By the time 18-year-old "Jeremiah's" federal prison sentence expires, he will have spent nearly a third of his young life behind bars — for a nonviolent crime. He is not alone. As a result of government drug sweeps conducted in Albany since 2006, 50 of Albany's young African-American males have been sentenced to more than 600 years in prison for nonviolent crimes.
Though the law enforcement agencies that executed the sweeps claimed their targets were murderers, robbers and other dangerous offenders, most of those sentenced to date have been sent to prison solely for the nebulous crimes of "conspiracy" and "enterprise corruption."
A new report by the Center for Law and Justice, "What Have We Done? Mass Incarceration and the Targeting of Albany's Black Males by Federal, State and Local Authorities," describes how recent law enforcement efforts in Albany help perpetuate a racial caste system that has existed for centuries. Mass incarceration in Albany constitutes "The New Jim Crow."
Although steps have been taken in recent years to reduce inequities in state and federal drug crime sentencing, law enforcement officials are implementing a new tool to arrest and prosecute drug-related crimes: racketeering laws. Using the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Statute of 1970 and the New York State Organized Crime Control Act of 1986 — both designed to address large-scale organized crime organizations — the government can further penalize individuals for prior convictions for distinct crimes that already carry their own severe sentences.
If a prosecutor can demonstrate that the prior convictions — for which the individual may already have served time — were committed as part of a pattern of "racketeering" activity to maintain an interest in an "enterprise," the individual faces decades in prison.
While a few defendants arrested in the sweeps were sentenced for more serious crimes, the two federal sweeps in 2006 and 2009 incarcerated 33 of Albany's young African-American males for a total of nearly 300 years for nonviolent crimes. A single state sweep in 2010 sent 17 young men, all minorities, to prison for a total of 317 years.
The mass incarceration of Albany's young black men is rooted in structural racism that perpetuates a centuries-old racial caste system.
The "War on Drugs" launched in the 1970s in response to civil rights legislation of the 1960s replicates post-Civil War laws passed to discriminate against blacks in response to Reconstruction-era constitutional amendments that gave African-Americans voting rights.
As a direct result of President Richard Nixon's 1971 declaration of the "War on Drugs" (designed to further the "Southern strategy" to influence white voters and disenfranchise blacks), the nation experienced an explosion in African-American incarceration rates.
Mass incarceration has destroyed the lives of many young Albany black males and has devastated their families. It imposes severe limitations on employment, education, housing and voting.
Rooted as it is in centuries-old historical precedent, mass incarceration can only be eliminated through a two-pronged approach: a commitment by government entities to assess and address the impact of mass incarceration, accompanied by a grass-roots social movement to educate and organize communities.
The Center for Law and Justice calls upon Gov. Andrew Cuomo to appoint a task force charged with assessing and addressing the impact of mass incarceration on communities of color in New York.
To begin that education and organization, a number of community groups will discuss mass incarceration and "The New Jim Crow" at a 6 p.m. forum Thursday, Oct. 25, at the Unitarian Universalist Society, 405 Washington Ave. in Albany.
Alice P. Green is executive director of The Center for Law and Justice. The full text of "What Have We Done? Mass Incarceration and the Targeting of Albany's Black Males by Federal, State and Local Authorities" may be found on The Center for Law and Justice's website, http://www.cflj.org.