Today at 2PM outside the Roundhouse, Mayor Michael Nutter, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and assorted other City bosses will gather to announce just how the City of Philadelphia will be spending $13.5 million in Byrne Grant Program money, a Dept. of Justice grant program that just had a major pump-up as part of the Federal Stimulus Package. It’ll be worth hearing what they have to say. And possibly a little disheartening, too. For those in the know, the Byrne program represents much of what is totally screwed regarding the U.S. Drug War, by incentivizing low-level drug busts. That’s great in a “get-’em-off-the-street” kind of way, but the back end is that it lands lots of just normal users in the already over-crowded and under-funded prison systems. There’s also the more theoretical stuff about how imprisoning low-level criminals and drug users basically creates a whole new class of more robust felons, not to mention how incentivizing busts basically invites all kinds of nasty things like evidence planting, witness tampering, and so on. On the other hand, money is money, and the Philly Police Department could use some of that, so it’ll be interesting to see just how by-the-book the City takes the Byrne Grant.

Previously: This Moment In Stimulus Checks: $13M For Potholes!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 11:23 am.