there, is rwanda. this huge population of the the huge explosion of the prison population in this country, to point where we are completely out of keeping with the rest of the world, except maybe rwanda, trying to keep up, that eventually made it clear that something had to change. that s in part because it became clear, for anybody who wanted to look at the facts, that our exploding prison population wasn t because of something that was happening organically in this country, it wasn t all about the crime rate, it was because of policy and politics. it was because of tough on crime conservative politics, fueled by media hysteria. that is how we built ourselves into this problem, where a full third of the entire budget for our whole justice department goes to paying to keep people in prison. interestingly, though, although it was conservative politics that drove us to where we are today, there is, today, a strand of conservative politics that wants to get us out of this problem. that
reagan, but also obama derangement syndrome, and bush derangement syndrome, in which people like specific policies until this guy they hate like the policy too and then they change their mind. we saw that on cap and trade, immigration reform, you know, lightbulbs, all kinds of things that republicans have decided they hate because obama likes them. is that a dynamic we should watch to emerge on this issue as well? i think so. i think what you re going to see, i think, is a lot of republicans that might be willing to support this under normal circumstances. they ll look at this, it s 2014, they re trying to take over the senate, trying to take control of the house, trying to set up a 2016 fight. and what they ve hit on as a party is this argument of, you can t trust obama. that s why they re fighting against immigration reform. you know, they point to the obamacare changes, they point to some of the other kinds of things that he s done, nsa, and say, you can t trust him. and this real
this charts the annual growth of the prison population from 1925 to 1986, the year that president reagan signed that landmark anti-drug bill. this is what happened to the prison population after 1986. in the last three decades, we ve increased the population of people we keep in prison by 500%. compared to the world in terms of the proportion of our citizens that we lock up, right now, we re number one, number two, you ll see, well behind us there, is rwanda. this huge population of the the huge explosion of the prison population in this country, to point where we are completely out of keeping with the rest of the world, except maybe rwanda, trying to keep up, that eventually made it clear that something had to change. that s in part because it became clear, for anybody who wanted to look at the facts, that our exploding prison population wasn t because of something that was happening organically in this country, it wasn t all about the crime rate, it was because of policy and politi
it s just a cheap, concentrated version of the same cocaine that you could buy glamorous jewelry for. but the crack form of cocaine was treated very, very differently by the media and by the politicians and by the next year, after that front page new york times article came out, by 1986, that national misunderstanding about whether or not this really was a whole different drug, that was made manifest in a way that had really big implications for policy. at the white house today, president reagan signed the major new anti-drug law, a law that stiffens the penalty for federal drug crimes and provides almost $2 billion for increased drug enforcement and education. at the bill-signing ceremony, mr. reagan said today, this marks a major victory in our crusade against drugs.
action. and i think you re going to see people say, i agree with the policy, he should not be doing this on his own, this should be stopped until congress can act. i think you ll see a lot of that on the right, which is, you know, for them, it puts them in sort of a tough spot. but politics right now, rules, everything in washington. and republicans are going to be under enormous pressure to toe this line, i think, and it s going to be hard for them to get out from under and what s fascinating, there isn t an action item here for congress. the justice department and the white house are saying, we d love if you did this congressionally, but you re not acting, so we re going ahead. i think the thing to watch is whether they shut up about it, pretend like it doesn t have any political consequences at all. that may be the best hope for folks who find themselves in this situation, that they sort of stay quiet on it. it s amazing, it s actual policy being made on a thing we used to thi