ABSTRACT
An estimated 1.7 million Americans were under some form of correctional supervision in 2015 because of a drug conviction (Kaeble & Glaze, 2016; The Sentencing Project, 2017). After their release from supervision, they join the ranks of those who experience a range of legislatively erected barriers that obstruct their ability to regain a foothold in society.
Post-conviction exclusions and restrictions, some of which are lifelong, are felt not only by the convicted persons themselves but by their children, spouses, and other family members (see Northcutt Bohmert & Wakefield, Chapter 8; Vallas, Boteach, West, & Odum, 2015). In some instances, even innocent family and friends may be punished by the actions of another.
Over the past four decades, the goals of reintegration have increasingly become subverted by the collateral consequences returning citizens face on release from correctional supervision (Travis, 2005). They have increased both in volume and complexity as one of the far-reaching effects of the America’s forty-year prison build-up (Kaiser, 2016; Mauer & Chesney-Lind, 2002). The breadth of collateral consequences is obscured by the scattered placement of restrictions and exclusions across jurisdictional codes and enforcement across diverse and disconnected agencies. This makes it nearly impossible to have an accurate sense of the type and number of collateral consequences to be faced post-conviction. Because collateral consequences are “civil” rather than criminal punishments, legal counsel and courts are typically not required to reveal their nature or extent (Chin, 2002). Moreover, some collateral consequences are automatically attached to specific crimes while others are established on a case-by-case basis. And while some consequences are lifelong others eventually expire.
Because the primary target of the country’s infamous “war on drugs” was placed on inner city communities, the impact of the collateral consequences of a drug conviction has fallen disproportionately on people of color, especially African Americans (Clear, 2008; Rubenstein & Mukamal, 2002; Western, 2006). Tracking the overall impact of these sanctions on the affected populations is nearly impossible given diverse, disconnected agencies responsible for carrying them out and the low priority around monitoring them (Travis, 2005).
The present chapter reflects on two collateral consequences that are particularly relevant for people convicted of drug offenses: eviction from public housing and exclusion from public assistance. In addition to barriers in gaining employment, voting, and earning a higher education described in other chapters of this book, people convicted of a drug offense are faced with the reality that they have also been specifically excluded from these two critical forms of assistance.
America is once again in the middle of a drug crisis: overdoses from heroin and other opioids have soared and are now the leading cause of death among individuals under 50 years old (Katz, 2017). There has been a 300 percent increase in heroin related deaths between 1999 and 2015 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). The misuse of prescription painkillers is at an all-time high. This new era of addiction presents an opportunity to choose different policies than those of the crack epidemic. Though the impulse might be to seek tougher penalties such as new mandatory minimums and other punitive approaches that once again use the criminal justice system as the primary tool to respond to this latest public health crisis, policy makers have the benefit of hindsight with which to make different choices.
