The Communal Impacts of Drug Criminalization in Maryland

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Criminological and social theories have explained how the epidemic of mass incarceration, largely fueled by the War on Drugs, has also played a central role in social disruption (6, 15, 28). Criminologist Todd Clear, in his book, Imprisoning Communities, argues that the disruption of social networks via statesponsored social control has largely prevented over-incarcerated communities’ the ability to harness community support and informal community control. His research in Baltimore found that prison cycling largely due to drug-related offenses not only failed to control crime, but it also weakened social networks within a community, manifesting in broader instability of social institutions, economic development, and housing markets. Clear hypothesized the concept of “coercive mobility,” the social disruption and human displacement caused, replaced, and reinforced by the formal sources of state-sponsored social control: the legal, non-profit, and social service systems (29). Although Clear’s work addresses the impact of criminalization on community institutions, the role of drug criminalization on coercive mobility is rarely considered on addiction and in drug policy discourse. More importantly, there is a lack of analysis on how to repair the civil institutional fabric necessary to create functional community through the frame of ACRPs that consider explicit anti-Black violence, attacks to Black community attempts at self-governance and community control, the nonprofit industrial complex, and other essential concepts referred to in this report. When envisioning policy to create a postcriminalization world, we must understand the root causes of addiction that are integral to the community harms that are largely understudied. The social, criminological, and ACRP theoretical framings lay a foundation to understand community harms of drug criminalization in Maryland. We raise the questions of what causes the social disruption that influences addiction, how do we define and measure it, and what policy responses are needed to restore community, specifically in the context of Baltimore, Maryland. A Spotlight on Baltimore This report is specific to the Baltimore context, outlining the history of Baltimore within broader U.S. history in order to contextualize the collective harms of drug criminalization. The focus on Baltimore is also prominent as this report is informed by a community-based scholar working to advance the public policy interests of Black people, in Baltimore (30). No city in Maryland is impacted by mass incarceration as much as Baltimore City, the largest city in the state. Although home to 9% of the state's residents, 40% of Maryland’s incarcerated population are from Baltimore (31). Also, in Baltimore City, drug criminalization disproportionately impacts African-American populations. In 2016, the United States Department of Justice investigated the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) and found that despite declining rates of African-American drug use across the city, 89 percent of those 100,000 people charged for drug possession were African-Americans (32). While survey data shows that African-Americans use drugs at rates similar to other population groups, Baltimore Police Department arrests African-Americans for drug possession at five times the rate of others. Compared to similarities in rates of drug use across other similar African-American majority cities in America (Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta), Baltimore drug arrests of African-Americans were between 200 and 500 percent higher (32). The criminal legal environment is a product of the racialized structural oppression that has characterized the landscape of the Black experience for generations. Baltimore is the first city in America to establish block-by-block racial segregation, a policy that was followed by aggressive redlining, a contract system for housing loans, and racially targeted subprime loans. Unemployment, low wages, poor housing, inadequate education, and other forms of racial discrimination continue to persist. While the city hosts wealthy institutions and businesses, large portions of Baltimore’s African-American population struggle economically. Most relevant is the social and economic landscape that has shaped the overdose epidemic. Baltimore City bears the greatest burden of opioid-related overdose deaths in the state. In 2020, 40 percent of overdose deaths occurred in Baltimore alone. Despite recent efforts to decriminalize marijuana and harsher forms of drugs, overdose rates continue to rise, and rising greatest among African-Americans (33). 17 of 55
Definitions Black Civil Society This report addresses critical blind spots within academic literature that looks beyond the public health framing of individual-level harms and evaluates the social disruption of communal institutions, referred to in this report through the concept of Black civil society. The Oxford Dictionary of Politics defines civil society as the set of intermediate associations which are neither the state nor the (extended) family; civil society therefore includes voluntary associations, firms, and other corporate bodies (34). Within the context of this report, Black civil society should be seen as the interrelationship between institutions largely occupied by, serving, and/or controlled by Black people to meet essential community needs and fulfill community desires. Analysis of Black institutions, including mutual aid societies, shows Black civic organizations serving critical roles, meeting essential community needs ranging from health care, burial costs, and financial savings (35). As defined by Marion Orr in the book, Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore, Black civil society undergirds the organizational infrastructure to advance Black interests and serves as “agents of social reform on issues of economic empowerment, spiritual development, and social and political equality (12).” Akbar notes how ACRP research findings should be used for “the process of liberation and institution building for a historically oppressed people (3).” As we identify the adaptive strategies and characteristics for our advancement from our research methods, those strategies must serve as the guidelines for structuring our institutions. Educational institutions must offer content that advances self-knowledge as well as offering instruction through the demonstrated modalities that build on our strengths. Economic institutions must be built that address our critical survival needs while being consistent with our model of humanity and community. Our religious institutions must be critiqued and developed along lines that foster our spirituality and enhance our collective development. All of these modalities provide the ultimate objective of augmenting and institutionalizing the African-American paradigm rooted in nature and respect for humankind. This report focuses on formal and informal Black civil society institutions related to addiction prevention and communal care. Examples of formal institutions include Black churches, Black-led community nonprofits, historical Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), the Black Panthers and in Baltimore specifically, the Goon Squad, and Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) (36). While more informal institutions include street organizations (often called "gangs"), networks of "grey market" 18 of 55
Page 1 and 2: THE COMMUNAL IMPACTS OF DRUG CRIMIN
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgements We would like to t
Page 5 and 6: “groupthink”. Also, I realize t
Page 7 and 8: Decriminalize Blackness First “It
Page 9 and 10: Indeed, this quote comes from a for
Page 11 and 12: criminal elements involved in the i
Page 13 and 14: Reparations Means Community Repair,
Page 15 and 16: The Communal Impacts of Drug Crimin
Page 17: The community-based scholar is info
Page 21 and 22: works. Specifically, we looked at h
Page 23 and 24: working with other Black Power orga
Page 25 and 26: Pseudonym Occupation/Community Role
Page 27 and 28: limiting a pipeline. There’s not
Page 29 and 30: “Black and brown people are being
Page 31 and 32: health and for community education?
Page 33 and 34: friendship community, 'cause heroin
Page 35 and 36: “And then actually right out of F
Page 37 and 38: 3. Decriminalization does not recog
Page 39 and 40: “It’s the values that people ha
Page 41 and 42: A local pastor family interviewed r
Page 43 and 44: Policymakers and researchers intere
Page 45 and 46: advocates trust the experience of o
Page 47 and 48: powerful independent Black institut
Page 49 and 50: trust working-class people in turn
Page 51 and 52: systemic corruption and incompetenc
Page 53 and 54: & The Baltimore “Black Hole” [I
Page 55 and 56: Dan Baum investigates whether gun-c
Page 57: © 2023

The Communal Impacts of Drug Criminalization in Maryland

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