War on Drugs Talk and Glen Loury

Yesterday, I gave a well-received talk on the hidden costs of drug prohibition. I focused primarily on the legislative evolution, so to speak, of drug offense laws, and the development of a focused policy response towards rising drug consumption - the so-called "war on drugs" in other words. I think I did a good job linking the development of a drug policy that emphasized enforcement efforts, as well as a coordination of resources towards that end (such as with the establishment of the DEA in 1973), and the tendency of prosecutors and judges to "crowd" prisons. Because of the non-exclusive nature of these resources, prisons tend to experience classic "tragedy of the commons" with overcrowding and deteriorating quality of the prisons themselves. Having then taking the audience through the massive expansion of the prison complex system over the 1980s and 1990s, I discussed in detail the consequence of the expansion in terms of overall marriage markets for Blacks - which is the subject of my research. Afterwards, someone sent me this article by Glen Loury entitled "A Nation of Jailers", and I realized that I had been channeling a lot of Loury's recent public writings on the prison system without realizing it. I actually haven't read anything by Loury, but what I know of him, I've always wanted to know more about him. This talk (see below) was good.

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