How many people will overdose and die today? It's hard to feel sorry for drug dealers who pray on the weak. And to be clear these harsh penalties were for dealers not users.
I don't think you really know what you're talking about. Our so-called justice system is a mess, creating a life-time of hardship for a lot of people who are just trying to get by.
If you want to call drug distribution getting by. Creating a life time of hardship for others. I usually say the guy trying to make an honest days pay is trying to get by.
The key lines here: "Did jail make a difference? Rarely. It hurt more than it helped. It was a waste of money, and a waste of lives." All you hard-liners need to face up this reality.
Exactly. If she really felt what she was doing was wrong, she should have resigned immediately and from her post and worked outside to change sentencing procedures.
Hillary Clinton, in a 1994 speech “We need more police” “We need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders. The ‘three strikes and you’re out’ for violent offenders has to be part of the plan. We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to keep them off the streets.”
Ms. Saxe was involved in a bank robbery during which a co-defendant shot and killed Officer Walter Schroeder. For that crime she received a prison sentence of 10 to 12 years. Regardless, she was Constitutionally entitled to a lawyer. You have to separate the lawyer from his or her client. John Adams, 25 years before becoming the second President of the United States, represented the British soldiers and their captain who were prosecuted for killing 5 men during the Boston Massacre.
One of the reasons for mandatory jail time for specific crimes - is the public got sick of judges - like Gertner giving violent individuals - little or no jail time.
She is complaining about laws - they she indirectly created.
So if a handful of judges back in the 1980's gave sentences that were too short (and please tell us which ones you're referring to), that makes it OK to give insanely long federal sentences for the next 40 years? Are you as concerned about the judges who give someone far too much time?
The purpose of the sentencing guidelines and the minimum mandatories was to attempt to create a system in the Federal Courts where similar defendant would be treated similarly whether they were before a judge in Boston or Los Angeles. Thus avoiding the problem faced in Massachusetts where there are dramatic differences in sentencing based on which judge you happen to be before.
The guidelines and minimum mandatories still may be to harsh.
We treated and currently treat people like dirt to be swept away and ignored as long as possible.. Saying that we treat people as numbers on a spreadsheet is to give ourselves too much credit..as sad as that credit may be
Respect, dignity, and looking out for the least of these is the great failing of our society and ourselves...myself included.
The problem was not mass incarceration but rather the selective mass prosecution and incarceration where many low level offenders were dealt harsh sentences while connected high level people avoided prosecution altogether. It is well known and documented that our CIA has been involved in the mass importation of drugs into this country and who has been prosecuted.....certainly nobody from the Clinton / Bush cabal that helped freeway rick establish as the kingpin in LA...freeway rick went to jail....
Even today we see many people getting busted for 40 bags or heroin....distribution...jail...while the guy in a suit skates
Maybe that is your guilt Ms Gertner, that you knew the real deal and the low level peddlers paid the price for the successful war on drugs propaganda that was all bs in the big picture.
Funny, but with all the bad guys in jail, the crime rate is down. Look for it to go up, as the "set them free" policies bring back the violent crime.
And dealing drugs IS a violent crime, whether it is out of your car or out of your mansion. Drugs do untold damage, and those who profit from selling them should do very hard and long time.
The war on drugs has been a huge failure. And it could have been anticipated. The war on that other drug, alcohol in the late 1920's was a failure too and in the early thirties it was repealed. Guess we were smarter then than we are now. People using drugs are addict and they should get treatment rather than jail.
A very illuminating and brave statement, Ms. Gertner ("So much had been written about mass incarceration in the abstract, but I wanted to write concretely about the men (and they were largely men) I had come to know. I kept files on each of them. I had a spread sheet listing their sentences, my reasoning, and, more important, what became of them. Did jail make a difference? Rarely. It hurt more than it helped. It was a waste of money, and a waste of lives.")
I would guess that the reasons for our embrace of mass incarceration was an unholy confluence of interests from both the Republican and Democratic sides, ala the housing crisis. (You remember the housing crisis, where Democrats wanted anyone with a pulse to be able to live the American Dream and have a house, whether they had any ability to pay for it and even if they had to totally lie to get it, and where the Republicans just wanted to enable the banks and brokers to make lots of money in the name of "reduced regulation").
In this case I would suspect that it was the confluence of women (Democratic and Republican) with their greater power (including voting power) and influence who wanted to reduce their risks by having any men who might be any kind of a threat locked up, and Republicans who (being nose-to-the-grindstone oriented, and anti-hedonism) wanted to eradicate leftist "drugs" at any cost (while approving of traditionalist alcohol and tobacco).
I suspect that we don't spend much on rehabilitation, job skills, and reintegration into society -- most goes to incarceration, the courts, and the police. How does this compare to other developed countries (all of whom have a much lower incarceration rate)?
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She is complaining about laws - they she indirectly created.
The guidelines and minimum mandatories still may be to harsh.
Respect, dignity, and looking out for the least of these is the great failing of our society and ourselves...myself included.
Even today we see many people getting busted for 40 bags or heroin....distribution...jail...while the guy in a suit skates
Maybe that is your guilt Ms Gertner, that you knew the real deal and the low level peddlers paid the price for the successful war on drugs propaganda that was all bs in the big picture.
And dealing drugs IS a violent crime, whether it is out of your car or out of your mansion. Drugs do untold damage, and those who profit from selling them should do very hard and long time.
People using drugs are addict and they should get treatment rather than jail.
I would guess that the reasons for our embrace of mass incarceration was an unholy confluence of interests from both the Republican and Democratic sides, ala the housing crisis. (You remember the housing crisis, where Democrats wanted anyone with a pulse to be able to live the American Dream and have a house, whether they had any ability to pay for it and even if they had to totally lie to get it, and where the Republicans just wanted to enable the banks and brokers to make lots of money in the name of "reduced regulation").
In this case I would suspect that it was the confluence of women (Democratic and Republican) with their greater power (including voting power) and influence who wanted to reduce their risks by having any men who might be any kind of a threat locked up, and Republicans who (being nose-to-the-grindstone oriented, and anti-hedonism) wanted to eradicate leftist "drugs" at any cost (while approving of traditionalist alcohol and tobacco).
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