Rodney Hudson, 30, said he feels his felony conviction for marijuana possession is essentially a sentence to a life of poverty. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Rodney Hudson, 30, said he feels his felony conviction for marijuana possession is essentially a sentence to a life of poverty. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)

In Milwaukee, as well as most of the nation, African Americans are much more likely than any other group to be arrested for possessing marijuana. Adding to that problem is the extremely costly felon tag attached to a second arrest for possession. I looked deeply at the issue and found that marijuana arrests are a major reason that Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate in the country for African Americans.

To date, this story has been my most challenging story to report and write, but I believe it shed light on the issue and illustrated how damaging unequal enforcement of marijuana laws is to Milwaukee’s black community. Of all the stories I wrote in 2014, this is the one I’m most proud of.

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Raised in a South Side neighborhood where he still lives, Edgar Mendez is the managing editor of the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Mendez is a proud graduate of UW-Milwaukee, where he double majored in journalism and sociology, and of Marquette University, where he earned a master’s degree in communication. He won a 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and 2014, 2017, and 2018 Milwaukee Press Club Awards for his reporting on taverns, marijuana law enforcement, and lead in water service lines. In 2008, he won a Society of Professional Journalists’ regional award for columns dealing with issues such as poverty, homelessness and racism. His writing has been published by the Associated Press, Reuters, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other media. He has also co-authored three articles published in scholarly journals.