The United State’s War on Drugs and the Federal Bureau of Prisons: Creation of a New Class of Political Prisoner

• In Event: Convict Criminology Session 2: USP Marion: Prisoners of the Federal Bureau of Prisons

Abstract

When discussing the topic of war, the subject is often conceptualized as a large-scale battle between hostile nations (i.e., Germany and Japan versus the United States and Britain during WWII), or between two groups of people whom disagree about a fundamental principle (i.e., slavery in the Southern United States during the Civil War). This paper discusses a unique phenomenon, specifically, when the United States declares a war on its own people, which came to be known as The War on Drugs. This war has served to fill the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) with thousands of non-violent drug prisoners while having little if no measurable effect on the sale, distribution, and usage of street drugs. As a former FBOP convict now criminology professor, 13 years ago, I was convicted of a drug distribution, and served 2 years in a federal prison. Classified as a time non-violent drug offender, I experienced the overcrowding, harsh sentencing policies, despair, and severe social and psychological damage that drug prisoners experienced within the FBOP.

Author

• Grant Tietjen, St. Ambrose University