Posted on 11/18/2018 3:43:50 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
“Government’s first duty,” President Reagan said in 1981 and President Trump recently tweeted, “is to protect the people, not run their lives.” The safety of law-abiding citizens has always been a core principle of conservatism. And it is why we need to take this opportunity to pass real criminal-justice reform now.
Although violent crime rose during the final two years of President Obama’s time in office, it decreased during the first year of Trump’s presidency. We need to keep that momentum going. And criminal justice reform can help us do that in two ways.
First, commonsense sentencing reform can increase trust in the criminal-justice system, thus making it easier for law enforcement personnel to police communities. Right now, federal mandatory-minimum sentences for many drug offenses can lead to outcomes that strike many people as unfair, and thus undermine the public’s faith in our justice system.
For example, when I served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Salt Lake City, Weldon Angelos -- a young father of two with no criminal record -- was convicted of selling three dime bags of marijuana to a paid informant over a short period of time.
These were not violent crimes. No one was hurt. But because Angelos had been in possession of a gun at the time he sold the drugs (a gun which was neither brandished nor discharged in connection with the offense), the judge was forced by federal law to give him a 55-year prison sentence. The average federal sentence for assault is just two years. The average murderer only gets 15 years. While acknowledging the obvious excessiveness of the sentence, the judge explained that the applicable federal statutes gave him no authority to impose a less-severe prison term, noting that “only Congress can fix this problem.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Reform=Reduced Penalties, Early Release from Prison,
“Although violent crime rose during the final two years of President Obama’s time in office, it decreased during the first year of Trump’s presidency.”
Apparently Gillibrand didn’t get the memo...
If the reform could be restricted to eliminating the oddball cases like the one discussed by Lee, it might be beneficial. But, once the left gets involved, it’s more likely to open the floodgates and result in a mass release of perps who will cause problems for society for the rest of their lives.
While such reform is “feel good”, the truth is that the federal judiciary needs real, high level reform. Such as:
1) Limit the authority of lesser federal judges to just their own jurisdictions. Having some Obama appointed agitator judge in Podunk declare that his orders can stop the POTUS or congress *nationwide* is utter hooey.
2) Establish a firm retirement age for federal judges.
3) Create a regulatory framework for judicial precedent, aka “stare decisis”. Precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts.
In Common-law precedent is a third kind of law, on equal footing with statutory law (that is, statutes and codes enacted by legislative bodies) and regulatory law that is, regulations promulgated by executive branch agencies.
In our legal system, statutory law is carefully documented and examined down to the punctuation. Likewise, regulatory law is *supposed* to be clear enough so it is not whimsically enforced. Though you can see the very beneficial effects of President Trump trimming back on the terrible overgrowth of this.
However, precedent is a garden of weeds and unruly thorn vines. Ideally, someone should be able to trace back every precedent to its foundations in other precedent, the most recent making just a modest change to the whole. But many are based on some federal judge’s efforts to create new law out of whole cloth.
Judicial reform means that such unilateral decisions must either be justified, to be retained, or to be discarded. And that they have been used as precedent for a long time is *not* enough.
No votes for felons!!!
“the judge was forced by federal law to give him a 55-year prison sentence.”
One would need the background information to fully figure out what happened here. I think some of the federal laws came about as a result of liberal judges going easy on criminals. Whatever they do I would hope they don’t lose sight of lenient judges.
Mike Lee is right.
Prison reforms should have the following: 1) murder, no chance of being free, 2) felonies should have a maximum of 25 years, 3) Marijuana conviction should not be be a crime and we need to have education in the jail to help convicts to be productive...
The best thing he can do to reform Federal prison sentences is to eliminate 95% of the Federal crimes from the books.
If Trump and the GOP were sincere about this issue, Trump would IMMEDIATELY commute or pardon every person who is being unfairly held in federal custody.
This is pure politics - and pure stupidity.
Even the people who get out of jail early are not going to vote for Trump and the GOP.
By the way - 95% of federal inmates have pleaded guilty, to a REDUCED charge.
So, when we start hearing the sob stories about unfair sentences, please remember that almost all these guys were originally charged with a more serious crime.
Total Crap!
Here's the link to the Supreme Court Appeal:
https://www.justice.gov/osg/brief/angelos-v-united-states-opposition
Weldon Angelos was a gang member and a major drug dealer.
He was offered a plea deal for 16 years.
He rejected the plea, went to trial, and was promptly convicted on SIXTEEN felony charges!
And this is the guy that Trump and Mike Lee want to release from prison!
My daughter was shot by a drug dealer like Mike Lees guy. Noce #ivoryTower view. According to mike lee drug dealers carry guns to defend themselves?
Oh my gosh, your story is so sobering. I am so sorry for what you have had to endure.
Criminality related to drugs consists of more than just the illegal act of buying/selling illegal drugs. And making drugs legal is not going to stop the criminal acts related to drug activity.
They already to it, despite the 3 strikes law. It’s called Plea Bargains. DOJ stats LIE. Crime is Hierarchical Counted, only the most serious offense is counted in a crime that involves multiple crimes.
45% of early released inmates are studied in a set number of states, not all 50. So Recidivism stays at about 68%.
Local places like the Memphis Penal Farm which is a 11 month 29 day facility serves 90 days, vast majority have between 10-50 lower Felonies EACH. While out on bail are committing MORE crimes. Tie up multiple courts. Bail is rarely revoked.
Juvenile is worse as they don’t have the space to house any but the most serious like Murder/Rape and Grand Theft.
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