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Unlocked Minds Program Updates 06/01/02
SEF presents our first video, "60%: The Sentencing Policies of the War on Drugs and their Effects on America."
"60%: The Sentencing Policies of the War on Drugs and their Effects on America" is a 28 minute video that explores the relationship between public opinion and public policy by looking at the relationship between the War on Drugs, crime, and race in the mass media. It features interviews with people working on changing the US's drug sentencing policies including Marc Mauer, author of Race to Incarcerate, and Janine Jackson from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). 60% is an educational tool on drug sentencing laws for teachers, community organizations, religious congregations and student groups interested in this issue.
The United States currently incarcerates 2 million people -- more people than any other country on the planet. Why are so many people in prison? Is this country just full of wrong-doers and criminals? Is it just the unfortunate price paid for "stability and democracy"? The answer to these questions unfolds into a complex story involving political opportunists, the role of the mass media in shaping public opinion and new manifestations of the US's legacy of racism.
Right now 60% of people in federal prisons have been locked up for drug charges. When I first read that statistic in a report by the Sentencing Project (sentencingproject.org) I was amazed. Further researched taught me that more than 70% of the people given drug sentences in the US are African-American although most studies show that they only make up about 12% of the nation's drug users. As a kid in the 1980's, The War on Drugs had seemed to be a corny campaign, the pep rallies we got out of class for, the melodramatic public service announcements on television. What the War on Drugs really was, and continues to be, is ineffective federal and state policy responses to drug usage in the United States acted out in the context of racism and fear.
The Self-Education Foundation is the producer and distributor of the video. It is an exciting step for us in our efforts to create more tools and resources for the movements that we are supporting. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the video or setting up a workshop which includes screening the video, please email saraziaselfeducation.org or call our office.
--Sara Zia Ebrahimi.
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