Civil forfeiture is the seizure of money and property — including houses — based on the suspicion that someone may be involved in criminal activity, often drug sales. In many US states, the seizures can take place based solely on suspicion and not conviction.
Richland, which has a population of only 7,033, claims that they are doing the taxpayers a service by stopping the drug trade and saving tax revenues from going toward this elaborate police station.
Critics, however, say the practice of civil forfeiture as it stands in many states is deeply flawed, and, with too little oversight and transparency, runs counter to central principles in the American criminal justice system.
“Why legislative efforts (to reform civil forfeiture) in Mississippi and across the nation will ultimately succeed is because forfeiture is contrary to basic American principles,” Lee McGrath, legislative counsel for the libertarian Institute for Justice, told Watchdog.org.
“In Mississippi and across the United States, the American people believe a person is innocent until proven guilty. And so should his property. Forfeiture is contrary to that.”
In Mississippi, the state only needs a “preponderance of evidence” that property is related to a crime, far less than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” that it takes to convict someone. A person can even be acquitted of a crime and have their property taken, as the state can contest them in civil court. In civil court the burden of proof lies on the property owner instead of on the state, as in criminal cases. Watchdog.org also reports that the state does not require police to collect or report data on their use of forfeiture or the proceeds.
The team in charge of these forfeitures in Richland consists of only four officers, yet they’ve have managed to boost their account of seized funds to over $2.3 million in the last nine years. An additional $400,000 was obtained from fines and court costs.
“It’s great to be able to say that we built that building (the police station) and built it not only today, but built it for the future with funds that aren’t taxpayer dollars,” Mayor Mark Scarborough said. “That frees us up huge with the rest of the city. Every other department benefits from the drug seizure deal.”
Meanwhile, activists and concerned citizens point to the drug war as a massive failure for the American public. It is currently estimated that the money spent enforcing marijuana laws is double what is being spent on education in the US.
At any given time, 59,300 prisoners charged with or convicted of violating marijuana laws are imprisoned in the United States. Of those 59,300, there are 17,000 that are behind bars for possession only. Enforcing marijuana laws costs an estimated $10-15 billion per year, before the cost of sustaining the offender's imprisonment.
