Ending the New Jim Crow

Ending the New Jim Crow: Mapping the Future of Drug Policy in NYC Talking Transition | 16 November 2013

Ending the New Jim Crow: Mapping the Future of Drug Policy in NYC16 November 2013

Co-sponsors: BOOM! Health, Bronx Defenders, Center for Community Alternatives, Center for Constitutional Rights, Community Health Services of Staten Island, Family Services of New York, Inc., Harm Reduction Coalition, Justice Committee, Lower East Harm Reduction Center, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, New York Civil Liberties Union, New York Communities for Change, New York Harm Reduction Educators, Picture the Homeless, Safe Horizon/Streetwork Project, Washington Heights Corner Project


Ending the New Jim Crow: Mapping the Future of Drug Policy in NYC

•40 Years•$1 Trillion •45 million arrests


Ending the New Jim Crow: Mapping the Future of Drug Policy in NYCOver the last 40 years, the official drug policy of the both the U.S. and NYC has been the war on drugs.

This war has failed to improve health and safety in our communities, and has led to criminalizing health issues, mass incarceration, rising overdose deaths, disease transmission, lack of access to healthcare and education, fiscal waste, violations of civil rights and civil liberties, the school-to-prison pipeline, and appalling racial disparities.

The war on drugs is the New Jim Crow.


While reform is needed in Albany and D.C., many problems can be fixed at the City level. It’s time for a new approach to our drug policies, based in

public health and safety, where government is

-coordinating efforts across agencies

-ending racially biased policing

-reducing barriers to treatment and services

-promoting effective prevention education

-addressing collateral consequences

-identifying and reducing fiscal waste

-ending stigma, and more


What should be

the future of

drug policy

in NYC?


Breakout! •How do we reduce the harm associated with drug misuse?

•How do we reduce the role of the criminal justice system in our drug policies?

•How do we promote health-based solutions?





Health & Medicine

Ending the New Jim Crow