"We need less incarceration, not more, to keep all Americans safe." Criminal justice reform groups have been saying this for years. This time the source is unexpected: More than 130 of the nation's top law-enforcement officials, including big-city police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and attorneys general, have joined the call to end to the harsh, counterproductive practices and policies that have driven America's devastating prison boom, destroyed communities and written off an entire generation of young men of color. [continues 429 words]
Leaders Aim to Cut Incarceration Rates About 100 law enforcement leaders including District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis gathered in the nation's capital Wednesday to announce a joint effort to reduce the number of people being put behind bars. The newly formed Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration issued a report Wednesday outlining its vision and recommendations, from providing more diversion programs for mental illness and substance abuse to reducing some low-level, nonviolent crimes to misdemeanors. "Unnecessary incarceration exacerbates racial disparities, economic inequality, and hinders economic opportunity in the communities that need it most," the group said in explaining its mission statement. "Today, one in three black men will end up incarcerated. And 60 percent of prisoners reentering society face long-term unemployment." [continues 844 words]
More than 130 police chiefs, prosecutors and sheriffs - including some of the most prominent law enforcement officials in the country - are adding their clout to the movement to reduce the nation's incarceration rate. Asserting that "too many people are behind bars that don't belong there," the officials plan to announce on Wednesday that they have formed a group to push for alternatives to arrests, reducing the number of criminal laws and ending mandatory minimum prison sentences. Members of the group are scheduled to meet Thursday with President Obama. [continues 1068 words]
Re: "Trudeau wrong on marijuana," Oct. 7. Ken Robertson seems to think the best way to protect children from drugs is to abdicate the responsibility of regulating drug sales to organized crime. That's the status quo. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has the right idea with his proposal to tax and regulate marijuana and create age controls. Legally regulating marijuana sales would close the gateway to hard drugs by taking distribution out of the hands of criminals that sell cocaine, meth and heroin. [continues 121 words]
A Nonviolent Drug Offender Granted Clemency After 2 Decades Behind Bars Adjusts to Life on the Outside DALLAS - The recently released federal prisoner sat down at his sister's dining room table. He pulled out a legal pad and began the letter he had been turning over in his mind for several months: "Dear Mr. President, I am writing you today with the utmost gratitude to personally thank you for granting my petition for clemency on March 31, 2015. Your actions have given me a second chance to start living life normally again and mere words can't express how truly grateful I am for your making this moment possible. The Bible says, 'To whom much is given, much is required,' and I vow to make the most of this unique opportunity that I've been given." [continues 2021 words]
The liberal media has demonized mandatory minimum drug sentences, referring to them as punishment for 'nonviolent' crimes. What about the violence that illegal narcotics have done to a large segment of our population? Comparing the cost of incarcerating drug offenders with the cost of drug damage would be instructive. Mandatory minimum sentences played a major role in reducing the flow of illegal drugs into Florida and the rest of the country. We seem to have lost that bit of history. I spent seven years interviewing federal drug prisoners for intelligence on successful drug smuggling. The information was obtained at little cost. None of these inmates would have cooperated were it not for their attempts to reduce sentences. Charles M . Fuss Jr., St. Pete Beach [end]
Ken Robertson seems to think the best way to protect children from drugs is to abdicate the responsibility of regulating drug sales to organized crime ("Trudeau wrong on marijuana", Oct. 7). That's the status quo. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has the right idea with his proposal to tax and regulate marijuana and create age controls. Legally regulating marijuana sales would close the gateway to hard drugs by taking distribution out of the hands of criminals that sell cocaine, meth and heroin. It's Prime Minister Stephen Harper who is delusional about marijuana, not Trudeau. Marijuana prohibition is dangerous, but the marijuana plant is less harmful than legal alcohol or tobacco. Former U.S. surgeon general C. Everett Koop famously described tobacco as more addictive than heroin. Thanks to public education, legal tobacco use has declined dramatically, without any need to arrest smokers or imprison tobacco farmers. Mandatory minimum prison sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing and racial profiling are not the most cost-effective means of discouraging unhealthy choices. Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy (This idea that legalizing pot is going to be a magical solution is absurd. Ever heard of cigarette smuggling?) [end]
In his Oct. 15 op-ed column, "A bipartisan marijuana myth," Charles Lane described the growing bipartisan support for looser drug laws as "the latest political free lunch, served up by politicians who would rather discuss anything except real public policy trade-offs." Over the past decade, numerous states have made very real trade-offs in their approaches to fighting crime. During this period, dozens of red and blue states decided to spend less money incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders and to use the savings on drug treatment and other programs aimed at reducing the likelihood that prisoners would re-offend. In nearly every case, these states were able to cut both their incarceration and their crime rates. [continues 55 words]
Gov. Jerry Brown's veto messages have few parallels in modern politics. At their best, they display a level of erudition and thoughtfulness far beyond most politicians. Now we have another example in Brown's explanation of why he vetoed nine bills that would have added to the complexity of our legal system. "Each of these bills creates a new crime usually by finding a novel way to characterize and criminalize conduct that is already proscribed. This multiplication and particularization of criminal behavior creates increasing complexity without commensurate benefit," the 1964 Yale Law School graduate wrote. He linked the explosion in the number of people California incarcerates to the profusion of new provisions in the state's criminal code. "Before we keep going down this road, I think we should pause and reflect how our system of criminal justice could be made more human, more just and more cost-effective." [continues 351 words]
Ken Robertson seems to think the best way to protect children from drugs is to abdicate the responsibility of regulating drug sales to organized crime. That's the status quo. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has the right idea with his proposal to tax and regulate marijuana and create age controls. Legally regulating marijuana sales would close the gateway to hard drugs by taking distribution out of the hands of criminals that sell cocaine, meth and heroin. It's Prime Minister Stephen Harper that is delusion about marijuana, not Trudeau. Marijuana prohibition is dangerous, but the marijuana plant is less harmful than legal alcohol or tobacco. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop famously described tobacco as more addictive than heroin. Thanks to public education, legal tobacco use has declined dramatically, without any need to arrest smokers or imprison tobacco farmers. Mandatory minimum prison sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing and racial profiling are not the most cost-effective means of discouraging unhealthy choices. Sincerely, Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy [end]
THE HOUSE AND SENATE: Beacon Hill Roll Call records local representatives' and senators' votes on roll calls from the week of Oct. 5-9. CRIMINALIZE FENTANYL TRAFFICKING (H 3755): The House approved (152-0) and sent to the Senate a bill that would create the crime of trafficking of the drug fentanyl in amounts greater than 10 grams and impose a prison sentence of up to 20 years for those convicted of the crime. Under current law, a person can only be charged with manufacturing, distributing, or possessing fentanyl, but not with trafficking. [continues 163 words]
State governments across the country are finally waking up to the enormous financial and human cost of mass incarceration. In recent years, at least 27 states have rolled back mandatory-minimum laws and other "tough-on-crime" legislation that has turned the United States into the world's biggest jailer. The reason? At a cost that typically runs more than $55,000 a year per inmate, even conservative states are balking at the expense of swollen prison populations. That's one reason the "justice reinvestment" movement is gaining steam. Across the country, activists and lawmakers are pushing for reforms aimed at sending fewer people to prison, redirecting money to address social problems at their source. [continues 388 words]
Rob Breakenridge is absolutely right about science not supporting Stephen Harper's misinformed views on marijuana. Marijuana prohibition is dangerous because it finances violent drug cartels, but the marijuana plant is easily less harmful than legal alcohol or tobacco. Former U.S. surgeon general C. Everett Koop famously described tobacco as more addictive than heroin. Thanks to public education, legal tobacco use has declined dramatically, without any need to arrest smokers or imprison tobacco farmers. Mandatory minimum prison sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing and racial profiling are not the most cost-effective means of discouraging unhealthy choices. Robert Sharpe is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy. [end]
Politicians know how to harvest the low hanging fruit at election time. Now, Justin Trudeau has sniffed out the low hanging cannabis on the campaign trail - and promised to legalize it. It's time, long past time. The Liberal leader can make up for the sins - - or omissions - of his father in failing to decriminalize marijuana possession generations ago, when Pierre Trudeau ignored the recommendations of the 1973 Le Dain Royal Commission he created as prime minister. In fairness to Trudeau the elder, it was a different time. In the decades since, Canada has decriminalized homosexuality and legalized gay marriage. [continues 703 words]
Ken Robertson, Edmonton Sun, Oct. 7, seems to think the best way to protect children from drugs is to abdicate the responsibility of regulating drug sales to organized crime. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has the right idea with his proposal to tax and regulate marijuana and create age controls. Legally regulating marijuana sales would close the gateway to hard drugs by taking distribution out of the hands of criminals who sell cocaine, meth and heroin. It's Prime Minister Stephen Harper who is delusional about marijuana.Marijuana prohibition is dangerous but the marijuana plant is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop described tobacco as more addictive than heroin. Thanks to public education, tobacco use has declined dramatically, without any need to arrest smokers or imprison tobacco farmers. Mandatory minimum prison sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing and racial profiling are not the most cost effective means! of discouraging unhealthy choices. Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy (We should all pay close attention to what happens in Colorado) [end]
'Tough on crime' doesn't help: From Lauren-Brooke Eisen, at MSNBC.com. We have been through this before as a nation - during the crack epidemic of the late '80s and early '90s, and the previous heroin crisis of the '70s - and we have valuable lessons to draw upon when approaching today's challenge. One lesson is that the reactionary "tough on crime" rhetoric led us astray. It resulted in policymakers enacting ineffective and overly punitive drug policies, many of which resulted from knee-jerk reactions to media sensationalism of crime or political opportunism. [continues 2329 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) - A push to overhaul criminal sentencing is prompting the early release of thousands of federal drug prisoners, including some whom prosecutors once described as threats to society, according to an Associated Press review of court records. About 6,000 inmates are due to be freed from custody in the coming month, the result of changes made last year to guidelines that provide judges with recommended sentences for specific crimes. Federal officials say roughly 40,000 inmates could be eligible for reduced sentences in coming years. [continues 923 words]
It's a rare day when Democrats and Republicans stand shoulder to shoulder in Washington, celebrating a bipartisan agreement on, well, just about anything. Has that ever been clearer than this week when intra-party warfare overshadowed partisan divisions in the House? But on Oct. 1, in the Senate, compromise and bipartisanship took center stage. And the subject of this rare agreement - criminal justice reform - is as substantive as the political bedfellows are surprising. After decades of upping the ante with ever-harsher criminal penalties, liberal and conservative senators endorsed a proposal to reduce mandatory-minimum sentences and to restore discretion for federal judges. [continues 432 words]
WASHINGTON - The federal Bureau of Prisons plans to release 6,000 prisoners at the end of October, implementing a decision last year to slash the number of incarcerated drug offenders by nearly half. Officials said the nationwide releases over four days starting Oct. 30 will be the largest in U.S. history. Last year, in line with a concerted effort by the Obama administration to reduce the number of drug offenders in U.S. prisons, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to cut drug sentences by an average of two years, potentially affecting as many as 46,000 out of 100,000 cases. [continues 397 words]
In the Largest Mass Liberation Yet, the Inmates Are to Be Let Out Starting Oct. 30. WASHINGTON - The federal Bureau of Prisons plans to release 6,000 prisoners at the end of October, implementing a decision last year to slash the number of incarcerated drug offenders by nearly half. Officials said the nationwide releases over four days starting Oct. 30 would be the largest in U.S. history. Last year, in line with a concerted effort by the Obama administration to reduce the number of drug offenders in U.S. prisons, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to cut drug sentences by an average of two years, potentially affecting as many as 46,000 out of 100,000 cases. [continues 396 words]
