The Effect of Marijuana Legalization on Jail Populations in Washington State

Published date01 September 2020
Date01 September 2020
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/0032885520939313
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885520939313
The Prison Journal
2020, Vol. 100(4) 510 –530
© 2020 SAGE Publications
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0032885520939313
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Article
The Effect of Marijuana
Legalization on
Jail Populations in
Washington State
Duane Stanton1, Xiaohan Mei2, Sohee Kim1,
Dale Willits1, Mary Stohr1, Craig Hemmens1,
Guangzhen Wu3, Ruibin Lu4, David Makin1,
and Nicholas Lovrich1
Abstract
In 2012, Washington State legalized the production, sale, and possession
of marijuana through Initiative 502. Advocates of legalization argued that
it would decrease the jail population and reduce the disproportionate
incarceration of minorities, reasoning that the police would refocus their
resources on other matters. In order to evaluate this assumption, we
examined jail booking data using a set of interrupted time-series regression
models. Our findings indicate that jail population trends differ among
counties across time and with respect to impacts on minorities and women.
With regard to ethnic and racial disproportionate impact, there appears to
be little positive change.
Keywords
marijuana, jails, minorities, women, race
1Washington State University, Pullman, USA
2California State University, Los Angeles, USA
3University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
4Stockton University, Galloway, NJ, USA
Corresponding Author:
Craig Hemmens, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Washington State
University, Wilson-Short, Pullman, WA 99164-4872, USA.
Email: craig.hemmens@wsu.edu
939313TPJXXX10.1177/0032885520939313The Prison JournalStanton et al.
research-article2020
Stanton et al. 511
Introduction
During the early 1970s, in response to a growing heroin epidemic in a num-
ber of metropolitan areas, aggressive new drug laws were implemented that
imposed harsh mandatory prison sentences for drug offenses and set the
foundation for further punitive drug sanctions. For instance, the New York
State Substance Control Act (SCA) of 1973 imposed mandatory minimum
sentences of 15 years to life for persons convicted of possessing as little as
four ounces of cannabis, heroin, morphine, raw or prepared opium, or cocaine
(Stemen, 2017). Intended to deter and prevent drug-related crime, states
nationwide implemented mandatory sentencing laws that were modeled after
New York’s SCA (Walker, 2006).
Commonly referred to as the “War on Drugs” with a declared objective to
achieve a “Drug Free America,” jail populations began to increase and rose
dramatically from an average daily population of 223,644 in 1983 to 721,300
in 2015 (Aiken, 2017, p. 2; Banks, 2016). The Prison Policy Initiative asserts
in their 2018 report that of 615,000 inmates jailed nationally, 118,000 are
being held for drug offenses that have not yet been convicted, while an addi-
tional 35,000 have been convicted and jailed for drug crimes (Wagner &
Sawyer, 2018). In contrast, some jail and prison population reduction did
occur between 2007 and 2012 as the national recession negatively impacted
local and state budgets (Garland et al., 2014; Kaeble & Cowhig, 2018).
Similarly, Washington State’s jail and prison population rates mirrored
national trends. However, there were notable exceptions to overall statewide
jail population reductions following the passage of initiative I-692 (medical
marijuana initiative) in 1998 and initiative I-502 (recreational marijuana) in
2012 (Aiken, 2017).
The public appetite for punitive drug enforcement policies and practices
has been waning since 2011, particularly with regard to low-level marijuana
offenses (Gallup, 2017). Public opinion polls have consistently demonstrated
that support for marijuana legalization has continued to grow, reaching 64%
of Americans in the Gallup poll taken in October, 2017 (Gallup, 2017, p. 1).
In addition, scholars, pundits, and policymakers have long argued that the
drug war led to the unprecedented building and populating of jails and pris-
ons. A disproportionate incarceration of minority group members and the
increased confinement of women were also concomitant outcomes (Brooks,
2015; The Sentencing Project, 2016). As Washington State’s 1998 and 2012
initiatives were implemented, there were expectations of reductions in the
number of persons jailed, particularly involving African American, Hispanic,
and female inmate populations. Hence, initiative supporters such as the
Editorial Board of the New York Times editorialized in favor of the 2012

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