A Deficit of Wellbeing: The End of the War on Drugs and Investing in a Brighter Future
The discussion comes down to putting money back into the community instead of keeping it behind bars where it only goes towards keeping the same people locked up and unable to begin anew
Abstract
This project focuses on the need for major criminal justice reform in the state of Texas in order to not only lower the state’s incarcerated population but also to improve preventive, rehabilitative, and mental health services throughout the state. This project looks into how California accomplished some of these goals with the passage of Proposition 47 in 2014. This was a bill that changed many low-level, nonviolent drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. This lowered the state’s incarcerated population tremendously and saved the state tons of money each year which they now allocate towards community and social services. In the paper, a comparison is made between Proposition 47 and a recent criminal justice reform bill passed in Texas in 2017 known as the Sandra Bland Act. This is done in order to evaluate Texans susceptibility to legislation such as proposition 47. This project aims to answer the question, could a major criminal justice reform bill such as Proposition 47 in California gain public support and pass in Texas? This question is answered by looking at a variety of studies and interviews from sources such as the American Public Health Association, UT Department of Psychiatry, and the Public Policy Institute of California. The main focus of the project is figuring out how to utilize the funds we have to help people get their lives back.