Drug Decriminalization in Maryland Through an African Centered Research Paradigm- Analysis and Recommendations

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arrier to deep cuts built solely on nonviolent offenders. Maybe deep reforms really aren’t the goal. Maybe the goal is merely to release prisoners who really don’t scare us, but otherwise leave things untouched. That, however, doesn’t seem to match the rhetoric of transformative change coming from both the Left and the Right. Furthermore, even if the goal is only the modest one of releasing those who “don’t scare us,” we should still be less punitive toward many of those who are serving time for violent crimes. Our current approach to punishing those convicted of violence is almost entirely blind to mountains of sophisticated research about violent behavior. The harsh sentences we impose on people convicted of violent crimes are not buying us the security we think they are: they incapacitate people longer than necessary and provide little deterrence in exchange. It’s a situation that begs for real reform.” (Pfaff , 2018b). When decriminalization attempts to tactically limit its frame to non-violent drug offenders, this creates a strategic limitation to comprehensive de-incarceration. Moreover, decriminalization advocates have often explicitly made the point that decriminalization would allow more resources to focus on “more serious crimes”. “Along with changes in medical marijuana laws, more recent state-level reforms have decreased the criminal punishments related to low-level possession or have legalized lowlevel possession altogether.Since 2012, when both Washington and Colorado approved legislation allowing for adult recreational use, 10 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized small amounts of recreational marijuana for adults (as of year-end 2018). Additionally, some states have decriminalized or depenalized small amounts of marijuana possession for adult recreational use (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2019). These permissive policy changes of the last decade occur in stark contrast to the policies of the “War on Drugs" era of the 1980s and early 1990s, which criminalized drug use and prioritized enforcement of drug offenses. Depenalization, decriminalization, and similarly permissive policies aim to do the opposite — reduce enforcement of low-level drug offenses in exchange for increased resources to be allocated toward the prevention of more serious (e.g., violent) crimes (DeAngelo, Gittings, & Ross, 2018; Makin et al., 2019; Ross & Walker, 2016).” (Kozloski et al., 2019) Given calls to #DefundThePolice, and the standing reality of racial bias in the criminal legal system, the question of whether defacto increasing police resources is a desirable outcome is debatable. This is especially glaring when contrasted with an alternative of reinvesting this money in communities most impacted by the war on drugs, a prospect which is rarely mentioned in decriminalization literature even though discussion of reorienting resources from drug enforcement to other organs within the policing apparatus. 4151 Park Heights Avenue, Suite 207, Baltimore, MD 21215 • www.lbsbaltimore.com • (410) 374-7683
The conversation around decriminalization allowing for more efficient policing, research around policing has shown the limits of this. While there is an underlying notion that decriminalization is important because it is a “compassionate” act towards victims of crime as it would allow more police to spend less time hunting down drug users and more time “protecting them” the reality of policing challenges this narrative, writing: “The legalization of marijuana undoubtedly resulted in the opportunity for agencies to reallocate resources, and as mentioned earlier, the level of resources available in police agencies is one important organizational factor that may influence clearance rates. Although some research finds little evidence of a resources-to-clearance rate connection (Cloninger & Sartorius, 1979; Greenwood et al., 1975), considerable evidence does exist in the research literature that resource availability does make a difference. For example, Stolzenberg, D’Alessio, and Eitle (2004) found that an increase in the number of police officers is associated with improved clearance rates for violent crime. In one of the earliest studies undertaken in this area, Chaiken (1975) found that officers’ effectiveness in solving crime improved with the increase in departmental resources used for criminal investigation. Similarly, a more recent study conducted by Wong (2010) revealed that resources available—as measured by police expenditures—are positively associated with the clearance capability of the police. These studies demonstrate that police resources do matter in the provision of public safety outcomes. However, the likelihood of clearance of a crime is contingent on the availability of policing resources devoted to investigation, including the ability to actively search for evidence and to spend time on the development of leads (Benson, Rasmussen, & Kim, 1998; Borg, Parker, & Karen, 2001). Indeed, as Cooney (1994) has noted, police resources typically are not evenly distributed across cases even within the same type of crime.” (Willits et al, 2018). This is an even handed attempt for researchers to balance the literature around increased resources helping police clearance rates with discussions around the limitations of this approach. However, this analysis would benefit greatly from applying an understanding of anti-blackness and the African Centred Research Paradigm. When the authors write “police resources typically are not evenly distributed across cases even within the same type of crime”, they open the door to a more nuanced understanding of how decriminalization relates to policing, one which points to the reality that crimes involving rich, respectable (read white) citizens are more vigorously investigated than crimes involving poor, none respetable (read Black) citizens. Often researchers refuse to make points like this, as they feel it make them appear non-objective in their analysis. While this is understandable, an African Centered Research Paradigm understands that policing is a life and death issue for Black people, and as such would believe that point is sufficiently important to warrant an analysis beyond the “both sides have a point” faux objectivity presented by the researchers. Indeed, to get information back up the claim that police resources are dolled out along racial lines, one need only look at the text of the article the researchers are citing, as Coony explicitly presents race as a critical factor in the allocation of police resources, writing: 4151 Park Heights Avenue, Suite 207, Baltimore, MD 21215 • www.lbsbaltimore.com • (410) 374-7683
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Drug Decriminalization in Maryland Through an African Centered Research Paradigm- Analysis and Recommendations

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