Hi Jeremy, Thank you SO much for this link! I read your post as I was taking a break from my latest criminology subject (which is about the structure & operation of corrections here in Australia)& I tried a couple of times to access this doco through Youtube without success, then last night I asked my (tech-savy) man "how do I get Youtube up on the TV?". He asked me with a sideways glance what I was up to & when I told him it was a documentary on the US war on drugs he wanted to watch it with me. I'm glad he did because it was able to explain to him why I get aggravated when I hear people say 'we just need harsher penalties in Australia; or longer sentences' this doco put all of that into black and white for him and now he understands that is no answer at all.

It was incredibly well done! & I will include the link in an assessment I'm doing at the moment. I will also share it around on Facebook for others who have an interest in criminology & all things wrong with the world generally.

As you probably know, it focused on the war on drugs, one of my favorite lines was "what drugs haven't destroyed in our communities, the war on drugs has". It was shocking! and I couldn't recommend it more highly. I'll see what else I can find to send to you, perhaps there's a transcript I can download somewhere, I'll have to look. It's heartbreaking what politicians have done to your communities simply in an effort to get themselves elected, how the poor are targeted, excluded and used in the worst possible way as pawns for profit & nothing more. Towards the end there was a shocking comparison between the holocaust and the war on drugs with one academic saying "The war on drugs is the holocaust in slow motion" only this time it is an attack on class, not race & the evidence is right in front of us.

PART 2
My partner was shocked & it was great to see him thinking outside of his usual space. It also gave us much in-depth discussion which is much appreciated. He works as a security guard & does some shifts occasionally at our shopping centers so I've heard him make what I consider to be ignorant, sweeping comments about the things he's seen throughout his day. Of course I would never say that to him because that is what he sees. It's his perspective, but I know this documentary has him thinking about things more deeply. I've said things don't happen in a vacuum, there's always a reason, & this doco describes a lot of those reasons, the major one being the removal of industry and jobs within major cities so new industries, underground industries such as drugs are formed but the problems are confounded by specific races being confined to certain parts of a city, then not being able to seek approval for a mortgage as areas are zoned 'red zones' and Police are paid (and promoted) for the number of arrests, not for crimes solved and the confounding issues keep stacking higher & higher leaving these people with few options.

It showed how Chinese smoked Opium in the 1800s, so opium was criminalized, yet the drugs of choice of women & white people at the time were not. Then it was the drug of choice of Mexican's that was outlawed, and so they were the next population criminalized and then; the separation of cocaine and crack cocaine in the 80s & 90s. As upper-class rich people snorted cocaine in powder form... African American's were smoking it so the disparity in sentencing between the 2 was enforced... again, vilifying the poorer classes at the rate of 100:1 [How can this be allowed to happen!?]

I'm sure I've said it to you before, but this collated all of it into black and white in 1hr 45mins... America provides the Justice systems of the world the PERFECT example of what not to do!

It was a clear explanation as to how governments have used their power through enacting unfair laws and using techniques of scaremongering to create the mess that is today, the American prison monster, and an attack on those seen as the 'other'. There was no mention of issues of mental health, or specific issues inside prisons, so I saw nothing specific to your circumstances, but it was a wonderful resource for my purposes of study & I'm very grateful to you for sharing the link with us all. I'll see what I can find for you in print but wow! How eye opening!

Take care my friend!
Nicki