It is an immodest goal for a freshman senator: Reshape America's entire criminal justice system.
But Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., waded boldly into the task Thursday, declaring the present system a "national disgrace" in need of a radical overhaul.
It is also a politically risky goal. Webb has moved to minimize the risk by reaching wide across the political spectrum for support.
The bill he introduced in March to create a blue-ribbon criminal justice reform commission has attracted 28 Senate co-sponsors. They are mostly Democrats, but the list also includes a few prominent Republicans, such as Orrin Hatch of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
The witness list at the first subcommittee hearing on the bill Thursday included representatives from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and Prison Fellowship, the Christian prison ministry founded by convicted Watergate figure Chuck Colson.
It is in the interest of every American, from every political and philosophical perspective, to address "a profound, deeply corrosive crisis that we have largely been ignoring at our peril," Webb told his colleagues.
That crisis - particularly the nation's drift toward mass incarceration - "is dramatically affecting millions of lives, draining billions of dollars from our economy, destroying notions of neighborhood and family in hundreds of communities across the country, and, most importantly, it is not making our country a safer or a fairer place," he said.
The statistics are startling:
- The United States has 5 per-cent of the world's population but 25 percent of its prison population: more than 2.3 million inmates and climbing.
- Half a million of those are drug offenders, many of them with no history of violence or high-level trafficking.
- Racial disparities are stark. African Americans account for 14 percent of drug users and 74 percent of drug offenders sentenced to prison.
- Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons as in mental hospitals.
At Thursday's hearing, most agreed that the dramatic rise in the nation's imprisoned population - a fivefold increase over the past three decades - has failed to achieve its objective.
"We call it a correctional system, but we all know it doesn't correct," said Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and drugs.
The most impassioned testimony came from someone with firsthand experience: Pat Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship, a former California state legislator who spent 29 months in federal prison after getting caught in an FBI sting for campaign finance violations.
"What I saw inside prison really troubled me," Nolan said, describing widespread rape, disease and overcrowding. Most inmates are simply being warehoused, he said. There is little training or treatment, making it hard for them to find a job when they get out and raising the chances that they will return to prison.
The cost to taxpayers is staggering, Nolan said: $68 billion and rising.
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said communities need to focus on preventing crime, not just responding to it. "There are too many people in prison who don't need to be there," he said, citing the mentally ill as an example.
The time is ripe for reform, said Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School. "You can be smart on crime and save a lot of money," he said.
The commission Webb proposes would conduct an 18-month, top-to-bottom review of the criminal justice system and make recommendations for reform. Among its objectives would be to reduce the incarceration rate, establish re-entry programs for ex-offenders, reform the nation's drug policies and improve treatment of the mentally ill.
The bill is the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, SB 714. It is unknown how soon the subcommittee will act on it.
Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com
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Legalize drugs
They talk about cutting down the amount of people incarcerated in this country. If they mean what they say, then considered or at least honestly debate the legalization of drugs. At least consider decriminalizing drug use. That is where the organized crime is getting much of their money and it is the reason that a large chuck of the prison population is in jail. Instead, lets see about putting a small portion of the money saved into rehabilation for those who desire it. Until this is brought up in the chambers of congress and honestly debated, I don't take Webb or this topic at all seriously.
Correct Corrections
Senator Webb is calling for a review of the justice system so we can find ways to improve it. Systems evolve and sometimes get out of whack with reality and should be tweaked when necessary. How can anyone disagree with that?
In California unreasonably long sentences; denying parole to serious ex-offenders who have served their time and are not, or no longer are, dangerous; replacing mental hospitals with prison time; and the overwhelmed, broken parole system are ruining salvageable lives, not making us safer, and are bankrupting the state.
Surely Virginia and other states do not want to become California, the "state of higher incarceration". We need this review to determine how we can improve the system to the benefit of us all.
"Dr. Burke, president of the American Historical Reference
Society, and a consultant for the Smithsonian Institute, counted seven early presidents as cannabis smokers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor and Franklin Pierce." "Early letters from our founding fathers refer to the pleasures of hemp smoking," said Burke. Pierce, Taylor and Jackson, all military men, smoked it with their troops. Cannabis was twice as popular among American soldiers in the Mexican War as in Vietnam: Pierce wrote to his family that it was "about the only good thing" about that war."
To think that today, we'd jail Washington, Jefferson et al, for "sparking up". It just shows the absurdity of allowing the War on Hemp to continue. Legalize it, and you'll definitely reduce the prison population, and relieve the strain on our Police and on our Court system. BTW, I don't smoke...anything. But, what's right....is right.
Webb's bent on correcting broken corrections system
While is was make an inmate search on the MS correction Department. I found two men with the same name Reginald Dixon. One was sentenced six years and 4 months for rape, the other was sentenced 60 years for cocaine possession.
Go here and make your on search if you do not believe.
http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/
To Correct America Conclusion
These things may sound harsh. That is only because of how far we have strayed from the ideals and Constitution our Nation was founded upon. Our federal republic was made to be the skeleton frame to bind the individual states together. It was created to defend our shores and borders. To midiate disputes between individual states and to see that no individual state could invalidate the protection of the Bill of Rights upon it's citizens.
Now look at it. It is a mortgage lender; an automobile maker, a pension provider and soon to be a health insurance agency. We have lost sight of the basics. Both parties raise our taxes in order to dole out the money to those who they think can keep them in office. Make no mistake: politics is nothing more than the continuing lust for money and power....oh, and a little lip service about "fighting for the needs of the people," thrown in around election time.
To Correct America Pt4
6. If you wrongfully kill someone, you will lose your life. If you feloniously assault someone with the willful intent to kill; you will lose your life. If your reckless operation of a motor vehicle kills someone; you will lose your life. Sexual predators of children should be put to death.
7. Prisons correct nothing, to call the “Correctional Centers” is a farce. Prisons must not take one dollar from the general fund. Prisons must be self sufficient through the labor of the inmates. If you do not work; you do not eat. All prison time will be at hard labor. Violent offenders should be held until they are no longer a danger to society. Prisoners who do felonious violence in prison will lose their lives.
To Correct America Pt3
4. Reinstate military conscription. All kids. Rich and poor. Male and female. Straight, gay or in between. No exemptions. Two years of active duty at the age of 18, followed by four years of active reserves. Then service in local militia until the age of 60. We must rekindle the sense of public service before self. Furthermore, the conscription of the children of the rich, powerful and publicly elected might cause deeper consideration before our military forces are sent into harms way.
5. We must secure our national borders. This is a cornerstone responsibility that our elected officials have shirked for far too long. Both parties are at fault. The democrats want the potential voters. The republicans want the cheap source of disposable labor.
To Correct America Pt2
College is just one path to success. These programs will be paid by the parents using the tax savings from the dismantling of the fraud that is our current national education system. Sports and recreational teams would be private clubs and not paid for by public expense.
3. Legalize all drugs. However, not one dollar from the general budget will be used to prevent, or mitigate the damage done by these drugs. The taxes raised by the sale of these drugs will have to fully pay for any damages they cause to the user. Likewise, the user is responsible for the damage done to his life and the well being of those he supports. Drug intoxication will have no bearing on the punishment of criminal conduct. No public funds will be used for drug induced illness or overdose.
To Correct America
The crisis in the criminal justice process is not isolated. It is the end result of a number of public policy failures. These all must be corrected together as each affects the other.
1. End national welfare. End the taxes that support it. The program takes away initiative to work. What was meant to be a safety net is now an easy chair. Fathers must be held financially liable for the offspring they sire.
2. Public education will be limited to reading, writing, elementary mathematics, and American History & Civics. Basic requirements for entry into school would include proper public conduct and hygiene. The school serves to educate, not baby sit. In order to graduate, the student must be able to show proficiency in all subjects. The school would be over by the time the student reached the age of 14. This would be the limit of public education. After that the graduate would enter the private upper level collegiate prep school, trade school or apprenticeship deemed best by the parent and student. End the myth that “every child must go to college.” Every child must be guided into the career that best suits their own personal qualifications. College is just one pat
All the "law and order" types
never ask themselves what is it about our country that causes us to have 25% of the world's prisoners with only 5% of the population?
Are Americans just inferior when it comes to morals? We are the most church attending population of the industrialized countries, so it can't be that…can it?
We refer to American exceptionalism as a virtue. How can we jail so many of our people? Is that what exceptionalism is all about?
And for those who demand more death penalties to solve overcrowding, remember that we have exonerated over 100 people since the advent of DNA testing. Had that not come along, the state would have murdered a lot of people in the name of justice.
Webb is on the right track. We need to pay attention to what is happening to our country, not just keep locking people up.
Votes for Jimmy
It's all about the vote for Jimmy. Here's a thought; don't break the law and you won't go to jail.
wrong priorities as usual
Sure wish he would spend taxpayer money on endeavors that would benefit lawabiding, taxpaying, productive citizens. What a waste.
What a waste
Just keep on locking up the mentally ill. We will get it right soon
prison population
People who think too many people are in jail need to be realists. Less than 1% of our population in the united states is in jail. Does somebody really think that is too much? I would dare say that at least 2% of our population probably needs to be in jail. Let's get serious.
I think reform needs to
I think reform needs to happen to sentencing guidelines as well. Someone who robs a 7-11 should not get more time than someone who murdered someone. The guy pulled over for speeding who was found with not enough marijuana to make one joint should not get more time than the guy who raped someone.
Strawmen are fun
Good news for one of your announced goals: people who are caught with half a joint's worth of marijuana DON'T, in fact, get sentenced to more time than rapists. Ever. Or do you have some evidence to the contrary?
each on own merit
One persons sentence shouldn't depend on anothers.
Pandering to the lowest denominator
If this was really about decriminalizing soft drugs this endeavor of Webb's would be one thing. But I haven't heard mention of introducing legislation that would change the barbaric drug laws in this country.
It appears to me this is a pandering technique to potential "restored voters".
When the democrats pander to the societal level that does not pay taxes, does not work, and breaks the laws, it is hard to take them seriously on any issue. I just see this as one more time the democrats screw those that invest in themselves and in the communities in which they live. Be a total waste and the democrats want to rob everyone's pockets for these lowlifes to benefit. Disgusting.
The legacy of George Allen's jobs program.
Build more prisons, hire more guards, increase funding for drug enforcement to fill them up.
Keep going like that and the only taxpayers left will be prison guards,cops, lawyers and the military. Oh yeah, and drug dealers have to pay sales tax on the bling.
Seriously?
What utter nonsense. Those are the kind of words that cause hate mongers to crawl out from under their dirty rocks and hurt/kill innocent people. I don't care if you're republican, democrat, or whatever, just think about what you say before saying it. There's nothing at all wrong with disagreeing as long as it's not done in a hateful way.