Black Inmates Risk To Lose Their Hope

Inmates sentenced for drug-related offenses have started to feel relief but Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate may reverse this small improvement.

The term “war on drugs” was first made popular on the 18th of June 1971, after a press conference released by former President Richard Nixon. Subsequent Presidents continued in the same direction, but during the regime of Bill Clinton, the number of people incarcerated for drug related offenses tripled. Not only that, there was a great disparity in the numbers, with an overwhelming number indicted being Blacks.

During former President Clinton’s reign, there was more severe punishment for people found possessing or distributing drugs, but critics claimed that most of those laws specifically targeted the Black population. And even though during Hilary Clinton’s campaign she has worked hard to distance herself from her husband’s reign as president, she was at the forefront fighting to implement these laws.

In August 2015 Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton had an encounter with Black Lives Matter protesters in New Hampshire. Cell phone videos of the encounter showed a visibly distressed protester, Daunasia Yancey ask Clinton, “You and your family have been personally and politically responsible for policies that have caused health and human services disasters in impoverished communities of color through the domestic and international war on drugs that you championed as First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State. And so I just want to know how you feel about your role in that violence, and how you plan to reverse it.”

Reduction of sentences is a good step in the right direction, but the entire justice system needs to be completely overhauled to give minorities the same amount of leniency the middle and upper-class white Americans enjoy. It is the hope of the Black people that Hilary Clinton feels at least a little bit guilty for her role in one of the worst case of mass incarceration of Black people in the country.

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