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The Sentencing Project's New Publication: Racial Impact Statements

[Courtesy of The Sentencing Project]

I'm pleased to let you know of an article I have recently had published in the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law that proposes the development of "Racial Impact Statements" as a means of assessing the impact of proposed sentencing policies.  I believe that such a policy would be of great benefit to policymakers and practitioners by establishing a proactive means of addressing a key dynamic in the criminal justice system.

In Racial Impact Statements as a Means of Reducing Unwarranted Sentencing Disparities, I suggest that these statements have much in common with fiscal and environmental impact statements that have become commonplace at many levels of government.  The goal of a racial impact statement would be to assess the projected impact of new sentencing legislation on racial and ethnic minorities prior to enactment of the policy.  If the statement indicates that unwarranted sentencing disparities might be produced, legislators would have the opportunity of considering alternative means of achieving public safety goals that would not exacerbate existing disparities.

I hope that this proposal will be of use to legislators, sentencing commissions, practitioners, and advocacy organizations alike.  Far too often in public policy discussions issues of racial disparity are examined after the fact.  By enacting this policy, we would have the opportunity to engage in a more constructive approach to assessing issues of race and the criminal justice system. 

I hope you find this article helpful in your work and would welcome hearing any reactions you may have.

Regards,



Marc Mauer

Executive Director

Green Party Press Release: War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color

For Immediate Release: May 16, 2007 Contacts: Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, [email protected] & Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, [email protected] *Greens call for realistic debate in the 2008 Presidential race on the War on Drugs *Democratic and Republican politicians are ignoring the human and economic devastation caused by failed drug policies, unjust laws, and targeting of young people, the poor, and African Americans and Latinos, say Green Party leaders WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders called for a national discussion on how the US's 'war on drugs' has turned into a war on young people, the poor, and African Americans, Latinos, and other people of color. "The human and economic devastation caused by the war on drugs is missing from the range of debate among both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. Politicians from these parties, when asked about drug policies, prefer to posture about law and order and endorse failed measures. These politicians don't realize that going along to get along makes one complicit said Cliff Thornton, Green candidate for Governor of Connecticut in 2006 and co-founder of Efficacy, Inc. , which promotes major reforms in drug policy. Greens cited a study by the American Civil Liberties Union ("Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law," October 2006, ), 37% of people arrested, 59% of people convicted, and 74% of those sent to prison are African American, even though only 15% of drug users are African American. The Associated Press has reported that "a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department.... From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth." In state prisons, 260,000 people were serving sentences on nonviolent drug charges in 2005, of whom more than 70% were African American or Latino . The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that nearly one in eight drug prisoners (45,000 Americans) are behind bars for marijuana-related offenses. Green leaders also strongly criticized the punitive denial of financial aid to students with drug convictions, and supported Students for a Sensible Drug Policy in their effort to persuade Congress to reinstate such aid. "The war on drugs is an excuse to ignore the US Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, with long prison sentences for minor and nonviolent offenses. The drug war is meant to be waged, not won," added Mr. Thornton. "This is in part a result of pressure on elected officials from the private prison industry lobby, which seeks to build new prisons and fill up cells in order to win government giveaways and increase corporate profits. The Green Party calls for a public debate that challenges the rhetoric of Democratic and Republican politicians who are under influence of these companies, and that recognizes how the war on drugs has only resulted in more crime and violence." "We need to stop spending $50 billion a year on the drug war, and use that money for treatment. We need to repeal mandatory sentencing laws, which override judges' discretion in determining prison time, and 'three strikes' laws that send people -- mostly the poor and people of color -- away for life on nonviolent and minor felonies," said Kevin Zeese, 2006 candidate for the US Senate candidate in Maryland and president of Common Sense for Drug Policy . The Green Party's national platform endorses decriminalization of victimless crimes, such as the possession of small amounts of marijuana; an end to the war on drugs; expanded drug counseling and treatment; and an end to arrest of 'medical marijuana' arrests and prosecution. "Law enforcement should focus efforts on organized crime, including the laundering of drug money at banks, rather than on street-level drug trade, in which kids who get arrested -- or killed -- are quickly replaced," said Nan Garrett, Co-Chair of the National Women's Caucus of the Green Party and 2002 candidate for Governor of Georgia. "Addictive use should be treated as a medical and social problem. Locking up addicts in stressed prison environments, with minimal effort to address the addiction itself, and then freeing them to go back into the same circumstances that led to their abuse of drugs has only aggravated the problem of addiction. Greens endorse rational solutions to the problems of drug abuse that are based on science and health, compassion for addicts and their families, reduction of harm rather than moral judgment, and respect for basic civil liberties and principles of justice."

FAMM urges Congress to heed message from Commission, New report finds crack disparity unjustifiable, up to Congress to fix the problem

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Federal crack cocaine penalties overstate the harmfulness of the drug, apply mostly to low-level offenders, and hit minorities hardest, concludes the U.S. Sentencing Commission in a new report to Congress, "Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy," released today, May 15. Based on these findings, the Commission maintains it's consistently held position that current crack cocaine penalties significantly undermine the congressional objectives of the Sentencing Reform Act, including fairness, uniformity and proportionality. The solution? Congress should act, says the report. Mary Price, vice president and general counsel of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), a national, nonpartisan sentencing reform organization, says, "The prisoners, children and families torn apart by these unjustifiably harsh penalties are watching closely and will welcome crack sentencing reforms that restore some justice to crack penalties. Only Congress can change our harsh mandatory minimum crack laws. Lawmakers should not squander the important opportunity presented by the most recent set of findings and recommendations by the Sentencing Commission. The time is ripe for reform, especially given the bipartisan support for crack sentencing reform that has emerged in recent years." In its report, the Commission again unanimously and strongly urged Congress to act promptly on the following recommendations: (1) Increase the five-year and ten-year mandatory minimum threshold quantities for crack cocaine offenses to focus the penalties more closely on serious and major traffickers, (2) Repeal the mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine and (3) Reject addressing the 100-to-1 disparity by decreasing the five-year and ten-year mandatory minimum threshold quantities for powder cocaine offenses, citing no evidence to justify such an increase in quantity-based penalties for powder cocaine offenses. In addition, the Commission seeks authority to incorporate any future changes to the mandatory minimums for crack into the federal sentencing guidelines. FAMM strongly supports these recommendations and looks forward to working with members of Congress to implement these reasonable and long-overdue reforms to crack cocaine sentencing. Visit www.ussc.gov to read the report.

Today is the 34th anniversary of the signing of New York's infamous Rockefeller Drug Laws

[Courtesy of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, Inc. and Tony Papa] Today, May 8, marks the 34 year anniversary of the signing of New York's infamous Rockefeller Drug Laws. In December of 2004 the laws were mildly modified but continue unabated to wreak untold havoc on poor communities of color across the Empire State. Below is a link to a powerful and edifying video/song written and performed by Hip-Hop megastar Jim Jones calling on Governor Spitzer to reform the cruel and unusual, and racially applied Rockefeller Drug Laws (now the Elliot Spitzer drug laws). The video serves as trailer for the newly released documentary Lockdown USA. Moreover, we have included a compelling editorial that appeared this week in the Huffington Post. The editorial was written by artist/activist and Rockefeller Drug Law survivor Anthony Papa. In the editorial, Mr. Papa urges not only the Governor Spitzer but also Lt. Governor David Patterson in particular NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to use their offices to follow through on their past commitment to push for the REPEAL of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Mr. Cuomo is one of the four major figures featured in the Lockdown USA documentary. All three public officials have been silent on the issue since their respective inaugurations. Mr. Papa, formerly of Mothers of the NY Disappeared, is now a media specialist for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). DPA has worked closely with the NY Mothers and the Kunstler Fund for the past 9 years in the popular movement to repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws.(www.drugpolicy.org). Jim Jones Lockdown, USA Song http://www.drugpolicy.org/statebystate/newyork/lockdownusa/

Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative Update April 26, 2007

In this update: 1. IDPI helps attain a sentencing reform victory in Maryland 2. IDPI mobilizes 50 clergy to support a medical marijuana bill in Illinois and generates substantial media coverage 3. Troy Dayton moves on, Tyler Smith is promoted to associate director

The Sentencing Project: Disenfranchisement News & Updates - April 19, 2007

Florida: Making Up for Lost Time; Still Some Work to Do When he served as attorney general, Governor Charlie Crist investigated the murder of a Florida civil rights activist and his wife whose home was bombed as a result of their work in registering black voters in the 1950s. Though Crist was unable to bring justice to the case, according to the Florida Times-Union he has followed in the late activist's footsteps in reforming a 138-year-old policy that banned voting rights for ex-offenders. "That law, which was passed in 1868 and re-enacted 100 years later, had racist origins. Enacted after the Civil War, it bolstered the 'black codes,' which called for harsh punishments for vagrancy and other minor transgressions that newly freed slaves were likely to get caught up in," writes columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee.

WOLA/TransAfrica Forum: Aerial fumigation contributing to the worst recent humanitarian crisis in Colombia

[Courtesy of WOLA] Washington, DC April 7-- In the last 15 days, fighting between the Colombian military and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the activities of new illegal armed groups vying for control of drug routes is reportedly generating the internal displacement of an estimated 7,000 people. The Colombian Department of Nariño is experiencing one of the worst protection and humanitarian assistance crisis since Colombian President Alvaro Uribe began his second term in office. The U.S. financed aerial herbicide spray program (fumigations) compounds and exacerbates the myriad of hardships that Afro-Colombian communities are already facing: racism, disadvantaged access to state programs, food insecurity due to the internal armed conflict, internal displacement and vulnerability to human rights violations by the armed groups.

Latino Leaders Take Position Against Drug War

From the Drug Policy Alliance: Latino Leaders Take Position Against Drug War Tuesday, September 12, 2006 Last week in Los Angeles, 2,000 Latino activists and leaders from all over the U.S. gathered to set a political agenda at the National Latino Congreso. One of the issues they took on was the war on drugs, resulting in the unanimous passage of a resolution to investigate the real cost of the drug war.