The House I Live In-gctid78074

[Ajamu]

As usual, they downplayed race (even though they mentioned it). Take what you can & throw the rest away.

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The House I Live In




                About the Film            


 
 
 
--- Video: The House I Live In | Watch Independent Lens Online | PBS Video ---

For the past 40 years, the war on drugs has resulted in more than 45   million arrests, $1 trillion dollars in government spending, and   America's role as the world's largest jailer. Yet for all that, drugs   are cheaper, purer, and more available than ever. Filmed in more than   twenty states, The House I Live In  captures   heart-wrenching stories of those on the front lines — from the dealer to   the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate   to the federal judge — and offers a penetrating look at the profound   human rights implications of America's longest war.
 
   The film recognizes drug abuse as a matter of public health, and   investigates the tragic errors and shortcomings that have resulted from   framing it as an issue for law enforcement. It also examines how   political and financial corruption has fueled the war on drugs, despite   persistent evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures. The   drug war in America has helped establish the largest prison-industrial   system in the world, contributing to the incarceration of 2.3 million   men and women and is responsible for untold collateral damage to the   lives of countless individuals and families, with a particularly   destructive impact on black America.
 
    "It'd be one thing if it was draconian and it worked. But it's   draconian and it doesn't work. It just leads to more," says David Simon,   creator of the HBO series, The Wire.
 
   Instead of questioning a campaign of such epic cost and failure,   those in public office generally advocate for harsher penalties for drug   offenses, lest they be perceived as soft on crime. Thanks to mandatory   minimum sentencing, a small offense can put a nonviolent offender  behind  bars for decades — or even life. Many say these prisoners are  paying  for fear instead of paying for their crime.
 
   "If you stand in a federal court, you're watching poor and uneducated   people being fed into a machine like meat to make saunited snakesge. It's just   bang, bang, bang, bang. Next!" says journalist Charles Bowden.
 
   But there's a growing recognition among those on all sides that the   war on drugs is a failure. At a time of heightened fiscal instability,   the drug war is also seen as economically unsustainable. Beyond its   human cost at home, the unprecedented violence in Mexico provides a   daily reminder of the war's immense impact abroad, and America has at   last begun to take the first meaningful steps toward reform. At this   pivotal moment, the film promotes public awareness of the problem while   encouraging new and innovative pathways to domestic drug policy reform.

   
 
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