Prison Reform and Recreational Drug Policy
Rarely do we stop to consider those that have been put behind bars and are unable to participate in the simple luxuries that make up our day to day lives. The U.S. Justice system over sees 3.1% of our total population (not including juveniles). “The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners” (NYtimes). With such a high rate of incarceration also comes a high price to pay, the U.S. spends over 100 billion dollars a year maintaing the justice system. It only takes a mere glance at these statistics to realize the problems and complications that the justice system is entangled with. The population of those incarcerated has rapidly grown in the past 40 years and more and more money is spent maintaing this system which is clearly ineffective. The issues surrounding our justice system are deeply complex and intertwined with many other issues such as racial profiling and poverty. Although it is a complicated topic to tackle I believe one aspect that could make significant changes in the over population and over spending on our prisons is to look at drug crimes and the ramifications of drug prosecutions.
The united states could save hundreds of billions of dollars if legislation surrounding first time drug offenders were altered. Especially those laws surrounding marijuana. In my opinion, the U.S. is wasting peoples lives and government resources locking up those who could easily be punished by way of drug counseling or rehab. I would like to see less money poured into locking our citizens up and more money spent on educating and improving peoples quality of life. I therefore propose a campaign to ask for drug law reform.
I think by using the New School community as a jumping off point would be incredibly useful since students and faculty come from all different locations around the U.S. (as well as abroad). By raising awareness within New School we can hopefully create change throughout the united states, since legislation varies from state to state. By using a facebook page, twitter account, and a website we can invite the New School to spread the word to their own social networks, family, coworkers, and friends.
I also believe an effective way to raise awareness is by creating visuals and handouts that clearly illustrate the statistics surrounding the issue. In a past parsons class I had created an information design piece that compared spending and prison populations by state, I believe these sorts of visuals can really communicate the facts in a way that is more accessible and easily digestible. These visuals can be used on posters and fact sheets, as well as play supporting roles to text.
Although its a fairly complex and multi layered issue I believe by attacking one aspect of a greater problem we can really make a difference!
Federal Bureau of Prisons prisoner breakdown: http://www.bop.gov/news/quick.jsp#1
As you can see on this site, most prisoners are in for DRUG related crimes.
NY times article on U.S. incarceration rates in comparison to other countries: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html
Real cost of prisons: http://realcostofprisons.org/
A humorous approach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRPxN7DGy5c
Mediated Subjectivity 
Tara Mann 2:04 am on September 7, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
This sounds like an interesting idea, especially because of our nation’s current economic status and arguably misguided priorities. I don’t think our prison system gets enough attention, and I don’t think too many people are well-versed in this particular issue. I like the idea of handing out ephemera and other compelling imagery, although you must consider how many of these things are ignored and/or tossed away. I think if people were able to visualize the amount of resources being pumped into prisons, they would be more likely to take action and engage in your campaign. So maybe you can focus on creating beautiful, yet simple images that convey the desired message and prompt people to take a simple yet effective step (I don’t know what that step would be, maybe some sort of petition or something, a protest, a poll?). Anyways, perhaps simplicity could be the focus, since it’s such a complicated issue.
willymcgee 6:08 pm on September 10, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think Tara is on to something here. Information about the issue at hand is often obscured by the way the facts have been (or have not been) presented. I remember you mentioning you’re interested in design, maybe we can make use of your skills to create an interesting visual campaign. The key here would be to create a series of eye-catching, easily-digested figures using the facts you’ve presented. The first one that comes to mind is the disproportionate amount of prisoners to total population between the US and the rest of the world. A poster campaign could be one aspect. Does anyone have experience with web design or Flash? Making an online presence is (obviously) central to our work here, so I;d be interested to see what kind of skills we can aggregate amongst the students in class to turn tangible visible data into digital visualizations.
mollieableman 10:43 pm on September 13, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Willy- Im not extremely well versed in flash but I could put together a motion graphics piece (using after effects) I think creating something is central to the web is a good tactic especially if paired with supporting physical iterations such as posters.
zacharydel 12:58 pm on September 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Students For A Sensible Drug Policy http://ssdp.org/