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Though the draconian New York State Rockefeller Drug
Laws were repealed in April after an over three decades
long popular struggle against them, there is much damage
left in their wake. Originally intended as a punitive antidote
targeting the drug trade, the unfortunates caught in the
crosshairs were mainly impoverished users of color detained
with small amounts of drugs, and who could not afford the
legal resources enjoyed by their primarily middle class
white counterparts guilty of similar crimes.***
The exemplary documentary Lockdown, USA is a tribute
to the courage and determination of those who have fought
the laws for so many years, and also the penalized and their
destroyed families.***
Directed by Michael Skolnik and Rebecca Chaiklin, and
narrated by Ruby Dee, Lockdown, USA tracks the often frustrating
years of efforts by pro-repeal organizations such as The
Hip Hop Summit Action Network and NY Mothers Of The Disappeared,
and individuals like hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons
and comedian/activist Randy Credico to stand down indifferent
politicians.***
What emerges is a kind of socio-economic pyramid scheme
to perpetuate the war on drugs and decades of long sentences
for tens of thousands of mostly nonviolent, low level users,
while certain sectors of society enrich themelves from the
misery of the incarcerated. Including the legal defense
system, and the network of privatized prisons and businesses
who profit financially from their presence, in the sparsely
populated areas of Upstate NY where the penal insitutions
are located. Ironically of course, what is emerging now
during the current economic crisis, is the pendulum swinging
in the opposite direction, and the move to cut the costs
of correctional facility maintenance by decreasing prison
populations.***
Equally devastating in Lockdown, USA is the damage to
the families of these imprisoned drug users often enduring
life sentences, though murderers and rapists locked up with
them spend far less time behind bars. And while these families
find themselves without breadwinners, the film also points
out the grave reality of three million children of the incarcerated
across America left without a parent.***
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