Posted on 08/14/2018 3:05:48 PM PDT by Kaslin
Prison reform has normally been an issue embraced by Democrats, not Republicans. But, perhaps, like so many other things in the Trump administration, this, too, is about to change.
Last Thursday, President Trump held a roundtable discussion at his Bedminster, New Jersey, property, five governors were in attendance.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 37.8 percent of prison inmates in the U.S. are black, 58.3 percent white, 2.3 percent Native American and 1.6 percent Asian. Yet, blacks are arrested more, charged more, sentenced more harshly and confined to prison longer, even for minor infractions.
In Georgia, according to Department of Corrections; U.S. Census Bureau data, 61.6 percent of prisoners were black, 33.7 percent were white, while the general population in the state in 2013 was 31.4 percent black, 54.8 white.
Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia spoke of the progress made in his state in reducing the disproportionate number of blacks in prisons: "We have seen, since I became governor, a 10-percent decrease in violent crime in our state, a 20-percent overall decrease in crime. We have seen our African-American percentage in our prison system drop significantly ... black males has dropped almost 30 percent."
Black female inmates, he said, "dropped about 38.2 percent. Our African-American commitments to our prison is at the lowest level it has been since 1987."
Deal said re-entry into society is a vital part of lowering the recidivism rate. Common among those in prison was a lack of education. Seventy percent, he said, had not graduated from high school. Georgia stepped up its GED program and job training. "We found that if you give them a blue-collar skill, you reduce your recidivism rate by 24 percent. If you give them just the education of getting a high school diploma, it's reduced by 19 percent."
This issue has been kicked around for years with little done. Prisons are overcrowded and antiquated.
A disparity in sentencing, lack of competent legal representation for poor and minority defendants, overcrowding -- and the fact that prisons aren't known primarily for reforming too many inmates -- all contribute to a system that has placed 2.3 million criminals behind bars, "more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London," reports The New York Times. These include a sizeable number of non-dangerous, nonviolent offenders who would be better off outside prisons and in programs designed to change their life direction, even paying back those from whom they have stolen or otherwise harmed. It's called restitution.
Politically, this is an issue that will resonate well in minority communities for obvious reasons, but more than politics should be involved. Reforming our criminal justice system, which is often more criminal than just, is the moral and right thing to do.
The Senate is expected to consider a modified version of a House bill that would reduce the current mandatory life sentence for some drug offenses to 25 years. The Senate bill would also prohibit the doubling of mandatory sentences for some drug and gun crimes and it would give more sentencing discretion to judges. It also would make retroactive the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act that narrowed the discrepancy in sentencing guidelines for crack versus powdered cocaine, another issue that has disproportionately affected the black community.
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry noted that while governor of Texas he was able to "shut down eight prisons, saving more than $3 billion dollars a year in prison costs, and conservatives look at that now and go, 'That was smart on crime.'"
Saving money while instituting programs that work, giving people hope and another chance at a better future are Republican themes. Democrats should join them. If they do, they can share the credit for things that succeed in transforming troubled lives.
B...S...
How about let’s hear some names and crimes of these poor souls supposedly sent to prison for minor crimes? Does the hood really want these guys back in their neighborhoods selling drugs, doing drive-bys, etc.?
So nice of rich politicians to be concerned about this. These thugs won’t be moving in next door to them, although I think that would be dandy.
Is it safe to say the racial mix of prisoners reflects the racial mix of those who commit crimes??? That being the case, what is there to fix???
If my math is right, there are no Hispanics in Federal Prison? I smell somebody playing with statistics.
Yes, I believe in prison reform and here are my rules.
Nothing but bologna, bread and water to eat.
Working the fields or quarries from sunup till sundown 6 days a week. One day of rest.
No TV’s, only the KJV Bible to read.
A strap across the back for any serious infraction.
I could come up with more but you probably get the point. Prisons should be of the sort that no person would NEVER want to go back again!
Simple. We want less crime.
We know how to get less crime, but it is difficult to put in place. Have intact families produce children with an at-home working father.
Have people learn that theft is wrong, and that you should follow the ten commandments.
Make people responsible for their own lives, instead of wards of the state.
It has worked very well when it has been tried.
The problem, of course, is that it is directly opposed to the Progressive agenda.
Many countries have achieved much lower crime rates than exist in many U.S. cities.
The biggest single thing needed is a respect for the rule of law, and an expectation that justice will generally be done.
Hispanics/Latinos count as white in these stats, along with Arabs. Yes, all of the perps on 9/11 were white. Take that, bigots! LOL
I suggest that not all cons/excons are the same. Some were framed and not really guilty. Some were guilty to a momentary and stupid act. Some were hardened criminals who have been born again and turned their life around. Some are still hardened criminals. Some came in as amateur punks and became hardened in prison. The percentage of each? I don’t know. I bet few do know.
Here in GA there are Black Republican Pastors and Republican rehab types who do have an idea of the percentages, and how to recognize the differences. Suppose they are right 67% of the time; but wrong 33% of the time as to who to invest in.
Is 1/3 v 2/3 a ratio worth doing? What if it is 90-10?
On a different track, if Gov Deal is so concerned,as he has so often expressed, then why is the state hiring so many from out of state (like me) ... and non-citizens rather than hiring from in-state? Does Gov Deal match actions to his words?
“..Some were framed and not really guilty. ..”
I was in LE for a few years and I know all arrested and tried were the actual perps. Now some got caught up with a bad crowd, some were out to commit the crime, some were young and dumb, but they all committed a crime. Some can be rehabilitated and should be. Some should never see the light of day.
I have those questions, too. I know what we’re doing now isn’t working. Letting the gangs have power and dividing by race. We need some Christian charity applied to the prisoners.
You best hope no woman ever wishes ill upon you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Banks_(American_football)
Link should be:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Banks_(American_football)
> We aren’t a moral people if we send anyone to prison to be raped and abused as punishment for their crime.
That needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
Another moral crime that remains unaddressed is prison-for-profit.
The prison system is just another corrupted institution that remains to be cleaned out, as is so much of government all around.
Those private prisons were invented by Republicans - to our shame.
96% of federal defendants plead guilty to a lesser charge!
Got that? Almost all these folks pleaded guilty, and they knew exactly what their sentence was going to be.
This is pure race-based political pandering by Trump and Pence.
If there are people in federal prison who have been treated unfairly, Trump can pardon them or commute their sentence.
But releasing thousands of people who pleaded guilty?
Shameful!
And hundreds of completely innocent citizens will be harmed by the criminals that Trump and Pence send back to the streets.
By the way...
I forgot to mention that approximately one third of federal inmates are illegal immigrants!
Most of them have been arrested for violent crimes, drug crimes, identity theft, and fraudulently obtaining billions of dollars from welfare programs and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
At the round table discussion Pres. Trump had with black pastors, they were re soundly grateful that he was taking up prison reform.
Hispanic is an ethnicity of the White race.
That's how the Census counts it.
Prison reform..........make a deal with Russia to build prisons in Siberia and pay to have them built and run.
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