Eugene Jarecki's documentary “The House I Live In” informs us about what is known as “The War on Drugs” and how expensive it is in America . This war has been going on for 40 years and has resulted in more than 45 million arrests, 2.3 million prisoners in the United States itself, 1 trillion dollars in public spending (anti-drugs, prisons, surveillance agents, etc.). This makes America the greatest jailer. In his documentary, Eugene Jarecki provides the stories of individuals who have been affected by drugs both in and out of prison. It also provides personal statements from family members who have been affected by drugs because of the choices of a person close to them regarding drugs. Jarecki, explores the risk that prohibition poses to freedom and how tragic it is for those who are treated as criminals. This documentary also shows us that nothing has changed in the last 40 years. This is because the government is using 2/3 of the funding for treatment instead of law enforcement. Many say that Richard Nixon was the first to address the “War on Drugs,” stating that “Public Enemy No. 1 in the United States is drug abuse. Furthermore, the streets are not yet a “safer” environment and drugs are still sold illegally at lower prices. “If you're in federal court, you're watching poor, ignorant people being stuffed into a machine like sausage meat. It's just bang, bang, bang, bang. Next!" says journalist Charles Bowden. Bowden is right: many of the prisoners are receiving long prison sentences for drug use, meanwhile other prisoners who commit crimes such as; rape and murder are reducing prison times, which is unconstitutional .Rational choice theory is the idea that crime is a function of a decision-making… middle of paper… drug We can do this by using the term defensible space which represents the principle that crime can be prevented or eliminated by modifying the physical environment to reduce the likelihood that individuals will commit a crime. One limitation to rational choice theory is sentencing to shame. Not all crimes can be reversed by using the shame of the sentence to teach the criminal the lesson In this case, what would be a good sentence for the crime of drug dealing? After watching the documentary “The House I Live In”, I learned how drugs affect our society and how the justice system thinks about it. . I think the government should do more to inform our society about non-violent things happening in the United States. The fact that drug laws have become so violent that even non-violent people can be locked up for sentencing is crucial to us as a society.