New York’s War on Drugs and the Impact on Female Incarceration Rates

• DOI: 10.1177/1557085120951846
• Date: 01 April 2021
• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085120951846

Feminist Criminology

2021, Vol. 16(2) 147 –164

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/1557085120951846

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Article

New York’s War on Drugs

and the Impact on Female

Incarceration Rates

Colleen D. Mair1

Abstract

Prior literature suggests that drug legislation in the late 1970s and 1980s caused the

rapid increase in the female incarceration rate. Empirical investigations focused on the

female incarceration rate specifically may provide important information to further

our understanding of the factors that contributed to this increase. The purpose of

this study is to determine how much of the change in the female incarceration rate in

New York can be attributed to the introduction of the 1973 Rockefeller Drug Laws.

These laws were introduced prior to most war on drugs legislation and, therefore,

serve as a unique case study for this type of investigation.

Keywords

interrupted time series, Rockefeller Drug Laws, women

Introduction

Although men account for the majority those under the supervision of the United

States (US) criminal justice system, sharp increases in the female incarceration rate

have posed significant, unique challenges to the system (Vainik, 2008). It is important,

therefore, to understand the factors that may differentially affect the incarceration rate

of women.

The introduction of war on drugs legislation has been identified as a major cause of

the increase in the female incarceration rate. Prior research focusing on the increases

in the female incarceration rate have consistently identified the mid-1980s and the

crack epidemic as a major cause of the massive increase in the female incarceration

rate. While there is little doubt that this was a truly influential time period, less is

1University at Albany, SUNY, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Colleen D. Mair, University at Albany, SUNY, 135 Western Ave, Draper Hall 240B, Albany, NY 12222,

USA.

Email: cmair@albany.edu

951846FCXXXX10.1177/1557085120951846Feminist CriminologyMair

research-article2020

148 Feminist Criminology 16(2)

known about the years preceding this time period and how factors in the decades

before impacted the substantial increase seen in the 1980s. In particular, New York

State is a significant battleground in the US war on drugs. The Rockefeller Drug Laws

(RDLs) were among the first pieces of legislation aimed at combatting the rise in

crime and heroin use (Wacquant, 2009). The RDLs acted as a model for legislation

introduced in the 1980s and 1990s. Following the RDLs, there were significant

changes in federal welfare policies (Blank, 1997), the impact of crack cocaine (Osler,

2013), and other significant state and federal policies and guidelines, much of which

adopted features of the RDLs (Sacco, 2014). In many ways, what came to be known

as the war on drugs, particularly during the rise of crack, were a continuation of refined

policies and moral panics that continue to evolve today.

Therefore, the current study presents an interrupted time series analysis of the effect

of the RDLs on the incarceration rate in New York State. This analysis provides an

extension to the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Drug Abuse

Council study, which evaluated the RDLs in the 3 years after the implementation. The

analysis of the state prison population found that there was not a significant increase

in the total number of annual new commitments to state prison for drug offenses

(Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 1978). While this study provided

important information about the effect of the RDLs during this time period, it is lim-

ited by the short time period investigated and the focus on the total or male incarcer-

ated population.

The purpose of the current study, therefore, is twofold. First, because policies in

New York State greatly influenced the polices subsequently passed by other states and

on the federal level, understanding how the RDLs impacted the incarceration rate may

shed some light on how and when similar legislation affected the female incarceration

rate. Second, understanding what happened to the incarceration rate in New York State

is important for understanding the timeline of events that led to the most impactful

period for female incarceration rates.

Background

The most impactful period for the female incarceration rate has been consistently iden-

tified as the mid-1980s and 1990s. This period was greatly shaped by the emergence

of crack, the harshest legislation, and largest increases in the female incarceration rate

(Goldstein et al., 1989). However, in many ways, this tremendous shift is part of a

continuation of policies and moral panics that continue to evolve today.

The contentious relationship between the government and mind-altering substances

has a long history (Auerhahn (1999) for an analysis of moral panic throughout United

States history). For the purposes of the current study, and the focus on female incar-

ceration specifically, this discussion begins in the early 1900s. The Great Migration of

blacks from the south to cities in the north and increases in immigration from eastern

and southern Europe, brought several challenges to cities like New York City

(Schneider, 2013). While the availability of wartime industrial jobs encouraged popu-

lations to move to larger cities, housing discrimination contributed to the creation of