“Work and Jail”
“I have run in to some interesting recent readings on the nexus between work, or the lack thereof, jail and drugs. In case you didn’t know, the numbers are staggering…
So, perhaps the war on drugs disproportionately affects less-educated minorities, reconciling Petit with Neal and Rick.
What is life like for people in this situation? How do they even get by with so few working? I’ve been reading the reviews, both positive and negative, of Alice Goffman’s On the Run. (The book itself is still on the in pile alas.) But it seems like it gives us a useful sense of the broader impact of the war on drugs and the intense association with the criminal justice system.
Interesting observations fro the New York Times Review:
The war on drugs mangled, if not destroyed, any trust between residents of distressed urban communities and the authorities.
Young men like Mike often avoid girlfriends for fear that the women, for their own reasons, might turn their paramours in
Yes, if the cops are looking for you, the first thing they’ll do is ask a girlfriend, or if there was one, a wife, and the cops can be pretty persuasive. Then we wonder why marriage is rare and men are absent in their children’s lives.As you can see, I’m attracted to the view that a lot of this disaster is one more awful consequence of the pointless war on drugs.”
