Barbara Fair works as a counselor at the Hill Health Center in New Haven, Connecticut where she specializes in working with families and children affected by drug use. She is a tireless drug reform activist in Connecticut. All seven of her sons have been through the prison system.

Q: How did you get involved with drug policy reform?

I have been advocating for criminal justice reform, prison reform, for many, many years, over 20 years- since I was in my late teens. But I started with the drug policy advocacy in the last, I guess, maybe 8-10 years. That’s primarily just being in the community and seeing how this is when Police really started making it a big thing- targeting on the youth in the community so that kids couldn’t even walk down the street without police jumping out. They had a van called the beat down crew- it was a bunch of officers that would jump out of the van and as the kids walked down the street they would put them up against the building, searching them. That’s gone on at least 10 years.

But I’ve got more and more involved and recognized that this war is not really about drugs- and that just came to me maybe 3 or 4 years ago. At first, I really thought it was about ridding the community of the drugs- I didn’t like how they were going about it, but I didn’t want drugs in the community. But now, like I said, it’s not really about drugs, period.

“Have you gotten to the part where the Drug War is not really about drugs at all?”

I work with a lot of people in this Drug War, and I read a lot of the literature on whose in the prison and what are they there for and the reality is that we live in a community with college campus surrounding us, with plenty of drugs out there, and yet they aren’t getting arrested. We even have people on those campuses that have said themselves, we know this is not really about drugs because we have drugs flourishing on campus and nobody is arresting us.

That’s when I started taking a deeper look into what’s going on. And I realized that this is not just going on in New Haven, Connecticut, but around the country- it’s an epidemic, it’s a real crisis. In this country at least. And I look back a the times, when I was growing up. Cocaine was always considered the rich man’s high. I didn’t know what it meant then, but I know what it means now. And I see the discrepancy between the time they serve for crack as opposed to cocaine. And then I started seeing policies that there is an additional mandatory three years if you have possession or are selling within 1,500 feet within a school- and I started noticing, if you map out the state of Connecticut, you only see that in the inner cities- New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford, and Waterbury. Of course- because they are more densely populated. It’s a discriminatory policy because it targets people in the inner city. This is really not about drugs at all.

Q: If not drugs, what is it about?

I think when you look back around the same time slavery was abolished, and people moved off the plantations, now you have all these people out here, competing in the work force, and there’s nothing to do with them. Just like if you look at the kids coming out of prison now- there’s nothing for them, there’s no jobs, drug policies have taken away chance to go to school, to get a higher education. It keeps them from going back home if they lived in housing projects. So now you have all these people with nothing to do with them, so someone developed some policies- longer sentences to keep them in prison longer. And that’s what’s happening. You are getting kids at a younger age and recycling them in and out of the prison throughout their youth. They come out in 30’s and 40’s and have no way to survive at all unless they go back to what they were doing that got them in prison in the first place.

Q: Do you think the Drug War is intentionally racist?

Oh yeah, I don’t think it was a mistake. Look at Alecwatch.org- they have all these legislators and different politicians and prison organizations that all work together to make sure these different policies are put in place all around America. On their website- you can see they fight hard if some policy looks like it might change some of the drug policy- they really fight against it, because they are so invested in keeping things the way they are. The drug laws are feeding the prison system. If you take away the people in there for drugs, you really wouldn’t have much of a prison system.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the CT website- did he show it to you? If you look at the CT website, that’s what’s feeding our system. When I look around the country, that’s what’s feeding all the systems. Even the federal system. The majority of the people in the federal system are in there for drug sentences. Some in there for violation of probation, many of them are for drug offenses.

Q: A lot of people have a vested interest in this, but how does that work?

We had an ex staff member of Governor Rowland’s- his chief of staff. He had invested in the Corrections Corporation of America. He was a lobbyist for private prisons. So this past year that was Roland was in, he was pushing hard to get more prisoners to send out of state. Right now, we only have 500, but under Rowland, in his last few months before being kicked out, he increased that amount to 2,500. In one session it jumped from 500 to 2,500.

They have all these cells- but they don’t have anyone to fill them- this is their way they can be guaranteed to fill them. It’s the Drug War that’s feeding all the prisoners to the system.

There’s a lot of people in prison for something they didn’t do. Whenever these guys get a sentence, they tag on some years for probation- usually at least three years- and you get out of prison and have these three years hanging over your head. So if you do anything, they can send you back to prison. Say someone has three years of probation and didn’t go to his parole officer like he was supposed to. So he’s in violation. So either he pleads guilty to the crime, or has to serve the three years in prison, so a lot of people plead guilty to whatever they’re charged with. Pleading guilty to a small drug charge will give less time than the parole violation.

Because it takes away any kind of bargaining power that the person has. If you go before the judge and the police officer says you have drugs on you. And you want to plead not guilty, the prosecutor

Of course they’ll plead guilty for the three, because they won’t risk going to trial and getting five years.

Q: Looking at New Haven, how is the city or the state for the matter addressing the drug problem?

There’s very little drug treatment around. As a matter of fact, this past session, Rowland cut money to treatment centers and increased the prison budget. It shows you where their true allegiance is. It is almost $600 million for the prison budget in Connecticut. And to get that money, they cut every other budget- housing, any kind of resources that the community needs, education, everything, and fed it to the prison budget.

Another thing we found is that they start looking at kids in the 4 th grade. If they’re not doing well in the 4 th grade, they start perceiving that in the future, we will need to plan a prison cell for this person. That’s why every year, instead of cutting down on cells, they talk about an increased number of cells. As long as we have these cells, we’re going to fill them.

It’s like the police officer will ride around, all they have to see is a couple of kids and they will start to slow the car down, watching them. They target these kids just walking down the street. The next thing you know they are searching folks. They do strip searches right on the street- anal cavity searches on guys right on the street. They don’t care. Anyting to dehumanize and show that they have power they will do it. I had one man who told me that it happened to him twice last week. I told him he had to make a report- but most of these guys- they are upset about, but won’t talk about it. They won’t make a report- I tell them, that’s why they continue to do this.

Q: Is that legal?

No! They can’t legally do stuff like that. They have to take you into the station, but they don’t.

Q: But if drugs are a huge problem, don’t the police need to crack down?

Well, if drugs are everywhere, why are they just cracking down on the city?

Q: Looking at the inner city- if there are so many drugs, how can you blame the police for checking the kids on a regular basis?

Drugs are not readily available in the inner city. They are readily available anywhere you go. Everywhere. It’s just that in the inner city, the police officers are focusing on it. They don’t focus on it in other areas. We have students from Yale that work with us a lot and they get upset when they see Yale Police policing out community, yet no one is getting arrested on campus. They have said that in public. They’ve had seminars at Yale about all the drugs right on campus. If drugs was really the problem, why are you just arresting people outside of campus?

Q: What would you do instead of arresting folks? How should it be handled?

I myself, I don’t have the right to tell another adult what to put in their body. That’s why I would be for legalizing marijuana- so it would be legal like when I was growing up. That was nothing to go to jail for. But now that they see this is a way to fill the prisons, they make it a crime to do it.

An adult comes to another adult for drugs. I am for a drug free America. If we are to get rid of drugs we need to get rid of all drugs- alcohol, prescription drugs that so many people get high on. There are so many drugs out there. If you are really going to get rid of drugs, you have to get rid of tobacco- look at how many people that drug kills.

Oxycontin is just synthetic heroin- why aren’t people getting long terms over stuff like that? Why is the focus not on that?

Q: Focusing on substance-dependent people, what would you say needs to be done for these folks?

They need to get treatment- if they are addicted. Just because they smoke something doesn’t mean they should go to prison. But for those whose addictions interfere with their functioning as a human being, we need to get them treatment. We need to be more about caring about people. Uplifting them instead of tearing them down, which is what usually happens.

What makes it a crime? That the government doesn’t have control over it? Gambling was a crime but now that the government has control you can gamble seven days a week.

I think drugs are bad, I see what they do to people, but I want to help those people, not lock them up. That’s not helping their addiction. Many people don’t have a drug problem until they go to prison- to cope with the environment they’re in.

Drugs are here to stay. They aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. But if the purpose for these drug laws is to find a reason to lock up these young kids in urban areas, they’ve picked a good thing. When there’s no jobs or opportunities, that’s exactly what they’re going to go to.

Q: Why do so many people use drugs?

Some people start out just socializing with other people. Others start out because life is so harsh for them and they want an escape and they keep going to that escape and going to that escape until they can no longer control it anymore. Then it controls them.

If I wanted to really truly stop drugs I would look at the root problem –that’s me as a clinician- look at the root problem and change those conditions- so that people don’t have a need to escape reality.

Many of them are poverty related. The stress of living in an environment where you don’t even know if you can pay your rent or bills. They used to have welfare, but they’ve taken that from them. They don’t want to do it, they don’t want to see drugs in their community, but they have to feed their families. I know that for a fact because I have young kids in prison. There’s a whole lot of kids out there- I know they aren’t bad kids- they are trying to make a living. So they go to the underground economy, because those people don’t ask about felonies, nothing. “You want to make some money?” And there you are.

Q: So you have kids in jail for selling?

Yeah, selling. I have some kids that used to use drugs too. But when in prison they got hooked up with Islam and that changed their whole life. As a matter of fact, Islam got them against even selling drugs too. But the reality is, when you come back home and try to get a job and everyone is saying no and “we’ll call you…” and you have a family, I see why they go back. I have a young son that got a six year sentence for selling drugs. And my kids always get worse because I speak out against police brutality- they know me.

But I just say, “You’re fueling my engine, I am not going to stop.”

He had just got out in December, and he had been to so many different places trying to find a job. My heart was breaking knowing how hard he was trying. He had a son, and had to do something to take care of him. He kept looking for jobs and looking for jobs. A job didn’t come. The next thing I know he was arrested for being in a car with someone with marijuana. If he wasn’t already selling, I am sure he was preparing to start again. He got an 18 month sentence.

It’s up to the prosecutor- that’s who decides the charge. Whether it’s possession or intent to distribute… As far as I’m concerned, it’s the prosecutors that are running the courts.

A lot of these things that are now federal charges became federal charges under Clinton- some of the harshest policies came through under his administration. Like selling out of housing projects is now a federal crime. That’s why I don’t understand why people say he’s our hero.

Q: Of your seven sons, how many have been through the prison system.

Well, all of them have been through the system, but two of them, it wasn’t for drugs.

Q: Did they all serve time? Or did some go to treatment?

They all served time. There were no treatment options. The new thing must be 39 months. That’s what my last few sons have got.

Two out of four went for something they didn’t do. Just based on the word of the police officer- like Tulia, Texas. But that’s the Drug War is allowing, they allow you to take people’s property, break into their houses whenever they want, stop you on the street, search your car, search you, search you on the street- this is what the Drug War has allowed- do anything to anybody. When they want you, they got you. If they want you, they just say you were selling drugs and that’s it.

Q: How many of your sons are in prison right now?

Two are in prison, one is on parole and one is out in a halfway house.

Q: How would you describe your sons? Who were these boys? These men?

Someone who grew up with a mother- children were always important, you have to take care of your kids. Teach them to get a job, take care of your family. So when you grow up, and you do everything right, and you can’t get a job it messes up the whole plan. You know you can’t get a job and take care of them, but if you go to the streets you can take care of them- really well. But the bad thing about that is that once you have worked the street and made all this money it is so hard to go back to working two and three jobs just to pay the rent. That’s the hardest part. They talk about the addiction of the person using the drug, but they never talk about the people who get addicted to making the money. How hard it is to breaking that cycle. Now he is working two jobs- but there is really little he can do for his kids. And men pride themselves on taking care of their kids. There are some kids out there- they’re not even trying to go to school, do the right thing, they are just out there, shooting people, all of that stuff- those are the ones the media always shows to the world, as if the majority out there are doing that. But there’s a lot of good kids out there – that just get caught up in that lifestyle and they say it’s hard to break. Once you go to prison and come out- they are not going to keep begging for a job because they know they can just go back to the street. That’s what the cycle is all about. The people who make these policies-they recognize that these kids are going to go back to the street and they’re going to get them again, and then they will have even less of a chance to get a job.

When they get out of prison- they call the police departments and notify that this person’s getting out of prison, so they know who to focus on. One of my most frustrating things is getting kids to see this. This system is set up – and they are just falling into the trap every time.

But I don’t have a job to offer them- that’s what’s frustrating for me. I know if I had a job for them then they wouldn’t be out there.

Q: You live in New Haven?

I live right outside of New Haven now. I have lived in New Haven most of my life, that’s what I call home.

Q: How typical are your experiences compared to your neighbors.

In New Haven its pretty similar. It’s a struggle to keep your kids from going to the street when there’s all this money. Especially like I said- when they’re trying to find a job.

Q: How did the community change, the social services change, over the period of time you were raising your children? How did the landscape change?

First of all, there’s nothing out here for the kids. There used to be so many recreational opportunities for the kids- they don’t have that. They used to have summer jobs for the kids- they couldn’t wait to turn 14 because now I can get me a summer job- the federal job cut all that- there is no funding coming into the cities for summer jobs. So all they get now are people who will volunteer to pay for a child to have a job for the summer. A lot of those kids who were looking forward to that summer job don’t have that anymore, so they spend time on the streets and start selling drugs.

A lot of camps that used to be free- you have to pay for them now. Maybe a couple hundred a week- but they can’t afford that. So that’s even more kids out on the streets with nothing to do. New Haven right now is going through gentrification. The rents are so high now, it is almost impossible to live here now unless you have Section 8. Even if you can find something for $800 it is in a torn down neighborhood. Yet, we have downtown being all beautiful. They put in a mall you can’t go to- all these high-priced stores. Most of the people who work in New Haven live outside of New Haven- so there goes your tax base.

Years ago you looked at a police officer as someone you can respect. Somebody you know who can help you out. Now the kids are petrified of the police officers. Because when they see a police officer, he is usually kicking in the door, with guns to their head, or out in the neighborhood beating someone down. They don’t see any good stuff with the police officers. After years and years of kids seeing the police doing these things you can’t just bring in a cop and say, “Oh, let’s play basketball,” and the kids are going to love you. The kids still have pictures in their heads... There’s no sense of community. Nobody trusts anyone anymore. No one trusts anyone. One thing the task force- there is a whole list of when you get arrested, they make a list- if you give me names I’ll help you out. So people tell on their own friends, family. So you have this community where no one trusts anyone anymore.

Q: Do you see more people going to jail now that before?

Oh definitely. My son was in the barber shop and the police came in and wanted to search everyone and check id’s. There is no where to go. People aren’t hanging out on the corner anymore. You don’t see anyone.

Q: Do you see more or less drug use now?

Definitely more. That’s the one thing you can say about the kids in the community. Before, they may have been dealing, but not using. Now I see so many kids using, it’s sad, really sad.

Q: What do you do at the health center?

I work with families. A lot of the kids that come in- their families are struggling with this. They’re good people, but it is just hard to keep going you know, with no money, and poor housing and all kinds of stuff. A lot of them, that’s how they get through life.

Q: Do you see a lot of families using as a family?

I have seen kids, yeah, I’ve seen kids and the parents are also using. I’ve seen kids at a much younger age using. When I was coming up at least, that was something you heard about as teenagers- hanging out as older teenagers or adults. But now I see, it’s 10 years old. Smoking or drinking or something. If anything, it’s just exasperated drug use, this Drug War, it’s just made it worse. It definitely didn’t make it go away. It intensified it because now we have a lot of parents- one and two parents in prison as a result of the Drug War, and now you have all these kids trying to cope with their parents in prison. Drug offenders are spending more time in prison than people who have committed violent crimes. My son is in a prison with some of the most violent people. He’s in a cell with these people. Twice, he’s gotten into a fight trying to survive prison. He’s never had any violence in his history out here, and now he has two assault charges trying to survive in this violent environment he has to cope with now. All these violent people who will never walk the streets again, yet he is in a cell with these people. And why? He is just in there for a drug charge? If he didn’t have us for support he might be using drugs or end up dead. We write him. At least he knows we care about him.

I’m probably more afraid than he is. Because I know he is in this very violent environment and that is not who he is. Either he will turn out being violent to survive… and then I have to worry about him coming out with all this anger he didn’t have when he went in there. And for what? Because another adult wanted to buy drugs and he provided it?

We have kids in here with parents in prison- and that is hard to cope with.

Q: What do you say to a child?

The most important thing is to try to help them know that they shouldn’t feel ashamed of it. That’s part of the biggest problem a lot of kids have- they are too ashamed to even tell anyone they have someone in prison- so they try to deal with it all themselves and that often becomes a real behavior problem in school. The teacher and principal aren’t going to take the time to find out what’s wrong, so they just say they are a behavior problem, that they’re aggressive. So you just help them know their family’s safe-that they have nothing to worry about. That their family loves them. Tell them that their parents would want them to do the best than can in school. That they don’t have to feel ashamed with me. And I try to help them know I know what they are going through. Sometimes I will say that I have a son in prison- that I know it’s hard.

Q: What kind of transformation do you see with children that you work with for 6 months or so? Do the younger kids understand what’s going on?

It’s the older, the teenagers, those are the ones I feel I have the most success with. They understand more of what’s going on.

One of the things our organization provides- we work with the Yale students and provide trips to the prison. Someone will go to each of the prisons. Just about every night someone is going to the prison. They do it for free, and then sit outside and read a book or something. The students will take 6 or 8 adults up to the prison to see relatives.

Q: What legislation have you been working on?

Last session we had a bill with Rep. Dyson to end the crack-cocaine discrepancy on the state level. A lot of legislators know what is going on, but others who are farther out, it doesn’t affect them, they don’t care. One advocate went to a hearing and was so discouraged because the legislators said they wouldn’t even discuss prison issues because it doesn’t affect them.

We recognize you will have to fix it on a federal level as well though because they can overrule us, just like with medical marijuana. The federal government has been talking about the crack-cocaine discrepancy for years now without doing anything. They know crack is found and sold mostly in urban areas because it is cheaper. It’s something that’s been around a long time, but it’s something no one wants to do anything about.

There was an article in CNN Money about how the prison stocks are climbing because so many people are going into the system.

Where they set up the prisons takes away the political power from New Haven, because they count you as a resident where the prison is as opposed to where you actually live. So the federal funding goes out of the city out to where the prison is- like Infield. There was an article not too long ago that showed they are spending $16.4 million just on locking people up in New Haven.