By Victoria Frayre
Imagine being sentenced to prison for life for possession of crack cocaine and then one day being given the possibility of a reduced sentence or possibly even an eventual release. How would this change your life and the lives of your family and friends?
This could be an eventual reality for thousands of prisoners currently serving disproportionately longer sentences for possession of crack cocaine as compared to those caught with powder cocaine. (more…)
By Alec Goodwin
The Global Commission on Drug Policy is calling the war on drugs a complete and utter failure.
Finally, someone has the spine to admit what everyone has known for years; that the war on drugs has been a costly, deadly fiasco.
The report, which was prepared by former world leaders and UN members such as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the former leaders of Mexico, Colombia and
Brazil, and the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, soundly condemns the war on drugs as ineffective, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars and leading to rampant drug crime and death. The report is intensely critical of the United States, where we’re less concerned than other nations about treating drug addicts and users and more concerned about punishing them. According to the report, America lacks the courage to admit in public that our methods have been ineffective and counterproductive. (more…)
By Alan Bean
The talking heads say that federal and state governments are hamstrung by the debt crisis. Most criminal justice reformers have decided to make the most of a bad situation. State and federal governments can’t afford to lock up so many people, the argument goes, because there is no money in the bank.
Short-term, this is probably a good strategy. Governments are drowning in debt and mass incarceration is gobbling up an ever-increasing slice of tax revenues. In the long run, however, the “we can’t afford to pay for mass incarceration” arguments won’t work. (more…)
A recent article in The Economist argues that conservatives can call for criminal justice reform without appearing to be tough on crime. The Lone Star State is held up as a prime example of conservative politicians turning away from mass incarceration:
Texas began tackling these problems in the last decade. In 2003 it started mandating probation rather than prison for first-time offenders caught with less than a gram of hard drugs. Two years later it gave the probation board more money to improve supervision and treatment programmes. In 2007, faced with predictions that it would need over 17,000 new prison beds by 2012, requiring $1.13 billion to build and $1.5 billion to operate, Texas allocated $241m to fund treatment programmes. Since 2003 crime of many kinds has declined in Texas. Between 2007 and 2008, Texas’s incarceration rate fell by 4.5%, while nationally the rate rose slightly. Both juvenile crime and the number of juveniles in state institutions have declined.
Over at Grits for Breakfast, Scott Henson isn’t convinced. (more…)
By Alan Bean
A Supreme Court ruling will soon force the state of California to reduce its prison population by at least 33,000. Noting that the state prison system was built for an inmate population of 80,000, the five justices in favor of this move noted that, at one point, the Golden State was housing 160,000 prisoners.
The big question, of course, is how the state will comply with this ruling. Dissenting justices like Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito predict that the streets will run with blood if 33,000 offenders are suddenly returned to the streets. Apparently, conservative justices feel it is okay for California to stack human beings like cord wood. (more…)
“Now I want to be clear that when I’m talking about love, I’m not just talking about love for people who have committed crimes like we may have committed, crimes that we think are not so bad; I’m talking about the kind of care and love that keeps on loving no matter who you are or what you have done. It’s that kind of love that is needed to build this movement.” (Michelle Alexander)
In the 1920s, with the fundamentalist-modernist controversy raging within his own Northern Baptist Convention, John D. Rockefeller built an architecturally imposing church in the heart of one of New York’s most prestigious neighborhoods, opened it to people of all Christian denominations and called an American Baptist preacher named Harry Emerson Fosdick to be his pastor. Through the years, Riverside Church has become associated with prophetic preaching, dramatic worship and ecumenical mission.
In 1992, Riverside Church adopted a statement of faith proclaiming: “the worship of God, known in Jesus, the Christ, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit … to serve God through word and witness, to treat all human beings as sisters and brothers; and to foster responsible stewardship of God’s creation … The church pledges itself to education, reflection, and action for peace and justice and the realization of the vision of the heavenly banquet where all are loved and blessed.”
This statement of faith nicely captures the conclusion of Michelle Alexander’s address at Riverside this past weekend. Calling for “A great awakening” Alexander re-stated her firm belief that only a new social movement can end mass incarceration in America. As her closing remarks make clear, this movement must be built on a solid moral foundation and, for those of us who follow Jesus, that means taking our Savior at his word. (more…)
Dru Cederberg is heir to the Brach’s candy fortune. She is also a Billings, Montana socialite who held cocaine parties at her home with socially prominent friends. Perhaps I am being unkind. The cocaine didn’t come out until late in the evening, after the fine food had been consumed and the help had cleared away the rich desserts. This drug-fueled social activity went on for at least ten years and involved dozens of prosperous people.
Dru Cederberg won’t be spending a day in prison. She is white, fifty-two years old, and a recent convert to a higher and purer life. More importantly, she is a member of high society and the American criminal justice system hates putting women like Dru Cederberg behind bars.
Besides, Dru kindly participated with federal prosecutors–U.S. District Judge Charles C. Lovell thanked her for performing “yoman’s service” for the United States government. That means she ratted out her friends including businessman Terri Jabs Kurth and Robert L. Eddleman, Carbon County’s former top prosecutor and one-time Montana Supreme Court candidate.
The only person doing serious time for the high-society drug escapade are the three Latino males who supplied the drugs: Domingo Baez, Maurisio Ramiro and Gilberto Acevedo. Baez, the purported kingpin, will be serving eleven years in federal prison. There is no question that Baez was bringing in the drugs only because people like Dru Cederberg, Terri Kurth and Robert Eddleman made it worth his while.
Federal authorities could have indicted dozens of prosperous white folks had they chosen to do so–that’s how extensive the drug activity was. But drug use among the monied class holds little interest for prosecutors at either the federal or state level.
I am not suggesting that Dru Cederberg should have been sentenced to a decade or longer in the slammer (although federal sentencing guidelines could have been manipulated to justify a life sentence). Eight months of house arrest and a $500,000 fine seems an appropriate sentence. But ask yourself how things would have played out had Dru Cederberg been a black male street hustler running a crack house in the hood. (more…)
By Grace Bauer
Beginning in 1998, with my son’s first arrest at the age of 12, I embarked on a journey that I was ill equipped to handle. When I gave birth to my children I had high hopes and dreams for them, this arrest and the succeeding problems that lay ahead for him were never apart of those hopes and dreams. I, as most families that find themselves involved in the juvenile and criminal justice systems, was incredibly naive and made decisions based on what system professionals told me, never considering that it wasn’t their job to help my son. Those decisions set a predictable course, for those with knowledge and understanding, for my son that would leave him emotionally and physically scarred for the rest of his life. I made those decisions without an understanding of what they meant for him or a conception of what it meant to have a “system-involved” child. For the next three years, I walked this path alone in confusion and isolation I sat quietly:
. . . in meetings where professionals talked about my son and didn’t say anything because they presented themselves as the experts and seldom asked me anything
. . . in court rooms in front of a judge without an attorney or advocate because I was told an attorney would only slow down my son getting the help he needed and I believed this lie to be the truth
. . . outside the court house, on the day my son was adjudicated delinquent and sent to a far-off facility because my legs would not carry me away from my baby and I still believed I had done what was right
. . . by the phone for days awaiting a call from the facility to inform me of where my son would be placed and when I would be able to visit
. . . through 2 1/2 hour drives, and then 5 1/2 hour drives, to visit my son in prison, and sometimes be turned away upon arrival because he was in the infirmary or in isolation
. . . in the car on the long drives back home with tears running down my cheeks and my heart in misery, the images of my son’s battered body swirling through my mind, feeling sickened by my powerlessness and stupidity
. . . I sat through a visit with an attorney, nearly 3 months into what I believed would be a 90 day stay in an excellent program, only to be told by the attorney that my son would not be coming home until his 18th birthday and that, when he left that prison, I should buy him a ticket to Angola State Penitentiary because that is where most of these kids ended up
. . . on the phone with one of the first teachers permitted inside the Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth in Northeast Louisiana while she explained she had assessed my son and found him in isolation where he appeared to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
. . . as I heard the diagnosis of my son with severe depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
. . . when the “New York Times” named the Tallulah prison, where my son was housed, “one of the worst in the nation”
But a new day would come when I no longer sat quietly. (more…)
This summer, four college interns will be working at the Arlington office of Friends of Justice. Each week, each intern will write a blog post on a topic of personal interest. Chaka Holley, a student at the Chicago Theological Seminary, arrived in Texas on Monday night and has been hard at work ever since.
By Chaka Holley
“Well I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood”
Hip-hop artist, poet and actor Common recites these old-time lyrics in his song “misunderstood”. The lyrics seem fitting now that Common’s creditability, character and personhood are being attacked after First Lady Michelle Obama invited him to perform poetry at a White House event. Fox News and conservatives like Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity have criticized the Obama’s for the inviting a supporter of “cop killers” to the White House. Critics accuse the Obama’s of exercising poor judgment due to Common’s support for Asata Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jamal. (more…)
By Alan Bean
The Supreme Court of the United States just gave police officers permission to evade the fourth amendment at will. Eight justices signed off on this deal; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented forcefully.
At issue is the meaning of the Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Supreme Court has traditionally concluded that “searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable.” The only exception to this rule is when police are dealing with “exigent circumstances”.
What is an exigent circumstance? Risk of death of serious bodily injury qualifies as exigent. The likely escape of a criminal suspect makes the grade. Finally, police officers can smash open your door if they have reason to believe that evidence is being destroyed.
But there used to be a catch. Police officers were not allowed to create an exigent circumstance by banging on the door or shouting. If signs that evidence was being destroyed inside a private dwelling existed when the police arrived at the scene, they could enter the home without a warrant; but they could not stimulate the destruction of evidence by announcing their presence. (more…)
Friends of Justice 