Holder proposes changes in criminal justice system

Associated Press ^ | Aug 12, 2013 12:07 AM EDT | Pete Yost

[Olog-hai]

Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for major changes to the nation’s criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh prison sentences for certain drug-related crimes, divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expand a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders.

In remarks prepared for delivery Monday to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder said he is mandating a change to Justice Department policy so that low-level, non-violent drug offenders with no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels won’t be charged with offenses that impose mandatory minimum sentences. …

Federal prisons are operating at nearly 40 percent above capacity and hold more than 219,000 inmates—with almost half of them serving time for drug-related crimes and many of them with substance use disorders. In addition, 9 million to 10 million prisoners go through local jails each year. …

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

In remarks prepared for delivery Monday to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, ...

The reason for the terror alert in San Francisco?

[bunkerhill7]

Good! Now there`ll be plenty of room to put Holder, Obummer and all his cronies in there.

[nvscanman]

Holder wants to decriminalize the more common transgressions
of “his people” in order to make more room behind bars for those he REALLY wants to imprison, whites, conservatives, Christian, tea party members etc.

[Cheerio]

Isn't this doing to druggies what he and Zero have already done for illegal border crossers?

[VerySadAmerican]

My God! I agree with Holder. Drug dealers should be executed. Drug users, or addicts, should be imprisoned (not with the hardened criminals) and given treatment on their first offense. To stop the drug cartels the demand will have to be eliminated.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

How about Prison colonies? We could set up whole cities in Alaska or Nevada deserts, just for people who break the laws? They must live there a set number of years—make them for men and women. Put up slave factories—with long hours—no food unless they work and produce stuff. They labor of starve. That or mines to work in—no unions, no freebees—just work.

[Grams A]

given treatment on their first offense.”

IMO even if you open up a gazillion drug treatment centers and put all drug users in them until hell freezes over, you will never cure the problem. Druggies are no different than alcoholics, but I do believe drug addiction is worse. Until such time as a drug user really wants to quit, it won’t matter how much treatment we insist they go through, it won’t eliminate the problem. Even when drug users want to quit and go through treatment, most return to using. It’s a no win problem.

Eliminating the supply of drugs will help temporarily until another source for getting high is found.

[nathanbedford]

As someone who has been convinced for some time that the war on drugs has been lost, that it has become worse than counterproductive, that it has become an actual fountain of crime and corruption, I nevertheless have several misgivings about this proposal.

First, anything coming from this Attorney General suspect. To the degree that he intends to the vest in himself or any succeeding Democrat federal Attorney General with more discretion, that is to be unalterably opposed by anyone with has respect for the rule law. Attorney General Holder has forfeited any claim to respect by any decent American in view of his record which includes amnesty for Black Panthers and contempt of Congress.

Second, Holder's proposal is to weaken the laws for possession and pushing of presumably small amounts of illicit drugs. Those of us who favor the legalization of drugs do so because the mere fact of making them illegal creates an artificial demand, an artificial market, and, in effect, price supports. Every time the government reduces the supply of drugs, it does not reduce consumption it only increases price because demand is inflexible. Thus, the government creates a profit motive to push.

Worse, the government virtually mandates that an addict become a pusher in order to fund his addiction and so the government creates a multilevel marketing scheme which has yet to be rivaled in the private sphere. Even a legitimate multilevel marketing scheme creates enormous profits for those upstream and so we see billionaire drug kingpins.

Third, Holder says that, "We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate - not merely to convict, warehouse and forget…" The problem is that there is not a shred of evidence that incarceration leads to rehabilitation. So that leaves deterrence and punishment but there can be no deterrence on a rational basis against the essential irrationality of addiction. There can be rehabilitation but there is no demonstrable connection between incarceration and rehabilitation. That leaves quarantine, or as the Attorney General says, warehousing.

But, reducing sentences for use or petty pushing will not curb the spread of drugs because the user and petty pusher will be on the street in a system which compels him to push in order to get the drugs to which he is addicted. All we will have succeeded in doing is putting addicts who are petty criminals onto the streets where they will be working their way up the food chain to dangerous criminals and organized drug distributors.

Fourth, it appears not to have been explicitly articulated in this speech but it is clear that Attorney General Holder is motivated by his race bias. He believes that a disproportionate amount of African-Americans are being incarcerated for petty drug busts and he wants to rectify this imbalance. Imagine if a Republican president appointed a white Attorney General who concluded that there was a racial imbalance in white-collar crime and wished to reduce the number of whites so incarcerated.

Equality of outcome has been in misguided policy concerning race from its inception. The idea that an employer or university has an obligation to meet a quota is offensives of the 14th amendment. Equally, the idea that the criminal justice system must prosecute according to a quota is worse than offensive, it is frankly fascism. That is true even when the quota is disguised by being cast in reverse because ultimately it is just as discriminatory as a brazen law flagrantly aimed at an identifiable race.

[GeronL]

Some of these ideas might be good ones but I don’t trust this guy one inch

[rawcatslyentist]

>"Holder proposes changes in criminal justice system"

Too late Ricky! Shitty Al done spoke up! All Black Peeps be innocent. Doughnut you know?

[GeronL]

Does he want to allow double jeopardy? Does he want to dump the presumption of innocence for non-blacks?

[RC one]

This I agree with. It's part of the "fundamental transformation of America" that Obama spoke of.

My only question is, who will pay for all their free stuff when they turn all the tax payers into criminals? Communists never have worked that one out.

[Eagles6]

Drug related crime is a misnomer. I seriously doubt if there are many incarcerated for possession of small amounts of weed. It's usually dealing, robbery, burglary, transporting with intent, possession with intent, dealing while possessing a firearm , assault. You get the idea.

[RFEngineer]

go right ahead. These addicts will flock to liberal places, commit petty crimes or worse to feed their habit. It won’t make anything better for anyone, not even the drug criminals.

[rawcatslyentist]

He wants to free the slaves. AKA felony prisoners. Arm them, and hire them as DHS agents.

This is and always has been his private army loyal to him. Why wouldn't they be? He get's them out of jail, and gives them jobs and guns to exact revenge on whitey.

[GeronL]

he has said he has a bond with black criminals (more than any whites is what I infer)

[antceecee]

Wow... your name fits you.

[Catsrus]

Your post saved me the trouble. Most will go through the treatment if ordered, but have no desire to give up their drug use. Nor will they.

[hoosiermama]

Of just fence in Chicago. We wouldn’t have the cost to transport them from source of crime to location served.