Eliminating tough penalties for petty drug crimes

Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce today that federal prosecutors no longer will seek tough prison terms for low-level, nonviolent drug offenders.

That's great news in a country that, despite declining prison counts over the past few years (driven as much by economic realities as by a shift in corrections philosophy), still leads the planet in the rate of citizens it puts behind bars.

It's an inefficient approach that costs more than the direct dollars used for incarceration -- although that's substantial enough (this 2011 Atlantic article found that many state legislatures were spending more tax money on incarceration than on higher education).

Nearly half the inmates incarcerated in the federal system are serving sentences for drug crimes. Of course, many are serious, violent, gang-affiliated or repeat offenders who wouldn't have benefited from the new leniency. And the links above are proof enough that it's going to take more than a change in federal policy to put a dent in our bulging prison populations here in Iowa and in other states.

According to the Iowa Department of Corrections FY12 annual report, Iowa's prison population has exploded over the past 25 years -- from 2,890 people behind bars in the summer of 1988 to 8,333 at mid-year 2012. Nearly triple the number of people in prison, even though overall crime was declining in that same time – from about 6.2 crimes reported per 1,000 residents in 1998 to about 5.5 per 1,000  in 2009 (the most recent figure available online), according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

Just 2 percent of the people incarcerated in 1988 were serving time for drug times. By 2012, that number was 22 percent -- lower than FY05's all-time high of 26 percent , but nothing to brag about.

What's more, state department of drug policy reports routinely show that only about half the inmates with identified drug use issues receive any kind of drug treatment while behind bars -- in many cases, we're warehousing low-level drug offenders without addressing the problems that landed them in expensive prison beds in the first place.

And that's not to mention all the offenders serving short sentences in county jails across the state, an issue that's been brought up here in Johnson County by opponents of a new Justice Center and much-needed jail expansion.

The manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs is a criminal issue, that's certain. But drug use is best addressed as a public health concern. In that respect, at least, the "War on Drugs" has been a disaster.

The trouble is, it's difficult to undo the damage -- not a single Iowa legislator wants to be seen as soft on crime, not even in our relatively safe state, even at this overwhelmingly safe time in history.

But somehow, our leaders have to find the political will to do away with Iowa's tough mandatory minimum sentences for petty drug crimes, which take discretion out of the court's hands, forcing judges to fill our prisons and jails with Iowans who have no business behind bars.

Repealing those mandatory minimum sentences would do more than save taxpayer money and minimize the disruption to communities, families and individual lives. It would be a step toward addressing the problem of substance abuse in a meaningful way.