Criminal Justice

Dear Friends of the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative:

We are excited to pass along this action alert from a coalition of organizations we are a part of pushing for national criminal justice reform.  We are working on lots of important projects and will update you soon about our progress.  In the meantime, please take action today and tell Senate Leadership to pass the National Criminal Justice Commission Act!

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TODAY is National Call-In Day:  Tell Senate Leadership to pass the National Criminal Justice Commission Act!

BACKGROUND INFO:

In 2009, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) and 15 bipartisan cosponsors introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, S. 714, legislation that would create a bipartisan Commission to review and identify effective criminal justice policies and make recommendations for reform.  The Senate Judiciary Committee has reviewed and favorably passed the bill and it is now awaiting passage out of the United States Senate.  Please help us urge Senate Leadership to prioritize and pass this important legislation as soon as possible!

ACTION NEEDED:

Please call the following Senators today to ask them to prioritize and support Senate passage of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, S. 714, as soon as possible:

--Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), 202-224-3542

--Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 202-224-3135

--Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), 202-224-9447

MESSAGE:

I am calling to ask the Senator to prioritize and support immediate Senate passage of S. 714, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, because:

--Having a transparent and bipartisan Commission review and identify effective criminal justice policies would increase public safety.

--The increase in incarceration over the past twenty years has stretched the system beyond its limits.  These high costs to taxpayers are unsustainable, especially during these times of economic downturn.

--The proposed commission would conduct a comprehensive national review - not audits of individual state systems - and would issue recommendations - not mandates - for consideration.


Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions.  Thank you for making these important calls!

*** LIVE WEBCAST: 3:00PM, THURSDAY ***

Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing Scheduled on

Webb Bill to Overhaul America’s Criminal Justice System

National Criminal Justice Commission Act charges comprehensive

 review of system, concrete solutions for reform

Washington, DC – On Thursday, June 11, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs will hold a hearing on Senator Webb’s legislation to comprehensively review and reform the nation’s criminal justice system. The hearing entitled “Exploring the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009,” will host a number of experts in the field to discuss the need for such legislation. Senator Webb will participate in the hearing.

On March 26, Webb introduced S.714 to create a blue-ribbon commission charged with conducting an 18-month, top-to-bottom review of the nation’s entire criminal justice system and offering concrete recommendations for reform. The legislation has received widespread bipartisan support and has 29 cosponsors in the Senate, including Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Ranking Member Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Judiciary Committee member Senator Orrin G Hatch (R-UT).

In the 110^th Congress, Webb chaired two hearings of the Joint Economic Committee that examined various aspects of the criminal justice system. In October of 2008, he conducted a symposium on drugs in America at George Mason University Law Center.

The hearing will be webcast online at the Senate Judiciary Committee website. The watch live, please go to: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3906

WHAT:                       Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs Hearing: “Exploring the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009”

WHEN:                       Thursday, June 11^th, at 3:00pm

WHERE:                    226 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC

                                    Or online at: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3906

WITNESSES:            Pat Nolan, Vice President, Prison Fellowship

Chief William Bratton, Los Angeles Police Department

Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Harvard Law School

Brian W. Walsh, Senior Legal Research Fellow, Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation

For background materials on Senator Webb’s legislation, please visit:  http://webb.senate.gov/email/criminaljusticereform.html

For  additional materials or to RSVP, please contact Kimberly Hunter at: [email protected].

Congress is Debating the Drug War. 
Are Your Representatives Part of the Discussion?

Dear Friends,

The war against the "War on Drugs" is really starting to heat up.  

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition has spent the last two years asking every single congressional office to take a thorough look at the failure of our drug laws, and now it is happening!

Recently on Capitol Hill, Sen. Jim Webb (D-Virginia) introduced a bill to create a blue ribbon commission to initiate a comprehensive review of America's criminal justice and drug policies.  The commission will spend eighteen months studying all aspects of the criminal justice system, report the findings to Congress and offer tangible recommendations for reform, including, possibly, an end to the cruel drug laws that send too many people to prison for too long.

But that's only if we build enough support to pass this important legislation.  

We've made it easy for you to contact your legislators about supporting Sen. Webb's bill.  All you have to do is go to http://www.DrugWarDebate.com and enter in your contact information.  Edit the pre-written letter if you want, and click send.  Then, use our automated system to let your friends know that they can take action too.  That's it.  

If enough of us put this already-bipartisan legislation on our senators' and representatives' radar screens, we can and will make a difference.

The United States is the number one incarcerator in the world, with one out of every one hundred American adults behind bars.  Sadly, the lion's share of this insane level of incarceration is driven by drug prohibition.

Our current policies are not serving the public interest, and the results have been devastating: since the inception of the "war on drugs," more than 38 million arrests have been made for nonviolent drug offenses.  Under Sen. Webb's legislation, the commission will, among other things, "make recommendations for changes in policies and laws designed to....restructure the approach to criminalization of, and incarceration as a result of the possession or use of illegal drugs."

A thorough examination of the criminal justice system as it relates to the failed "war on drugs" will go a long way toward awakening more policymakers about the reasons for reform, and Sen. Webb's efforts are exactly what we need right now.  Please visit http://www.DrugWarDebate.com today to contact your senators and representatives, asking them to support S. 714, the National Criminal Justice Act of 2009.  

And please consider making a donation to help LEAP continue our important efforts.  If you can afford to help, please go to http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com/donate and make as big a gift as you feel comfortable giving.

We can't do it without your help!

Sincerely,

Jack Cole
Executive Director
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

The Sentencing Project is pleased to announce the release of a new publication from our colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies,
"Mandate for Change." 

 

Edited by Chester Hartman, the founding executive director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, "Mandate for Change" is a collection of progressive policy proposals for the Obama Administration on every major domestic and international topic by more than 70 leading thinkers and activists in the field.  "A New Policy for Public Safety," a chapter on criminal justice reform, was contributed by Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project. 

A Washington, D.C. reception celebrating the release of "Mandate for Change" will be held on Monday, February 23rd at Busboys and Poets from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

In addition to many associates of the Institute for Policy Studies, contributors include:

Nan Aron, Alliance for Justice
Dean Baker, Center for Economic & Policy Research
Sheila Crowley, National Low Income Housing Coalition
Peter Edelman, Georgetown University Law Center
Maria Foscarinis, National Law Center on Homelessness  & Poverty
Kim Gandy, National Organization for Women
Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink
Mark Greenberg, Center for American Progress
Alan Houseman, Center for Law and Social Policy
Doug Nelson and Bart Lubow, Annie E. Casey Foundation
Miles Rappaport and Stuart Comstock Gray, Demos

[Courtesy of The Sentencing Project] 

 

A new report by The Sentencing Project highlights 17 states that enacted sentencing and corrections reforms in 2008. The State of Sentencing 2008: Developments in Policy and Practice finds that a nationwide budget crisis coupled with widespread prison overcrowding has led many states to address critical challenges in the areas of sentencing, drug policy, parole revocation, racial justice, felony disenfranchisement, juvenile justice, and higher education in prison.
 
Highlights from the report include:

• Arizona established a probation revocation and crime reduction performance incentive system to encourage counties to reduce commitments to prison.

• Kentucky amended parole release policies and expanded home incarceration for persons convicted of certain offenses, created a committee to study the state's penal code and made recommendations for reform, and rescinded certain requirements for persons seeking to have voting rights restored after the completion of sentence.

• Mississippi amended parole release policies, and expanded eligibility for compassionate release.

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.