SACRAMENTO — A first-of-its-kind survey released today of Latino voters in California found that an overwhelming majority believe in drug policies that are far less severe than current state drug laws.  For example, 65% of Latino voters surveyed said that they did not support incarcerating a young adult convicted of marijuana sale for the first time, if the drug was sold to an adult. Current state law makes sale of even the smallest amount of marijuana punishable by up to four years in prison.

“The conventional wisdom has been that neighborhoods that were slammed by drugs and gangs supported tough sentencing laws,” said Alberto Mendoza of the Drug Policy Alliance, the group that commissioned the poll. “But after a 30-year drug war that has failed families and communities, the tide of popular opinion has turned. Latinos now overwhelmingly support alternatives to incarceration.”

This poll is to be presented to members of the Latino Legislative Caucus today at a lunch briefing in the capitol. Antonio González of the William C. Velasquez Institute and Glenn Backes of the Drug Policy Alliance will brief the caucus on alternatives to current sentencing policy.

Researchers from Fairbanks, Maslin, Maullin & Associates conducted phone surveys with a random sample of 600 Californians who voted in recent elections, and who identified as either Latino or Hispanic.  This is the first-ever statewide poll to focus exclusively on Latino attitudes toward drug policy. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points.  The entire poll is available online. Graphs are also available.

Among the findings were:

• 85% of Latinos interviewed believe that jail is the wrong punishment for marijuana possession.  In response to the question: “What do you think is the right punishment or response if an adult is caught smoking or possessing a small amount of marijuana,” 50% said a fine or community service, 25% said mandatory treatment, and 10% said no punishment at all.  Only 9% thought jail would be the right punishment, and most of that group supported short sentences. Current law in California makes possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a misdemeanor punishable by a $100 fine or community service.  More than an ounce, however, means a sentence of six months in jail and a fine of $500.
  
• The majority of Latinos polled thought jail was the wrong answer for a young adult who sells a small amount of marijuana to an adult. When asked: “What do you think is the right punishment or response if a young person under age 25 is convicted for the first time of selling a small amount of marijuana to an adult,” 65% of respondents said jail is wrong.   40% said a fine or community service should be required, 22% said mandatory treatment and 3% no punishment at all.  Only 28% of respondents said that first-time sellers should be jailed, and of those who indicated jail, most believed that the sentence should be less than a year.  Current law in California makes sale of marijuana, or possession with intent to sell, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.  Only 10.6% of all respondents said that first-time marijuana sellers should be sentenced to “a year or more.”
  
• When asked: “What do you think is the right punishment or response if an adult is found using heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine,” 58% percent said jail is wrong, with most of that group supporting mandatory treatment.  Only 35% believe in jailing hard drug users. Except for those who qualify for treatment diversion, the current sentence for possession of heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine can be up to four years, or up to five years for possession of crack cocaine. Since the passage of Proposition 36 in 2000, California law provides that first- and second-time drug possession offenders, who have no violent prior offenses, have been free of prison for more than five years, and are not guilty of any other crime, may be sent to drug treatment rather than prison.  If they fail in treatment however, the court may remand them to prison.

Due to ever-tougher sentencing laws, California experienced a 25-fold increase in the number of drug offenders in state prison between 1981 and 2002. According to the state Department of Correction, there were over 36,000 drug offenders in California prisons in 2002. Latino men are over-represented in the numbers of felony drug convictions, making up 36.6 percent of men in prison for drug offenses. Despite the heavy investment in enforcement and incarceration, drug use rates have not changed very much in the last 30 years.

Although rates of drug use between ethnic and racial groups are roughly equal, Blacks and Latinos make up the majority of state and federal prisoners locked up for drug offenses.  According to US Department of Justice statistics, Latino federal offenders were the least likely to have been charged with a violent crime, and the most likely to have been charged with a drug crime. Although most Latinos in federal prisons for drug crimes are first-time offenders, many are serving lengthy sentences under severe federal mandatory minimums.

The US Department of Justice reported in 1997 that the lifetime probability of being incarcerated in a state or federal prison is four times higher for Latino men than for white men.  Black men are six times more likely than white men to be sentenced to a state or federal prison. Department of Justice reports ascribe much of the boom in prison building to the drug war.

“Communities are suffering under the drug war,” said Mendoza.  “We are no longer impressed by politicians who push harsh and ineffective policies. We want better prevention, more treatment, and improved communication with police in our neighborhoods. We don’t want to see more young fathers and mothers carted off to prison for petty drug offenses.”

“The drug war prison boom has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, but failed to prevent drug use or drug sales,” said Glenn Backes, director of the Sacramento office of Drug Policy Alliance.  “Felony convictions, handed out like candy, have destroyed the economic life of hundreds of thousands of California families and communities.  Voters have lost patience with these cruel drug war policies and are calling for reform.”