DEA Still Losing War on Drugs, Pell Grants Behind Bars & More

Here are five things you should know about criminal justice reform this week: 

"The DEA's first director, John R. Bartels Jr., complained the American people did not know what the agency really did and regarded its agents 'as corrupt Nazis who don't know how to open the door except with the heel of their right foot.'"

Five decades after the creation of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Reason Magazine published a deep dive into the agency’s history, its controversial tactics for fighting drugs in America, and the impact it’s had on policing and incarceration. Despite an annual budget that has ballooned to over $3.2 billion, the agency has had no measurable impact on the use and prevalence of drugs in our communities. In his piece, C.J. Ciaramella offers one of the most comprehensive and scathing looks at the governmental agency yet.

"We’re seeing somebody sort of attempt to see what might catch fire in primary politics. Unfortunately, this one’s just going to fall flat."
 
TIME's Sanya Mansoor published a feature piece on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' effort to pull the GOP away from evidence-based criminal justice reforms and towards tough-on-crime rhetoric. Among the takeaways: while flashy talking points criticizing the federal First Step Act may get coverage, recent polling doesn't support the idea that voters are swayed by it. In fact, 86% of Republicans say the legislation aligns with their view of the justice system. 
 
"It made me feel amazing … to start learning and become a scholar because I think it's a lifelong journey."

Access to higher education was common in prisons until the 1994 Crime Bill excluded incarcerated people from Pell Grant eligibility—a federal student aid program that funded most college-level courses taught inside prisons. Now, following a pilot program that reinstated eligibility to incarcerated students during the Obama administration, and a quiet rescinding of the eligibility ban by Congress in 2020 during Trump's term, roughly 760,000 incarcerated individuals across the country are eligible to receive Pell Grants for higher education. The Marshall Project reports more. 
 
"Since the formation of Gov. Stitt’s first RESTORE Task Force in 2019, Oklahoma has reduced its incarceration and recidivism rates simultaneously. We are hopeful this task force will continue to put Oklahoma on the map with data-driven, solutions-oriented improvements to the justice system."
 
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed an executive order this week that created a new task force aimed at continuing momentum around criminal justice reforms in the state. The MODERN task force was met with resounding praise by advocates in the state and nationally, and has strong support from legislative leadership and many system stakeholders. It will undertake an intensive review of the state's current system and recent reforms, with the intention of recommending next steps for legislative action in 2024.
 
"The criminal legal system is still in denial about how broken everything is."
 
Over the past 5 years, Washington state has experienced a 47% decrease in prison and jail sentences, which experts in Washington say can largely be attributed to a state Supreme Court ruling, a shortage of justice system staff, and constraints from the pandemic. With the system essentially restricting itself, some worry that the state’s court system is becoming more dysfunctional, and an overcorrection is inevitable.