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Friday, July 17, 2009

Drugs One Way to Avoid Building a New Jail

Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 3:47 PM

Seattle police are trying to change the way they deal with open-air drug dealing. The East Precinct is considering a pilot program called "Drug Market Initiative," which offers a new approach to eliminating chronic drug dealing.

Instead of reacting to arrests, low-level drug dealers will be confronted and pressured to stop. Prison won't be automatic if the person accepts drug treatment, job training or other services.

Police say for this program to be effective, neighbors need to be engaged.

"And the community itself says, 'We want you to stop this behavior. And as a sign of good faith, we'll offer you services and support at the community level, but you have to stop your street level drug dealing,'" said Capt.Paul McDonagh.

This is long overdue. Many if not most street dealers sell drugs to maintain their habits; more than jail, they need a way to get clean and get off the street. But in 2008, the Seattle Police Department booked 2,957 people into the King County jail primarily for drug offenses, making drug offenders 10 percent of the overall jail population, according to findings of a jail capacity study being conducted by the city council. Seattle and nearby cities are grappling with whether we need to build a new jail—at costs ranging past $200 million—but if we can stop filling the jail we're using (with people who don't need to be there), we won't need to build a new one.

"We're at a time when the national Drug Czar and Secretary of State have acknowledged that focusing on the drug problem primarily as a criminal matter is a failed strategy," says Alison Holcomb, a member of the jail study group and drug policy director of the ACLU of Washington. "Taking a closer look at the reasons why people use drugs and get involved in the illegal drug market could lead us to smarter, more effective and more cost-efficient solutions." Indeed.

Comments (16) RSS

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Check out the area around Madison St. McDonald's on 1st hill.
It is way beyond obvious street dealing.
Some days you have to run the gamut to get by druggies.

Posted by 1st hill walker on July 17, 2009 at 4:05 PM

Do they also take interns at the Stranger as a diversion too?

Just asking.

All but a few over-50 people want to end this Drug War farce over MJ and sell it in stores like we do the far more addictive tobacco and beer/wine.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on July 17, 2009 at 4:17 PM

The Drug War isn't intended to stop drug use. It's sole purpose is to feed the American public's craving to deliver punishment. It doesn't even matter if they get the right people or not, as long as somebody's being punished. Hard.

Posted by Fnarf

on July 17, 2009 at 4:21 PM

If it were JUST marijuana we were talking about here Will, that would be one thing, but, in my neighborhood at least, you got's crack, meth, and probably heroin all being sold on the street, none of which are going to be decriminalized or legalized anytime soon, probably never. So, this makes a lot more sense to me than simply locking up the same user/dealers over and over again.

Posted by COMTE

on July 17, 2009 at 4:23 PM

@3 - no, it's to employ all the people that were Revenuers, Fnarf. Try cracking open a history book.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on July 17, 2009 at 4:57 PM

How about shoot to kill?

Posted by Sandy Beach on July 17, 2009 at 6:01 PM

So the new strategy seems to be that when the threat of prison doesn't stop someone from selling, asking them to stop will. How does that work?

Posted by Mo on July 17, 2009 at 6:37 PM

Our group provides services for these folks (the drug dealers). I'm really curious how the legal stuff will go down. Arresting entrenched dealers doesn't eliminate the illegal activity. Would trying to work *with* them help reduce the overall negative impact they have on the community?

Posted by MJ on July 17, 2009 at 9:19 PM

This sounds like David Kennedy's Ceasefire strategy. Here's a summary of it from a few years ago: http://www.newsweek.com/id/182534

The New Yorker had a great article on it in June: http://www.macmahan.com/documents/Seabro…

And Mark Kleiman has a new book on this approach in general, "When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment."

It's like a battle between economics and sociology. Incentives (prison) has failed, so maybe bolstering norms will work.

Posted by chrismealy on July 17, 2009 at 9:54 PM

Meanwhile, if you jaywalk, drive down Third Avenue at the wrong time of day, walk your dog without a leash in the wrong park, burn a log in your fireplace on the wrong day, do a lap dance within five feet of a customer, or celebrate with a cold beer your return from Iraq as an intact 20-year old, you can expect a stiff fine. Perhaps the police should be suggesting to such enemies of the state that open market dealing of heroin would be a more productive and less penalized activity.

Posted by kk in seattle on July 17, 2009 at 10:53 PM

The police wave their sticks when they know they can gouge you for breaking the law, or when one of those idle 'he's got a gun' calls allows 30 of their squad cars to pool at a given location for several hours and do nothing ERRR stand off.

It's when things get real dangerous that they're nowhere to be found.

The real answer is to get serious about the pot decriminalization and just let the pot offenses off the hook. Then get serious about filling in that extra space with all the chronic thieves and violent offenders that are causing the actual crime problems in this city.

Posted by Gomez

on July 17, 2009 at 11:54 PM

"the Seattle Police Department booked 2,957 people into the King County jail primarily for drug offenses, making drug offenders 10 percent of the overall jail population"

When I read this, I think you're trying to say that everyone in jail who does drugs accounts for 10 percent of the population.

But you're not accounting for drug users and addicts who are booked for offenses other than narcotics, ya know?

So I'd argued it's more like near 40-50% of those in jail are involved in drugs in some way.

Posted by Sam on July 17, 2009 at 11:56 PM

@7, to find out how this works read the New Yorker article at the link posted by @9.

Posted by Mud Baby on July 18, 2009 at 2:03 PM

The best way to stop street dealing is to stop busting any kind of drug deal done discreetly in a bar or something. If there's a place where dealers and users can do business without being fucked with, they will go there.

If you're thinking of ways to control peoples' behavior, you should move to North Korea and stay there.

Posted by Luke Baggins

on July 19, 2009 at 4:16 PM

What I mean is, if you accept the premise that the state has a legitimate interest in what people inject, snort or stick up their asses, and you look for a less destructive way to force good choices on people, you're looking for a contradiction.

Posted by Luke Baggins

on July 19, 2009 at 4:24 PM

14. Wouldn't quite work because bars are private businesses and there's still a lot more hassle involved (don't catch the bartender's attention or any patrons' attention; you'd probably have to buy a drink and be sure you can find a quiet, dimly lit alcove) than dealing on the street.

Posted by Gomez

on July 20, 2009 at 1:42 PM