The drug war is leaving kids without moms at a record rate

There are a lot of reasons to support ending the war on drugs: It’s expensive, ineffective, and counter-productive. It’s inhumane to the sick and dying. It fosters violence and is blatantly unconstitutional.

Now, we can add another reason to that list: It leaves kids without moms.

Related: Could this court ruling on marijuana set a precedent for limiting federal power?

In fact, as has been widely reported in the last couple days, the number of women in American jails and prisons is 14 times higher than it was in 1970. Though men still make up a much bigger proportion of the total inmate population, that incarceration growth rate is far higher among women.

Many of the women in prison today have two things in common: They’re in trouble for a low-level, nonviolent offense (often drug-related), and nearly 80 percent are moms (often single moms of young children):

Women who land in a jail cell are more likely than their male counterparts to be the sole guardian of a child, which can make it harder to adhere to a schedule set by a probation officer. For instance, a missed parole meeting could have something to do with a lack of child care….

This influx of women in jail has coincided with a widespread crackdown on such smaller offenses — simple drug possession, shoplifting, skipping a parole meeting — the kind of offenses officers were more likely to overlook before Richard M. Nixon launched the “war on drugs.” A sharp escalation in the enforcement of drug offenses through the ’80s and ’90s led to greater enforcement of various minor offenses….

Because nonviolent offenses make up a larger portion of the crimes women commit compared with men, women were more heavily affected, the authors argue. Between 1980 and 2009, for example, the arrest rate for drug possession tripled for women and doubled for men.

It comes as no surprise, perhaps, that these women and their children don’t have many political champions. You won’t hear, “A mom who smokes pot sometimes should still get to raise her kids” in a stump speech any time soon.

But think about it: Is it really better—for the mom, or her kids, or the general public—to throw her in jail and break up her family? Of course no one wants to see a mom doing drugs. But what we’re doing now is not a good alternative.

It leaves the mom with a record that will make it exponentially harder for her to further her education, find a reliable job, and get safe housing.

It leaves the kids without their mother, perhaps housing them with family but perhaps making them wards of the state—and either way, cutting down the chance of a stable home environment that will produce responsible adults.

Related: This young man gave some honest insight on choices to the protesters in Milwaukee

And it leaves the general public with the bill to incarcerate a nonviolent woman, plus untold costs from the ripple effect of that decision, like future incarceration of kids who grew up mom-less and went down the wrong path.

We don’t have to condone these low-level offenses to say these moms shouldn’t be in jail. We just have to recognize that the punishment for mother and child alike will far, far outweigh the crime.