Posted on 12/24/2018 8:03:18 AM PST by Kaslin
If Van Jones, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kim Kardashian all agree on a bill, it’s probably not a good idea. Republicans and Democrats came together to pass the FIRST STEP Act into law this month, which will allow felons early release. It’s being touted as a criminal justice system overhaul, to let nonviolent offenders out of prison for good behavior.
But as Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who graduated from Harvard Law School, observed, “there are almost no low-level, non-violent offenders in federal prison.” If they are in prison for low-level convictions, it’s because they were allowed to plea down to a lesser charge. If they are serving a long-term sentence for a drug-related crime, it is because they have a lengthy criminal history that includes violent crime. They are serving a mandatory minimum due to their criminal history.
The law will trigger the immediate release of an estimated 4,000 federal offenders out of the 180,000 currently incarcerated. This is twice as many prisoners as those whose sentences were selectively commuted by President Obama. That number will greatly increase over time. The Bureau of Prisons and Congressional Budget Office estimates roughly 53,000 prisoners could be released over the next 10 years. That is almost one third of the prisoners in federal prison!
This misguided bill would allow violent offenders out early for merely doing what they were already doing in prison — engage in vaguely defined “productive activities.” This includes playing softball and watching movies, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
The bill excludes some violent crimes from eligibility for early release, but not all of them. Some of the dozens of dangerous offenses that are eligible include drug-related robberies involving assault with a dangerous weapon, using a deadly weapon to assault a law-enforcement officer, assault resulting in substantial bodily injury to a spouse or child and violent carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury.
The bill gives judges more discretion to ignore mandatory minimums for criminals with prior records. How does giving activist judges more power to ignore sentencing laws and lengthy criminal histories help anything? Instead they can pretend they’re merely sentencing a felon for drug crimes, keep that fake mantra going.
The National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys is concerned that the bill is modeled after “successful” state criminal justice reforms. As many as 77 percent of state inmates are rearrested within five years of release. In contrast, only 24 percent of federal inmates are rearrested in that time period. How have those state reforms been a success?
Kardashian has made it her mission to get felons released early from prison who are serving long sentences for drug related offenses. She convinced President Trump to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, a woman serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug conviction. The indictment described Johnson as a leader in a multi-million dollar cocaine ring. But what is the whole story? What was her criminal background before that, were there violent crimes? It is highly unlikely the reason she was sentenced to life in prison was due to the drug charges alone. But the media won’t report the full story and much of her criminal history is withheld from the public by law. Her incomplete story is now the poster child for this law.
Kardashian has made it her mission to get felons released early from prison who are serving long sentences for drug related offenses. She convinced President Trump to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, a woman serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug conviction. The indictment described Johnson as a leader in a multi-million dollar cocaine ring. But what is the whole story? What was her criminal background before that, were there violent crimes? It is highly unlikely the reason she was sentenced to life in prison was due to the drug charges alone. But the media won’t report the full story and much of her criminal history is withheld from the public by law. Her incomplete story is now the poster child for this law.
How did this flawed bill get passed? It was misdescribed. Letting “low-level nonviolent offenders” shave a few years off of long sentences sounds reasonable. No one wants to go on record sounding like they oppose that. And it’s difficult to prove the bill is flawed, because so much of a felon’s criminal history is unavailable to the public. Only the prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys and law enforcement agents who deal with felons every day know the real story behind these types of felons (even the judges aren’t necessarily allowed access to their full criminal records). And they are overwhelmingly against the bill. Several of these national law enforcement agencies submitted letters to Congress warning that the bill will endanger public safety.
The legislation will not reduce future crime. It will not make our communities safer. Sen. Cotton says the way to remedy injustices in the system is to allow the president to choose who to pardon or provide clemency. Not allow thousands of felons out indiscriminately.
These types of things go in cycles. After violent crime inevitably starts sharply increasing, Congress will change the laws again to impose tougher penalties. But by then it will have been too late. How many innocent people will have to die first?
All good point here, but the bigger issue is that most of these people are in Federal prisons for offenses that never should have been considered Federal crimes in the first place.
Peaceful Drug Dealers?
Peaceful Drug Dealers?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah, I caught that, too. I have known numerous drug dealers.
I would never call them peaceful.
I remember all the hours we spent in 18th Century American History class discussing how the Founders IMMMEDIATELY appointed dozens of full-time Federal prosecutors in every jurisdiction, and how plea bargaining was one of the big subjects of the Federalist/Anti-Federalist papers.
Or not...
Screw the Federal government and its phony "Laws For The Little People".
This is why I was hoping that Mueller would have indicted Trump’s kids. They have no business being involved in policy. They are CLUELESS.
Yes. Lets use an out of control prosecutor to put away people you don't like as political prisoners. Good God.
Even so.....let them out and we can hope they’ll be taken down on the street.
They made A CHOICE to get involved in crap that they had no business being involved in. Anyway too late now, the bodies will start filling the morgues again, regardless of what Mueller does.
It's time to try something different. America incarcerates a far larger percentage of its citizens that nearly every other Western country. So either we are just more “criminally inclined” or there's something wrong with our laws and justice system.
The only caveat for me is the number of illegal aliens we jail and the wall would help that situation immeasurably. Here in California I believe they represent more than one third of our state's prison population. Federal judges here have said build more prisons, or let them out, because of our overcrowding. Central Valley cities like Stockton and Fresno have serious illegal alien-spawned crime problems.
Huh? Are you okay?
Huh? Are you okay?
Turning America into California.
Federal crimes were probably limited to piracy on the high seas (which would be outside the jurisdiction of any state), and Federal tax evasion.
The U.S. Department of Justice didn't even exist until 1870.
....”Either we are just more “criminally inclined” or there’s something wrong with our laws and justice system”...
Both.
There’s just-us in the US. Just us peasants go to jail.
Awww, the peaceful prisoners are being neglected for the violent murderers...
Awww, the peaceful poisoners are being neglected for the violent murderers...
What would the Founding Fathers do with people like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and John Roberts? What would they do with an all powerful beaurotocracy of greedy, mindless, self-serving gangsters and a deep swamp full of traitors who fill their pockets with graft and "campaign contributions" in return for national safety and security?
We have a very large and very diverse population. Diverse populations always have higher crime rates.
Besides, 180k offenders in the entire US is nothing. GA, alone, has almost 88,000 in state prison. For the Feds to act like they are over crowded is a joke.
Ppl who are ignorant of how the system works have been telling me how great this is for several days now. They sound very naive to me, like children. One fella said that now, the guy he convicted for pot possession (as a jury member in State Superior court) could now get early release. He didnt even have a basic understanding of state court versus Fed court and that his man doesnt even fall under this Fed change bc he is a State inmate.
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