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1971 Nixon's War on Drugs
1media/Screen Shot 2023-03-21 at 2.24.32 PM_thumb.png2023-03-21T21:25:43+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a4911fter President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs” in 1971, the number of people incarcerated in American jails and prisons escalated from 300,000 to 2.3 million. Half of those in federal prison are incarcerated for a drug offense, and two-thirds of those in prison for drug offenses are people of color. Disproportionate arrest, conviction, and sentencing rates for drug offenses have devastated communities of color in America. The Nixon Administration’s strategy of using drugs to “vilify [African Americans] night after night on the evening news” fostered a politics of fear and anger that reached frenzied heights in the 1990s. Sensationalist media accounts of “soaring” crime rates in the 1980s and early 1990s combined with extraordinary resentment about rehabilitation programs within prisons to create a political environment in which every elected official sought to be “tough on crime.” Decrying that “gangs and drugs have taken over our streets and undermined our schools,” President Bill Clinton in 1994 signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, allotting $12.5 billion to states to increase incarcerationplain2023-03-21T21:25:43+00:001971Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
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12023-05-24T00:24:18+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49War on DrugsGina Leon41970s Focused Researchgallery2023-09-20T21:55:16+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49