BROKEN LIVES FROM BROKEN WINDOWS: THE COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCES
OF ARRESTS FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION AND OTHER MINOR OFFENSES
 

A permanent criminal record is the most important and least recognized harmful consequence of these arrests. Twenty years ago, misdemeanor arrest and conviction records were papers kept in court storerooms and warehouses, often impossible to locate. Ten years ago they were computerized. Now they are instantly searchable on the Internet for $20 to $40 through commercial criminal-record database services. A simple Google search for the phrase 'criminal database' or 'criminal records' produces numerous links to firms, some claiming that their searches are better than the others. Some offer "50 state searches" for as low as $12.95.

Employers, landlords, credit agencies, licensing boards for nurses and beauticians, schools, and banks now routinely search these databases for background checks on applicants. A simple arrest for marijuana possession can show up on criminal databases as "a drug arrest" without specifying the substance, the charge, or even if the person was convicted. Employers and landlords, faced with an abundance of applicants, often eliminate those with criminal arrest records, especially for drugs. Nurses, security guards, and others licensed by the state can lose their licenses and their jobs from just one misdemeanor marijuana arrest.

For legal immigrants, two guilty pleas to misdemeanor marijuana possession can lead to deportation, and one guilty plea can bar someone from ever returning to the U.S. Family court can remove children from a home because a parent is convicted or just arrested for marijuana possession. A person cannot be considered for public housing with an "open criminal case," including the typical probation for a first arrest for marijuana possession.

Police patrols and stop-and-frisks target the neighborhoods of low-income people of color, but not the predominately white and higher income neighborhoods. As a result, day after day and year after year, the police in New York City, and other major U.S. cities, disproportionately arrest young blacks and Latinos for possessing marijuana – even though they use marijuana at lower rates than whites. And, as a result, these low-income, vulnerable, young people suffer unfairly and disproportionately all these collateral consequences.
 

• K. Babe Howell, "Broken Lives from Broken Windows: The Hidden Costs of Aggressive Order-Maintenance Policing" New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Vol. 33, p. 271, 2009

Professor Howell's article is the indispensible source for understanding the serious consequences of the NYPD's many misdemeanor arrests for marijuana possession, trespassing, and other minor offenses. Recommended by academics, researchers, and top journalists.

 • Hon. Cynthia Diane Stephens, "Keeping an Arrest from Resulting in a Life Sentence in an Age of Full Disclosure of Criminal Records." Michigan Bar Journal. November 2008

Judge Stephens, who has been on the bench for over twenty-five years, explains some of the consequences of a criminal arrest record.

• "No Cause for Marijuana Case, but Enough for Child Neglect." by Mosi Secret. The New York Times. Aug 17, 2011

Hundreds of New Yorkers who have been caught with small amounts of marijuana, or who have simply admitted to using it, have become ensnared in civil child neglect cases in recent years, though they did not face even the least of criminal charges, according to city records and defense lawyers. A small number of parents in these cases have even lost custody of their children.
 

 • The Use Of Criminal History Records In College Admissions, Center for Community Alternatives, NY, NY, Nov. 2010

The first major study of the way criminal records limit college admissions. Based on a survey of 273 college admissions offices and registrars.

• Minor Crimes, Massive Waste: The Terrible Toll of America’s Broken Misdemeanor Courts.  By Robert C. Boruchowitz, Malia N. Brink Maureen Dimino, Rick Jones.  National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Washington DC, 2009

Prominent criminal attorneys report on the consequences of the ever growing number arrests for misdemeanors on the people arrested and on the overburdened courts. [Takes a long time to load; be patient.]

 

                                                       Photo by Mike Epstein at flickr.com