From the Sentencing Project

Last week, I participated in an historic event convened by the Congressional Black Caucus on the 25th Anniversary of the Sentencing Reform Act.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, before a standing-room-only audience of federal judges, public defenders, members of Congress and formerly incarcerated persons, eloquently and forcefully advised Congress to fix the broken system of federal mandatory minimum sentences.

Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the forum and called for reform of federal crack cocaine penalties "this year." He also detailed the priorities of a new Sentencing and Corrections Working Group charged with creating a system that:

* protects the public
* is fair to both victims and defendants
* eliminates unwarranted sentencing disparities
* reduces recidivism, and
* controls the federal prison population.


I don't have to tell you that these are principles The Sentencing Project has been advancing for more than two decades. We applaud the commitment of the Attorney General and the Obama Administration to enact these necessary reforms.

I want you to know that The Sentencing Project will be working to ensure that policymakers have the information and analysis they need about the impact of criminal justice policies, and understand that Americans are counting on them to fix the broken system of justice that has been damaging communities and families for far too long.

We can create criminal justice policies that are based on facts and evidence about what will improve public safety, and that will ensure fairness and justice for all.

You can help us continue to fight for a justice system that's worthy of each and every one of us. Please consider making a secure, online contribution to The Sentencing Project today.

Thank you for your support.

Marc Mauer
Executive Director

p.s. You can read my commentary to the Attorney General's proposals on the University of Pittsburgh School of Law's blog here.

Webb Bill

Here's an article from the Huffington Post that Noah sent me about the initiatives Webb is starting up!

Jim Webb stepped firmly on a political third rail last week when he introduced a bill to examine sweeping reforms to the criminal justice system. Yet he emerged unscathed, a sign to a political world frightened by crime and drug issues that the bar might not be electrified any more.

"After two [Joint Economic Committee] hearings and my symposium at George Mason Law Center, people from across the political and philosophical spectrum began to contact my staff," says Webb in a statement to the Huffington Post. "I heard from Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court, from prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers, former offenders, people in prison, and police on the street. All of them have told me that our system needs to be fixed, and that we need a holistic plan of how to solve it."

Webb's reform is backed by a coalition of liberals, conservatives and libertarians that couldn't have existed even a few years ago.

Webb's bill calls for the creation of a bipartisan commission to study the issue for 18 months and come back with concrete legislative recommendations.

[...]

Webb couches the effort in fairly straightforward terms. "Let's start with a premise that I don't think a lot of Americans are aware of. We have five percent of the world's population; we have 25 percent of the world's known prison population," Webb said on the Senate floor when introducing the bill.

"There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice."

For the full article click here

This brings up a lot of questions for me, mostly about reform v abolition. What I do find incredibly encouraging is how many people (and politicians!) from all different backgrounds and places in the political spectrum are acknowledging the extent of the flaws in the prison industrial complex. Thoughts?