Melanie Klein, Drug Crimes, and Women

Abstract

Due to changes made to drug laws in the 1970s and 1980s the population of women serving time in prison has skyrocketed. This article uses material verbatim from court cases and public discourse about reform of drug laws in New York State to examine the psychodynamic processes that seem to be undergirding our discussion about and projections onto women arrested for drug crimes. Primarily drawing on Melanie Klein's theories concerning the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions, it explores society's deep ambivalence about the lives and fate of these women.

Notes

¹The Correctional Association provides insight as to why these sentences are often longer: “Aware of the law's emphasis, drug kingpins are rarely foolish or reckless enough to be caught carrying narcotics. Yet a young mother, employed as a courier by that same kingpin, is more likely to be picked up and charged with a serious felony for having a small amount of drugs in her possession.…Another problem with the laws is that major dealers often take advantage of provisions permitting lifetime probation sentences in exchange for cooperation in turning other offenders over to the authorities. Less culpable persons, very often women, generally do not possess information that would be useful to law enforcement officials. These people often decline to plea bargain and insist on a trial instead” (SenGupta and Peterson, 1999, p. 26).

²According to the Bureau of Justice 2008 midyear report (West and Sabol, 2009).

³Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b).

⁴Interestingly enough, this decision was later overturned when it was determined that the judge had overstepped his discretionary bounds.

⁵Drug Law Reform Act of 2004, L. 2004, Ch. 738.

⁶For a good overview of these see the Legal Aid Society's special report 1 year later: http://www.drugpolicy.org/statebystate/newyork/rockefellerd

⁷According to The New York Times, there were around 1,000 women in prison or jail for drug crimes at that time (Eaton, 2005).

⁸Neil Altman (2005) takes up this question from another angle: looking at American consumerism and capitalist competition as a manic denial of societal guilt encountered in the depressive position.

⁹See J. Van Denend (2007), “Crime: Self and Society: Psychoanalytical Perspectives on Taking Responsibility and Moving Forward,” in The Journal of Religion and Health, 46, 63–74.

¹⁰For more information on this project, see http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/whatiwant. The film produced is titled What I Want My Words To Do To You, directed by Madeleine Gavin and Judith Katz, writing credits: Gary Sunshine.

¹¹See M. Fine et al. (2001), Changing Minds: The Impact of College in Prison, www.changingminds.ws for the report and history soon after the resurrection of the program or http://www.mmm.edu/study/resources/academicachievement/bhcp.html for its status today.

¹²See www.puppiesbehindbars.com