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Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice Recommendations for New Administration, Congress Released

Friends:


     The 2009 Criminal Justice Transition Coalition, which includes The Sentencing Project and 20 other prominent national organizations, has just released a collaborative report identifying critical needs for federal policy reform. Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Next Administration and Congress contains comprehensive policy recommendations at every stage of the justice system for the new Administration and Congress.
 
      "Americans of all political stripes, and especially professionals with experience in every aspect of the criminal justice system, recognize that the system is failing too many, costing too much, and helping too few," said the report. Included among the recommendations to overcome these challenges are:
 
·         Eliminate the crack cocaine sentencing disparity;
·         Expand alternatives to incarceration;
·         Fund prisoner reentry through the Second Chance Act;
·         Extend federal voting rights to people released from prison;
·         Restore welfare and food stamp eligibility to individuals with    drug felony convictions; and
·         Analyze and reduce unwarranted racial and ethnic disparity in the federal judicial system.
 
     The policy catalogue will be distributed to the Obama/Biden transition team and key leadership on Capitol Hill. The administration's transition team has already identified the need to eliminate crack cocaine sentencing disparities as one of its civil rights agenda items.

     In its entirety, the document identifies 15 issue areas within criminal justice for policy change. Additional issue areas featured in the catalogue include death penalty reform, prison reform, and juvenile justice. The comprehensive document features contacts for various field experts and organizations, and includes issues pertinent to the community of criminal justice advocates, practitioners and legislators.

     We hope you find this document useful in your work, and look forward to collaborating with you on many of these policy reforms.
     
                                        
-The Sentencing Project

Clinton Crime Agenda Shortsighted; May Hurt Poor and Minorities, Advocates say

[Courtesy of Justice Policy Institute] Clinton Crime Agenda Ignores Proven Methods for Reducing Crime Advocates say plan will increase incarceration rates and negatively impact the poor and minorities For Immediate Release: Monday, April 14, 2008 Contact: LaWanda Johnson (202)-558-7974 x308, cell 202-320-1029 Washington, D.C.--The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) announced today that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's anti-crime package ignores critical research that finds that investments in employment, education, housing and treatment for those who need it is the most effective and fiscally-responsible way to improve public safety. Research shows that Clinton's proposal to revive former President Clinton's COPS initiative, which called for investments in policing, would increase prison populations, and may have a negative impact on the nation's poor and minorities, without significantly reducing crime. The Clinton Administration's "tough on crime" policies resulted in the largest increases in federal and state prison inmates of any president in American history. Advocates say re-implementing this agenda would be a return to bad policies. "The first COPS was found to be costly and ineffective in reducing crime rates and COPS 2.0 is not an improved version of the first one," says JPI executive director Sheila Bedi. "COPS was only successful in filling our prisons and jails with people who research shows can be better served with treatment, evidence-based practices, and community-based alternatives that also promote public safety." According to research, adding police to the streets is not the most effective method for reducing crime. Delaware received $19.6 million in COPS grants and during that same time, the number of violent crimes increased 35.9 percent. In contrast, Oklahoma City, which did not receive any COPS grants, decreased its police force by 16 percent and during that same period saw a dramatic 32.5 percent decrease in the number of violent crimes reported. Furthermore, advocates say law enforcement professionals don't support policing as being the most effective method of reducing crime. In a 2002 poll, 71.1 percent of surveyed chief of police, sheriffs and prosecutors agreed that providing more educational and after-school programs would make the greatest impact in reducing youth crime and violence. Only 14.9 percent said that hiring more police would have the greatest impact. "We've tried to win the war on gangs with law enforcement alone, but we have little to show for it," says National Black Police Association Executive Director Ronald Hampton. "Rather than engaging in endless battles, we need to target the problem behavior that hurts communities. We should support the kinds of prevention and proven programs that we already know reduce violence and crime." Research supports investments in communities as a more cost effective and beneficial way of reducing crime. Research shows that when there is a reduction in crimes rates, it coincides with increased employment. When more people have jobs, fewer crimes are committed. A study by the Heritage Foundation found that "For every 1 percent increase in civilian labor force participation, violent crime is expected to decrease by 8.8 incidents per 100,000" people. "Not only does the Clinton crime plan lack innovation and forward thinking, it ignores all we know about crime prevention. When people are employed, violent crime decreases," says Lisa Kung, Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights. "One in every one hundred Americans is incarcerated. It is clear that Clinton intends to continue a legacy of policies that will keep Americans paying for more police, more prisons and more punitive measures." Advocates also believe that Clinton's opposition to the U.S. Sentencing Commission's decision to make retroactive the changes to sentencing for the thousands of people who had received disproportionately long sentences for crack-cocaine, most of whom are African American, is concerning. Nationwide, from 1995 to 2004, drug abuse violations were the only crime that saw an increase in arrests following the COPS grant. However, a report by JPI release last year, found that while African Americans and whites use and sell drugs at similar rates, African Americans are ten times more likely than whites to be imprisoned for drug offenses mainly due to disparate policing practices, disparate treatment before the courts, mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws, and differences in the availability of drug treatment for African Americans. According to Families Against Mandatory Minimums, "it would be a cruel injustice to base the crack cocaine reduction on an assessment that these people have suffered under an unjust structure and then deny the benefit of the amendment to the very people whose experiences led the Commission to lower the sentences in the first place." "If any of the candidates really wants to do something about crime, then they should invest in policies that increase employment, educational attainment and treatment for people who need it," says Bedi. "These are proven approaches that reduce crime and recidivism--evidence-based practices, which have undergone rigorous experimental inquiry, and have been shown to have proven public safety benefits." For more information contact LaWanda Johnson at 202-558-7974, ext. 308. #######

(This blog post was published by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also shares the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)

2008 Presidential Candidates' Platforms on Criminal Justice

 [Courtesy of The Sentencing Project]

The Sentencing Project is pleased to publish a guide to the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Platforms on Criminal Justice. This guide provides information on a range of key criminal justice issues, including sentencing policy, reentry, felony disenfranchisement, and the death penalty.

 

The Sentencing Project is a nonpartisan public policy organization that does not support or oppose the candidacy of any candidate for public office.  This document is designed to make the public better aware of the candidates' positions on criminal justice policy, an issue that has received relatively little attention in the current political debate.  Voters should learn all they can about the candidates on a range of issues and should not rely on any single source of information before making their decision.

 

We hope you find this information useful.

Some Good News from Kansas

Some good news, from our friends at the Drug Policy Forum of Kansas: March 19, 2007 The Kansas House Judiciary Committee today killed SB 14, the drug offender registry bill. This legislation would have required persons convicted of sale of illegal drugs with 1000 yards of a school, or of manufacturing methamphetamine, to register on the KBI offender web site every 6 months for the rest of their life. The bill passed the KS Senate 39-0 in January. Testifying in opposition to SB 14 was DPFKS executive director Laura Green, along with KS Families Against Mandatory Minimums director Peter Ninemire, Jennifer Roth of the Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the parents of a currently incarcerated meth offender. Read the testimony on our website. Testifying for the bill was KBI lobbyist Kyle Smith. Kudos to the 19 committee member for recognizing this bill as another waste of taxpayer money in the failed war on drugs! In February, DPFKS contacted the 105 sheriff departments in KS to alert them to the cost to their department to administer this law. In his testimony to the committee on March 14, KBI lobbyist Smith revealed that the sheriffs were 'grumbling' about the cost to implement the bill. He suggested the committee remove the drug sales offenders and leave the bill with only persons convicted of manufacture of a controlled substance as the registrants. This was a bill in search of a problem. There is no evidence that someone who goes to prison for manufacturing meth will start another lab and be a danger to society. There has never been one case in Kansas where this has occurred. Unfortunately, this bill is part of a national get-tough-on-crime agenda. Tennessee, Minnesota, and Illinois have passed similar bills. Montana, Georgia, Maine, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington State and West Virginia are considering similar legislation.

The Sentencing Project: Disenfranchisement News & Updates - 3/9/07

National: The Cause and Effect of Disenfranchisement; Sen. Clinton Sponsors Disenfranchisement Legislation As a consequence of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s 1974 decision in Richardson v. Ramirez, five million Americans cannot vote as a result of a criminal conviction, states a Legal Times article written by Frank Askin. The decision, based on what Askin terms a "cynical sleight of hand" by Rehnquist, was based on a contentious interpretation of Section 2 of the 14th Amendment.

The Sentencing Project: Disenfranchisement News & Updates

Maryland: Lawmakers Push to Restore Vote Maryland lawmakers are pushing a bill that would immediately restore the right to vote following release from prison, the Baltimore Sun reported. The proposed legislation would also change the current Maryland law which bans formerly incarcerated individuals with two felony convictions from voting three years after sentence completion. Bills have also been introduced that would restore voting rights after completion of sentence, including parole. Similar proposals failed in the state last year. For additional coverage, see the Washington Post and the Washington Times.

Update: The Second Chance Act Status (S.1934)

[From our friends at Open Society Institute/Open Society Policy Center] The Second Chance Act Status (S.1934) December 5, 2006 This afternoon the Senate sponsors of the Second Chance Act tried to move the bill through the Senate by unanimous consent. In recent days there has been an enormous outreach to Senator Coburn from Okalahomans ranging from state and local government officials, to law enforcement leaders, to service providers, to ordinary citizens. The hope was that all of that and some great press coverage had persuaded Senator Coburn to let the bill pass. However he placed a hold on the bill just a little while ago.