Immigration Sensations

As it gets colder outside and people everywhere start worrying about making it through the winter, I shudder to think about what this year will bring for many families across the country. We are truly at a frightening time and the latest anti-immigrant hysteria has me feeling really pessimistic.

Despite the fact that many cities across the country are rejecting 287(g) (perhaps in response to the Hispanic Caucus' and around 520 other groups' call for immigration justice) and the UN report detailing how migrant workers give far more to the countries they move to than they take, we can't seem to make substantial changes.

Obama's new immigration plan which has been called "ambitious" primarily addresses the most grievous wrongs like the incredible neglect and abuse immigrants suffer in detention facilities. (For a link to the actual report click here.) What about real change? What about conversations regarding naturalization and legalization of undocumented workers?

I guess I should be happy that Obama is planning on making detention centers gentler and that the administration is aware of how broken the system is. Forgive me for not jumping up and down. I guess I just need to see substantial changes in the fundamental attitudes of Americans to get me going -- report after report and study after study show that the us citizens (especially us middle-class citizens - see here) end up benefiting substantially from immigration, so clearly these fears are not based on fact but rather symbolic definitions of value and humanity. I just don't know how to change those! Thoughts?

Backlash

New American Media reports that more undocumented Chinese immigrants are entering the US through Mexico, Obama vows to "reform" the immigrant detention complex in the US (NYTimes article here) and RaceWire did a compelling piece on two permanent residents, Elliot Granade and Alexander Alli, caught up in the immigrant detention system in Pennsylvania for committing non-violent crimes. Racewire reports:

On any given day—DHS detains more than one thousand noncitizens in jails across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, particularly in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.... many are lawful permanent residents who are detained for months, if not years, while the immigration courts and federal courts resolve their cases. Yet they never receive a custody hearing to determine whether their prolonged detention is even necessary. Indeed, many choose to abandon their meritorious cases because they cannot endure the prospect of being locked up indefinitely.

We are struggling so hard with this, we are violating constitutional and basic human rights daily, and yet still no one seems capable of looking below the surface at what is causing the situation in the first place! About taking responsibility for the monster we have created through, for example, imperialist attitudes and policies in the region. That's just for starters... oh I could go on.

From the Sentencing Project

Dear Friend:

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), took a bold step toward a more fair and effective criminal justice system. He introduced a bi-partisan bill with Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) that would create a blue-ribbon commission to conduct an 18-month review of the nation's criminal justice system and offer concrete recommendations for reform.

"America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace," said Senator Webb. "With five percent of the world's population, our country houses twenty-five percent of the world's prison population. Incarcerated drug offenders have soared 1200% since 1980. And four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals."

We agree with Senator Webb's assessment of the criminal justice system. Since his election in 2006, The Sentencing Project has been working with Senator Webb to provide information and analysis on sentencing and drug policy, along with recommendations for reform.

We commend Senator Webb for his leadership on this issue, and look forward to working with his office, and other leaders in the House and Senate to advance sentencing reform, examine racial disparity and improve the juvenile justice system.

You can help The Sentencing Project continue to advocate for a more fair and effective criminal justice system by making a contribution to our work today.

Every day, support from individuals like you is making a difference in The Sentencing Project's work to change the way Americans think about crime and punishment.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Marc Mauer
Executive Director

Rockefeller Reform

From Racewire

Dropping the rock

This week, New York took a decisive step toward reforming the Rockefeller Drug Laws—the notorious mandatory-minimum sentencing rules that have driven the mass incarceration of people of color over the past generation.

Despite some marginal reforms in recent years, the state’s prisons remain packed with thousands of nonviolent drug offenders, many of them imprisoned for extremely low-level offenses. About nine in ten drug offenders in New York State prisons are Black or Latino, according to the advocacy campaign Drop the Rock. Reformers and civil rights activists have long criticized the laws as racist and inhumane, not to mention wasteful and generally ineffective for dealing with the social impacts of substance abuse.

The state Commission on Sentencing Reform has now officially laid out prospects for reform in a report that concludes:

“Community-based drug treatment, especially when required in a criminal justice setting where the offender faces clearly defined sanctions for program failure, works and should be an available option in every region of the state.

“The state’s network of existing diversion programs and drug courts has been effective for thousands of drug-addicted offenders, and any new diversion model must be structured so as not to undermine these programs.

“New York should adopt a comprehensive plan to provide statewide access to substance abuse treatment programs.

“New York must continue to reserve costly prison resources for high-risk offenders and make greater use of alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders while not jeopardizing the state’s significant gains in public safety.”

Yet the New York Civil Liberties Union criticized the report for not going far enough in opening legal avenues to community-based alternatives to incarceration. The group argues that more positive interventions would remain out of reach for many drug offenders because the proposed guidelines would:

"Preclude youthful offenders with certain prior convictions from diversion to rehabilitation.

"Require a 'certification of addiction' procedure that will result in a complex and costly factual dispute that prosecutors will always be better armed to win.

"Exclude from eligibility for diversion those who are not addicted but could nevertheless be better served by community based rehabilitation programs. Successful diversion models employed across the country and in New York State demonstrate that providing mental health, vocational and educational services offer the best outcomes."

But even if the movement toward an overhaul is not radical enough for many activists, recent shifts on drug policy in Albany's political climate have been unmistakable.

Reform measures have a better chance of passing this year, as Governor David Paterson has long criticized the drug laws, and in the State Senate, the new Democratic majority means less political resistance. The fiscal crisis now besetting New York and many other state governments may also convince policymakers that the government cannot afford wasteful incarceration policies under a budget crunch.

After decades of some of the most regressive drug laws in the country, New York may soon find itself at the helm of a nationwide wave of reform, as states—and even the federal government--realign drug policy in light of social realities, racial inequity, and economic priorities.

By Michelle Chen

Also - here is a link to a really interesting conference on race and the economy and how economic obstacles are affected communities of color disproportionately

http://racewire.org/mp3/raceandeconomyconference1_3.mp3

Senator Webb speaks about Prison Reform

January 1, 2009

Editorial

Sen. Webb’s Call for Prison Reform

This country puts too many people behind bars for too long. Most elected officials, afraid of being tarred as soft on crime, ignore these problems. Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat of Virginia, is now courageously stepping into the void, calling for a national commission to re-assess criminal justice policy. Other members of Congress should show the same courage and rally to the cause.

The United States has the world’s highest reported incarceration rate. Although it has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, it has almost one-quarter of the world’s prisoners. And for the first time in history, more than 1 in 100 American adults are behind bars.

Many inmates are serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes, including minor drug offenses. It also is extraordinarily expensive. Billions of dollars now being spent on prisons each year could be used in far more socially productive ways.

Senator Webb — a former Marine and secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration — is in many ways an unlikely person to champion criminal justice reform. But his background makes him an especially effective advocate for a cause that has often been associated with liberals and academics.

In his two years in the Senate, Mr. Webb has held hearings on the cost of mass incarceration and on the criminal justice system’s response to the problems of illegal drugs. He also has called attention to the challenges of prisoner re-entry and of the need to provide released inmates, who have paid their debts to society, more help getting jobs and resuming productive lives.

Mr. Webb says he intends to introduce legislation to create a national commission to investigate these issues. With Barack Obama in the White House, and strong Democratic majorities in Congress, the political climate should be more favorable than it has been in years. And the economic downturn should make both federal and state lawmakers receptive to the idea of reforming a prison system that is as wasteful as it is inhumane.
Originally from the New York Times - here