What You Need to Know About Prosecution of Women for Drug-Related Offenses
The War on Drugs has been going on for many years. As time goes on, more and more women are arrested and mistreated due to drug offenses. Here is everything you need to know about the prosecution of women for drug-related offenses.
Women are becoming a fast-growing portion of the prison population, largely because of draconian drug laws. More than 61% of women doing time in federal prison are behind bars for nonviolent drug offenses. Women, particularly women of color, are disproportionately affected by social stigma, the drug treatment system designed for men, regulations that bar people with a drug conviction from obtaining public assistance, and a plea bargaining system that punishes those unable or unwilling to inform on others.
Women of Color
Women of color are much more likely to be incarcerated than white women. Black women are twice as likely, and Latina women are 20% more likely, to be incarcerated than white women. Native American women are incarcerated at six times the rate of white women. Drug use occurs at similar rates across racial and ethnic groups, but women of color are far more likely to be criminalized for drug law violations than white women.
Women of color are not only heavily profiled by police, but by their surrounding communities. The more that police profile and arrest women of color for drug-related offenses at a much higher rate than white women, the more that women of color are perceived as avid drug users, couriers, and purveyors in their communities and beyond. This leads to ongoing strip searches and visual and physical body-cavity searches, which are not only uncomfortable and uncalled for in many cases, but usually flat out humiliating.
Mothers
Roughly 60% of women in state and federal prisons are mothers of minor children, many of them sole caregivers. Removing a parent from the household can be very destabilizing, especially if the said parent is the only one in the household. Over the long term, this destabilization can be devastating. Children with a parent in prison are several times more likely than other children to end up in foster care, drop out of school, and become involved in the criminal legal system themselves. Once parents are released from prison, they may be barred from public assistance and housing, along with facing significantly fewer employment opportunities. Even women who are not drug users may be required to submit invasive and embarrassing monitored drug testing in order to obtain public assistance.
Under the drug war logic that has infiltrated our child welfare system, any drug use is equivalent to child abuse, regardless of context and whether or not there is actual harm to the child. This has resulted in horrible formalized policies that demonize drug-using parents, even when their child is in no danger and is living a healthy and normal life. These policies often force parents to undergo drug tests without their permission, expose them to relentless investigation, and have their children removed from their care without any reason other than supposed drug use.
Related: Parental Rights When Dealing with CPS in California
Women Charged with Conspiracy
Women charged with conspiracy remain one of the most appalling examples of how the drug war unfairly treats women. Although conspiracy laws were designed to target high-level members of illicit drug organizations, they have swept up many women for being guilty of nothing more than living with or not cooperating as an informant against a partner or family member involved in some level of drug sales. On top of this, the harsh mandatory minimum sentences keep these women behind bars from anywhere between 20 years and life, even if they were never directly involved in any drug sales or distribution.
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If you have any more questions about the prosecution of women for drug-related offenses, contact us. Get your free consultation with one of our Criminal Defense Attorneys for Women in California!