Jeff Sessions Rolls Back Obama-Era Drug Sentencing Reforms

[homersapien 10,954]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-doj-drug-sentencing-trump_us_59155c78e4b0fe039b339a20?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

The attorney general says a harsher approach is “moral and just.”

Not to mention how well it's worked over the last few decades.  

 

Maybe he is confusing moral and just with profits for private prison companies.

[AUUSN 823]

Dude, those for profit prisons aren't going to fill themselves!

[AUFAN78 3,780]

Admittedly, I need to do more research. At first glance, not a fan.

[aubearcat 2,113]

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/05/heroin_addict_mom_no_longer_a.html

 

Forced rehab doesn't work either. I'm not sure what the answer is but I believe there has to be some type of punitive option for some offenders. 

[quietfan 233]

On 5/12/2017 at 8:53 PM, AUUSN said:

Dude, those for profit prisons aren't going to fill themselves!

...and obviously we can't expect convictions for political corruption or high $$$ white collar crime to fill them!   

[auburnphan 5,998]

Jeff Sessions is a moron on this issue

[TitanTiger 18,930]

 

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NORP Think and the U.S. Criminal Justice System

NORP = Normal Ordinary Responsible Person |

 

KAREN SWANSON

Image: The Sentencing Project

 

The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration. Although America is home to only about 1/20 of the world’s population, we house almost 1/4 of the world’s prisoners.

Criminologists have coined the term “mass incarceration” to capture the 500% increase in the prison population in the U.S. over the last 40 years. According to the Sentencing Project, changes in law and policy, not changes in crime rates, explain most of this increase. Despite increasing evidence that large-scale incarceration is not an effective means of achieving public safety, the results are overcrowding in prisons and fiscal burdens on states.

 

 

Perhaps you have heard the phrase, “You can’t fix what you don’t know.” In this article, I hope to open your eyes to some of the faulty thinking which contributes to our current criminal justice crises so that you can be more informed and, as Proverbs reminds us, we can “speak up and judge fairly.” I admit to once having this faulty thinking until my eyes were opened to the truth.

Judge Dennis Challeen has coined the term NORP, which is an acronym for a Normal Ordinary Responsible Person who is self-reliant, understands responsibility, and knows what is morally right. The problem is that being a NORP comes with faulty thinking, which contributes to the policies and laws which currently drive our criminal justice system.

 

Below are some of the current faulty thinking out there, and the truth which negates these.

Faulty Thinking #1
All criminals think like NORPs, but simply choose to be irresponsible and immoral.

Truth: It may be foreign for you to think that people grow up in a family and community with a moral vacuum of responsibility. They may have never seen someone go to work each day. It may be foreign for you to think that kids grow up with peers and adults who introduce them to drugs at a young age, engage in illegal behavior, and model dysfunctional families. But the truth is, this a reality for many people.

 

Faulty Thinking #2
All criminals will respond to punishment or programs that appear to work well with NORPs.

Truth: It may seem foreign to think about growing up in a home where you experienced trauma in the forms of neglect, abandonment, or sexual or physical abuse. Punishment is viewed as something to endure, not as a learning tool. For too many, planning is not part of their lives because they are trying to survive today. Why would you plan for the future when there most likely isn’t a future? The trauma increases the likelihood of mental illness and substance abuse.

 

Faulty Thinking #3
The current criminal justice system is just.

Merriam-Webster defines justice as “the process or result of using laws to fairly judge and punish crime and criminals.”

Truth: Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, states that wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes in the criminal justice system. If a wealthy person is guilty and commits murder, he can post bond and be free until the case is resolved. He is not viewed as a criminal because he is free. However, a poor person who commits petty theft can’t afford his or her $200 bond and is held in a jail until the case is resolved. The stakes are high for him or her as he or she sits behind bars. He or she may lose his or her job, housing, possessions, and possibly children depending on how long it takes to resolve the case.

Having a public attorney puts a person at a disadvantage. The attorney doesn’t have the time or resources to spend on gathering evidence or obtaining testing which could help the case. Often, there is little communication between the public defender and the defendant until the court date.

 

 

Faulty Thinking #4
Everyone behind bars is a criminal.

Truth: People awaiting trial are innocent until proven guilty. NORPs often have a double standard. If someone is out on bail, he or she is not considered a criminal; however, if someone is too poor to post bond, he or she is viewed as a criminal. Another double standard is that everyone behind bars is a criminal except when it is my son, daughter, or spouse. Then it is because of poor judgment or an addiction, but they are not a criminal.

 

Faulty Thinking #5
Prison should be about punishment, and more punishment is needed for repeat offenders.

Truth: Punishment serves society’s need for retribution and temporary security, but it does nothing to change a criminal’s erroneous view of life. Putting people behind bars for a longer time without programs for rehabilitation and expecting them to be prosocial when they get out is not logical. It is like putting a kid in a shed because he or she can’t swim and expecting him or her to be able to swim when he or she is released. When the child still can’t swim, he or she is placed in the shed longer because he or she must not care enough to swim. When the child still can’t swim, he or she is discouraged and gives up trying. He or she is viewed as a loser.

 

Faulty Thinking #6
Prison rehabilitates.

Truth: Judge Challeen points out how prisons fail: “We want them to be responsible so we take away all their responsibilities. We want them to take control of their lives, own their own problems, and quit being parasites so we make them depend on us.” Unless the risks and needs that led them to commit a criminal act(s) is addressed, don’t expect any changes unless they are NORPs.

 

Faulty Thinking #7
The use of plea bargains is a good and fair way to resolve cases.

A plea bargain is an agreement between the defendant and prosecutor in which the defendant pleads guilty in exchange for a concession by the prosecutor. It may include lesser charges, a dismissal of charges, or the prosecutor’s recommendation to the judge of a more lenient sentence.

Truth: Ninety-seven percent of all cases are resolved through a plea bargain. If all cases went to trial, the criminal justice system would collapse. Pleas can be used to intimidate inmates or to get them to help with other cases. For example, a woman was offered a lighter sentence if she would be wired and placed in a dangerous situation to get information for the police. There are times when people plead guilty to a charge they did not commit so they can be released from incarceration. For them, each day increases the risk of losing their job, home, and most importantly with women, custody of their children.

One of the most infamous cases of this is Kalief Browder, who was sent to Rikers Island when he was 16 years old because he was accused of stealing a backpack. Although he never stood trial or was found guilty, he spent three years at the New York City jail complex, nearly two of them in solitary confinement. He was beaten by corrections staff and other inmates. He refused to accept a plea deal even though it would have meant his immediate release because he insisted on his innocence. Ultimately, prosecutors dropped the charge. Haunted by the trauma of his ordeal, he committed suicide at the age of 22.

 

As Christians, we should be NORPs, but not have NORP think when it comes to the criminal justice system. I hope you will not tune out conversations about mass incarceration. As scripture says, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Prov.31:8-9).

Karen Swanson is the Director of the Institute for Prison Ministries at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2017/may/norp-think-and-us-criminal-justice-system.html

 

 

[TitanTiger 18,930]

 

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Senate Moves Forward With Bipartisan Bill to Rein in Jeff Sessions

Co-sponsors Rand Paul and Patrick Leahy call out the Attorney General's backwards approach to criminal justice, the drug war and mandatory minimums

Attorney General Jeff Sessions tried to roll back years of criminal justice reform – but Congress is fighting back. Zach Gibson/Getty

By Tana Ganeva

1 day ago

 

 

Bluntly calling out Attorney General Jeff Sessions' hard-line stance on criminal justice as "wrong," a "mistake" and "aggressive," Senators Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, and Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, have pledged to fight for sentencing reform.

 

"We've been working on trying to get rid of some of the injustice of mandatory minimums and give judges more discretion," Paul said in a telephone press conference Wednesday. The Justice Safety Valve Act, introduced to the Senate by Paul, Leahy and Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley, would empower federal judges to give out sentences below the mandatory minimum in certain cases. The law could go a long way towards neutralizing Attorney General Jeff Sessions' memo, issued earlier this month, directing prosecutors to seek the toughest possible sentences, even in cases of non-violent drug offenders. The memo rolls back the criminal justice reforms that took place during the Obama administration. 

At the time, Sessions defended the memo by citing President Trump's broadly-defined vow to protect the American public from threats both foreign and domestic. "This is a key part of President Trump's promise to keep America safe," Sessions said. "If you are a drug trafficker, we will not look the other way. We will not be willfully blind to your conduct."

Paul and Leahy pointed out that rather than keep Americans safe, the drug war Sessions seems eager to revive ties judges' hands and needlessly ruins lives, all while being very costly to taxpayers. "We know it doesn't work, now we're trying to get something done that does work," Paul said.

Paul listed a few examples of shocking prison terms handed down thanks to mandatory minimums. There's John Horner, a father of three serving 25 years for selling some of his own painkillers to a friend who turned out to be a police informant. There's Weldon Angelos, who got 55 years after getting caught selling some weed – a drug that is legal in many parts of the country.

Leahy, a former prosecutor, emphasized the high cost of imprisoning so many people for so long, a strategy that has yet to rid America of either illegal drugs or crime.

"The idea that, 'We've got to stiffen the penalties and crime will stop,' we've found it doesn't work," Leahy said. "This is extraordinarily expensive... Then, there's less money to go to violent, serious crime."

Paul pointed out that putting more people in prison is also not a smart way to address opioid addiction. "In my opinion we should treat drug addiction more as a health crisis and less as an incarceration problem," he said. "There's a problem, but locking everyone up isn't the solution. Instead, "families, churches and communities" should band together to "cure the ravages of addiction," Paul said.

Criminal reform advocates largely support the Senate's sentencing reform efforts. Kevin Ring, President of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, tells Rolling Stone that the Justice Safety Valve Act goes further than previous bipartisan efforts to reform America's expensive, vastly overcrowded prison system.

"I think it's a pretty bold move that is an effective repeal of mandatory minimums," he says.

Plus, it's high time for Congress to nail down reforms. Sessions himself noted in the memo that his policy shift "simply utilizes the tools Congress has given us." So it's up to Congress to fix the situation by changing the law, Ring says.

"If [legislators] don't think these laws should be enforced, the answer is to take them away. Because if you give somebody a hammer, they're going to use it," Ring says.

It's not clear what would happen if Paul and Leahy manage to wrangle the bill through Senate and onto the President's desk. In typically schizoid fashion, the Trump administration has jumped all over the place on drug policy and criminal justice reform. The president's embrace of President Rodrigo Duterte, who unleashed literal death squads on his own people in a crusade to end drug use, does not bode well for sane drug policy issuing from the White House. Neither has Trump's repeated claim that building a wall between Mexico and the U.S. would solve the country's opioid crisis.

But Paul indicated that there are people in the administration who support reform. "If we get something out of the Senate there's a reasonable chance the President might sign it," he said. A companion bill is being introduced in the House of Representatives. 

Bill Piper, Senior Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, tells Rolling Stone that this is a perfect opportunity for the White House to stake out a position on prison reform and show who's really steering America's criminal justice and drug policy.

"It's worth noting that there's a disconnect between Jeff Sessions and the President, and it's not clear who is actually in charge," Piper says. "The president put Jared Kushner in charge of his task force for looking at criminal justice reform – Jeff Sessions preemptively undermined the work Jared Kushner is doing. So does the administration oppose reform? Because it's already clear where Jeff Sessions stands."

With the exception of outliers like Sessions, criminal justice reform is one of the few issues on which there's bipartisan consensus.

"This is not a Republican or Democrat idea, this is a common sense idea," Leahy said. 

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/senate-moves-forward-with-bill-to-rein-in-jeff-sessions-w482927

 

 

[quietfan 233]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/republican-states-make-case-against-trump-s-drug-policy-n761651
 

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Republican States Make the Case Against Trump’s Drug Policy

...

A bipartisan movement to scale back drug laws, gaining momentum for a decade, has spread to some of the country's most conservative regions. Of the more than 20 states that have softened their treatment of low-level, nonviolent drug offenders since 2007, half have Republican governors and Republican-led legislatures. Among those deep-red states, many — including Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Iowa and Mississippi — have shrunk prison populations while cutting crime.

...

"The notion that we can somehow incarcerate our way out of this issue has proven to be inaccurate," [Kris] Steele [former Republican speaker of Oklahoma's House of Representatives, now heads Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform] said.