La dépendance des Etats-Unis à l’incarcération des femmes pour des délits de drogue

La loi draconienne du Tennessee qui pénalise les consommatrices de drogues enceintes pourrait aider le pays à conserver sa réputation de grand « emprisonneur » de femmes dans le monde, une infamie largement alimentée par la guerre contre la drogue. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

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While drug reform initiatives are taking root across the United States, Tennessee’s draconian law criminalizing pregnant drug users could help the country keep it’s notorious title as the world’s largest incarcerator of women, an infamy fuelled largely by the war on drugs.

On July 1, a controversial new piece of legislation (SB1391) came into force in the US state of Tennessee meaning women can be imprisoned “for the illegal use of a narcotic drug while pregnant, if her child is born addicted to or harmed by the narcotic drug.”

Two women were charged with assault within the first month of the new law after their newborn babies tested positive for illicit substances, reported Al Jazeera. Though neither woman was ultimately sentenced to prison, instead being sent to attend court-ordered rehab, SB1391’s harsh penalties mean that judges have the scope to hand down a maximum prison term of 15 years.

As one Tennessee woman who suffers from problematic drug use told Al Jazeera, if SB1391 had been in place when she had given birth to her child it would have deterred her “from going to the hospital and seeking care” for her baby, as she “wouldn’t want to end up in jail.”

The disastrous consequences of this new law – one in a state where harm reduction programs are neither ubiquitous, nor easily accessible -- are manifold. When looking at the role of drug prohibition in driving female incarceration rates, SB1391 sadly does little to buck the historical trend in the US.

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