Over the weekend in Oakland, California, the nine members of the committee gave final approval to an extensive list of recommendations. The governor and the legislature will then consider the proposals.
Draft Final Report states that the federal government and many state governments target Blacks with discriminatory arrests and imprisonment. This unjust police action was further exacerbated in 1971 when Nixon’s War on Drugs started.
At the meeting, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) said that reparations were not only morally justified, but also had the potential to reduce longstanding racial inequalities.
First, the vote was approved for a comprehensive account of discrimination in California against Blacks over time, including areas such as voting, housing and education.
The task force approved not only reparation proposals, but also a public apology which acknowledges state responsibility for the past and assures that the state won’t repeat it. This apology will be given in front of those who have ancestors that were slaves.
Chris Lodgson is an organizer for the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California. He said that “an apology and an acknowledgement of wrongdoing alone will not be sufficient.”
The members quantified the effect of drug enforcement that is racially biased and the incarceration of people based on their cost, as well as other collateral effects relating to drug convictions. The members assessed the impact of racial bias by comparing average arrest rates and convictions, as well as sentencing for Black and White people involved in similar drug-related activities but who received disparate punishments in criminal justice.
According to the report, the task force recommends compensation be paid as a uniform payment based on the recipient’s residence period in California for the harm defined (e.g. residence in a community overpoliced during the “War on Drugs” from 1971-2020).
Members recommended the Legislature create a “individual claim process” for people who have “specific injuries” such as someone who has been arrested or imprisoned in the past on a drug-related charge, even if that drug is legalized in most states.
According to Marijuana moment, the panel concluded specifically that the state legislature should compensate an estimated 1,976,911 Black Californians for $115,260, or $2,352 for each person, for the “49-year span between 1971 and 2021” (or a total reparation of $227.858,891.023 for everyone affected).
The report states that “to measure racial disparities of mass incarceration in 49 years of war on drugs, from 1971 to 2021, Task Force experts calculated the proportional years spent behind prison bars by African American non Hispanic Californian drug criminals compared with white non Hispanic drug criminals.” Since these disparities can be measured in years, experts calculated what an average California State worker would earn in one year to assign a value to the disproportionate number of years in prison.
In the report, it is noted that “the Drug War led to a massively disproportionate imprisonment of African Americans.” This contributed also to homelessness and unemployment in economically depressed African American community after incarcerated people were released. Panel also proposes additional compensation to compensate for housing and health discrimination.
The report also highlights the disparities in sentencing between powder and crack cocaine, enacted during the Reagan Administration by Congress. It cites this as an example of drug policies being written that have disproportionately affected Black communities.
The task force also made several recommendations, including the reinstatement of affirmative action and the abolishment of the death penalty. It recommended that those eligible for reparations receive free tuition at colleges, eliminating cash bail, and providing universal healthcare.
The members will meet again on the 29th of June before they submit the final report.
The original post California Task Force Recommends Drug War Reparations to Black Americans was published first on High Times.
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