PROSECUTION, DRUG USE & PUBLIC HEALTH
For decades, the United States has relied on the criminal system to respond to substance use disorder — with minimal success. With that in mind, the IIP published A New Approach: A Prosecutor’s Guide to Advancing a Public Health Response to Drug Use and several corresponding videos that provide prosecutors with strategies for advancing drug policy grounded in principles of harm reduction, public health, and racial justice. Below are the Guide, an Executive Summary, and seven videos featuring directly impacted people, prosecutors, and experts discussing this new approach for prosecutors.
Andre Ward: A Story About Selling Drugs, Incarceration and Redemption
Julie Eldred: A Woman’s Struggle With Substance Use Disorder and Recovery
Prosecutors Reflect on Drug Policy
Understanding Substance Use Disorder
Brooklyn CLEAR: Pre-Booking Program
Advice to Prosecutors from Harm Reduction Experts
Tele Rabii: A Personal Experience with Drug Court
It’s Time To Change How We Prosecute Drug Crimes
Sherry Boston and Alissa Marque Heydari⎮November 20, 2021
“Every year, there are over 1.5 million drug-related arrests in the United States. And yet, during a 12-month period ending in April, over 100,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses - nearly 30 percent more fatal overdoses than just a year earlier. And while the nation relies on the criminal system to address substance use, these alarming figures make clear that traditional prosecution and severe punishment not only fail to reduce the markets for illicit drugs, they also contribute to one of America’s worst health crises.”
OPINION
OPINION
How Prosecutors Can Lead On Drug Justice
Andre Ward⎮November 12, 2021
"It is abundantly clear that the criminal legal system’s traditional approach to drug cases has failed. The good news is that Americans are increasingly accepting what public health experts have been saying for decades: Substance use disorder is a health issue and should not be treated as a crime. Yet nearly half a million people in America are incarcerated for drug offenses.”
Prosecution, Drug Use & Public Health
Panelists:
Alissa Marque Heydari, Deputy Director, IIP
Sherry Boston, District Attorney, Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit, DeKalb County, GA
David Cloud, Research Director, Amend at UCSF School of Medicine
Dan Satterberg, Prosecuting Attorney, King County, WA
Andre Ward, Associate Vice President of the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy, The Fortune Society
The Working Group
Valena Elizabeth Beety, Professor of Law, Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Sherry Boston, District Attorney, DeKalb County, GA
David Cloud, Research Director, Amend at UCSF School of Medicine
Michael Collins, Strategic Policy and Planning Director, Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City
Margaret Gandy, Founding Partner, Alcalaw LLP
Alissa Marque Heydari, Deputy Director, Institute for Innovation in Prosecution
Dave Lucas, MSW, Clinical Advisor, fellow at Northeastern’s Health in Justice Action Lab
Shannon Mace, Senior Advisor, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Christopher Martin, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Ingham County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office
Rena Paul, Founding Partner, Alcalaw LLP
Lisa Newman-Polk, Esq., LCSW, Law Office of Lisa Newman-Polk
Tina Reynolds, MSW, Criminal Legal Consultant
Grace Wiener Ritter, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office
Andre Ward, Associate Vice President of the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy, The Fortune Society
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