The Alabama State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recently passed a resolution identifying the war on drugs as the driving force behind the explosion of Alabama’s prison population. The resolution supports the Alabama New Bottom Line Campaign, which works to promote effective drug policies and includes DPA as a member.

"...The war on drugs is driving Alabama’s disastrous prison overcrowding crisis. The crisis cannot be solved by the construction of new prisons, but must be solved through wise, economical, and compassionate policy changes that deal with drug use and abuse first and foremost as a public health issue..." the resolution reads.

A recent report found that the rapid growth in Alabama’s prison population was fueled by the incarceration of people convicted of nonviolent offenses, primarily drug possession. African Americans, who make up approximately 25 percent of Alabama’s population, constitute 60 percent of the state’s prison inmates and have been hit especially hard by prison expansion and overcrowding, even though national figures show that drug use is equal between whites and African Americans.

"Our state is in a crisis because we’ve been locking people up for addiction and drug use, which is really a public health issue," said Reverend Kenneth Glasgow, NAACP State Prison Project Chair and New Bottom Line Campaign Co-Director, who introduced the resolution.

"The NAACP has a long, proud tradition of fighting for equality, justice, and fairness. What is fair about racial disparities, wasted tax dollars, and failed policies? Fixing the prison overcrowding crisis won’t be easy, but it won’t happen by repeating failures, either," said Alabama NAACP president Ed Vaughn.

The goal of the resolution is to advance a drug policy agenda that prioritizes a public health approach instead of a punitive, incarceration-based strategy. The resolution also calls for the passage of legislation that moves the state closer to ending the state prison crisis.

"The war on drugs is a 35 year failure, not only in Alabama, but across the country," said Gabriel Sayegh, director of DPA's State Organizing and Policy Project. "We lock people up for low-level drug use and addiction, and what has that gotten us? We now have the biggest prison and jail population in the entire world even though drug treatment and education are cheaper and more effective than incarceration. We need to approach drug policies through a public health framework, because as the prison crisis in Alabama shows, trying to jail our way out of this problem is simply ridiculous."