional focus in drug enforcement that is likely to result in another major escalation of the number of poor women in prison – this time, primarily white women and, to a lesser degree, Latinas. Methamphetamine (meth) is fast becoming a national scourge according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The drug – which is easily synthesized from highly toxic but readily available ingredients — has brought about the growth of “home labs,” frequently by addicts whose primary purpose is to support their own habit. As of 1999, 72% of prisoners doing time on meth charges were white, and 22% were Hispanic.

2003 was a banner year for anti-meth legislation, and one particularly insidious new law will inevitably result in more women going to prison for long sentences in our region. Legislation that makes the manufacture of methamphetamine in a place where there are minor children subject to enhanced penalties passed this year in both Montana and in Nevada. The Montana law (HB 402) doubles the maximum sentence from 25 to 50 years for people running a meth lab where children are present. The Nevada law (AB 33) doubles the sentence imposed for meth manufacturing when done in the presence of children, and mandates that the additional sentence must run consecutively to the original drug manufacturing sentence. Experts, and the prison construction industry, agree that passage of this type of legislation will inevitably lead to an increased demand for women’s cells and prisons, since the small, home labs that are the most likely target of enforcement efforts are the operations most likely to have women and children present.

While there is no doubt that methamphetamine manufacturing is a dangerous process with potentially fatal results, the enhanced sentencing that is flying through state legislatures will have a disproportionate impact on women – most of whom are addicts involved in low-level manufacturing to support their own addiction. Nationally, prison cells cost between $80,000 and $90,000 to construct and average about $18,330 per year to operate, while residential treatment programs average $14,600/patient annually and outpatient programs only $2,300 annually. We, as prison activists, must therefore press for these programs and not acquiesce in the construction of more prisons and the passage of enhanced sentencing that does nothing to reduce the problem of addiction.

This article originally appeared in Justice Matters in Summer 2003.