President Obama signed a new law making it illegal for prisoners to possess or use cell phones and other wireless devices from behind bars. Lawmakers say that this new measure should cut down on prisoners and gang members from being able to conduct illegal business from prison. According to a CNN article, last year more than 3200 cell phones were confiscated from prisons in the U.S.
I suppose my question is, if cell phones were already prohibited inside prisons, but inmates were still able to get access to them, how will this new law change anything?
This new regulation seems to mirror the same flawed logic as our nation’s drug policies. Politicians and lawmakers just don’t seem to be able to read the writing on the wall. Just as people who choose to use and sell drugs are not going to stop just because it’s illegal, prisoners are not going to stop using or having cell phones smuggled in to them just because there’s a law against it.
The argument is always that if we were to decriminalize drug use, everybody will start using drugs. The fact is that there is in all likelihood, not a single person who has ever chosen to do drugs without realizing that they are illegal. Additionally, there are probably not very many people who currently choose not to use drugs, that would suddenly begin just because it’s decriminalized. The only thing our harsh and extreme drug policy does is put more and more non-violent offenders behind bars every year. And, it only fuels the violence that surrounds illicit drug use and sales in this country.
So, lets stop pretending that by passing a law, we can control the behavior of others. People don’t choose not to murder because it’s illegal. They don’t choose not to use drugs because they’re illegal. They make these choices because of who they are and what they believe. So do drug dealers and murderers. Maybe if our prisons were not overcrowded by recreational drug users and non-violent criminals, it wouldn’t be so hard to prevent people from sneaking cell-phones in.
And we wouldn’t even have to pass any new laws to do it. We’d just have to get rid of the ones that don’t work.
