THE WAR ON OUR CHILDHOOD LEAVES NOBODY HOME
Author(s):
OPIO LUMUMBA SOKONI Date:
October 13, 2002
Page:
D12 Section:
Op-Ed
WE WALKED INTO OUR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL VALENTINE'S DANCE LIKE
WE WERE SUPERSTARS. THE GIRLS SAW US AND STARTED SCREAMING. I WAS DRESSED LIKE
MICHAEL JACKSON _ BLACK SUIT WITH HIGH-WATER PANTS, PINK SOCKS, PINK SHIRT. MY
BEST FRIEND, BOBBY, WITH HIS LIGHT BROWN EYES AND BAD-BOY BODY LANGUAGE, WAS
DRESSED AS PRINCE. THOUGH HE WASN'T THERE THAT NIGHT, MY OTHER BEST FRIEND, EDDIE,
COULD HAVE APPEARED AS CHRIS ROCK. HE WAS THE FUNNY MAN IN OUR GROUP, ALWAYS
QUICK WITH A JOKE. I MET EDDIE AND BOBBY WHEN I FIRST MOVED TO ATLANTIC BEACH , FLA.
Fast-forward to 2002. Eddie's in
prison, serving 23 years for a drug related crime after years of an untreated
crack addiction. Bobby also went to jail on a drug charge. He served less time,
but the felony on his record means he can not vote or qualify for federal
student loans. I am a lawyer.
It's not that I'm better or smarter
than my two best friends. I'm just luckier. I saw what crack was doing to my
community and I got out. Dozens of the young men and women I grew up with
didn't. No less than 25 of them have either gone to prison for drug offences or
are now serving time. Not a single one was offered any kind of drug treatment.
My friends, unfortunately, are far from alone. Multiply the Bobbys and Eddies
by the hundreds of thousands, and you have a national crisis. According to the
Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, close
to 800,000 black men are now in America 's
county, state, and federal prisons.
The Atlantic Beach I remember was a
solid, working-class black community. My friends didn't grow up on welfare or
in abusive homes. But all of that changed in about 1987, when crack arrived. We
were 18 years old; we were hip, we were cool, and drugs were on the street. But
crack was different. It changed people, made them do things they wouldn't
otherwise do.
The cops arrived, like a second
invasion, right behind the dealers. They came down hard on Atlantic Beach
A person convicted in federal court for possession of 5
grams of crack cocaine automatically receives a five-year prison term, a far
more serious penalty than for powder cocaine. State laws have been just as
harsh. One after another, my friends were arrested, charged, and went to
prison.
Even if they weren't guilty, few
could risk a trial. They'd plead to a lesser charge and take the jail time.
Since the enactment of mandatory
minimum sentencing for drug offenders, the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget has
ballooned - from $220 million in 1986 to $4.3 billion in 2001. For humanitarian
as well as economic reasons, there is increased interest in more compassionate
and effective alternatives to the failed "war on drugs."
A recent national survey by the Sentencing Project, a prison
advocacy group, asserts that 76 percent of respondents favor required mandatory
treatment rather than prison for those convicted of drug possession.
Seventy-one percent favor mandatory treatment and community service for those
convicted of selling a small quantity of narcotics. California voters overwhelmingly passed an
"alternatives to incarceration" ballot measure in 2000, which has
already saved state taxpayers millions of dollars and diverted thousands of
nonviolent offenders into drug treatment.
As for Bobby, the highlight of my
life was when he and his family moved to Washington, D.C., to live close to me.
He now works in pool construction and talks about getting a college education.
I think about my other friend Eddie
and wonder if he would have been a famous comedian. Imagine America without
Chris Rock or Chris Tucker. That is my life without Eddie. Imagine going home
for a community reunion and finding almost no one there.
PLEASE REFER TO MICROFILM FOR CHART DATA.
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