Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
Almost three decades ago, 41,000 drug offenders were incarcerated in U.S. prisons. Today that number has – well, what would you guess? Doubled? Tripled? Quadrupled?
In fact, the number of drug offenders in prison has grown to more than 500,000 since 1980. That’s an increase of 1,200 percent.
Last month, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia pointed out that while we make up only 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States boasts 25 percent of the world’s known prisoners. "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," he said on the Senate floor.
Webb, a mere freshman in the Senate, has decided to tackle that flawed system by introducing something called the National Criminal Justice Commission Act. If you know anything about Webb, you know this effort won’t be any Hostess cupcake. He’s proposing an 18-month blue-ribbon bottom-to-top re-evaluation of a criminal justice system he calls "a national disgrace."
We’re spending close to $70 billion a year on corrections – much of it related to non-violent offenders and drug users -- but are still faced with rampant gang violence, especially along the Mexican border, the senator says. There are about one million gang members in the U.S. today, and Mexican cartels have a presence in more than 230 U.S. communities, according to Webb.
In his introduction of the bill on the Senate floor and in a PARADE magazine cover story you might have seen with your Sunday paper last week, Webb offers up all kinds of statistics to back his argument. He notes that while African-Americans make up only 12 percent of our national population, they also represent 74 percent of the country’s prison population for drug sentences. He makes a very compelling argument for this national commission.
But I’m not really a numbers guy. Too many numbers sometimes obliterate the bottom line. I try to be more of a common-sense guy, and my common sense has always been stymied by this society’s insistence on the criminalization of marijuana. The prohibition of marijuana, like the Prohibition of alcohol decades earlier, makes gangsters of entrepreneurs and criminals out of pacifists, many of them guilty of no other crime. I’m convinced the day will come when marijuana will be as legal as tobacco, alcohol and caffeine, but never imagined a politician bold enough to take that necessary first step.
When Webb comes out on the Senate floor and says "we’re putting too many of the wrong people in prison," I dare to hope this is the man who’s not afraid to raise the question.
I don’t know why it’s never been seriously addressed before. No one can tell me it makes sense to arrest a guy for smoking a joint and lock him up with career criminals jailed for violent crimes. As Webb wrote in PARADE, prisons are "breeding grounds that perpetuate and magnify the same types of behavior we purport to fear."
While it’s true I’m no numbers guy, Webb mentions two figures that caught my attention. In 2007, 47.5 percent of drug arrests in this country were for marijuana offenses – nearly HALF. And almost 60 percent of those in state prisons for drug-related offenses had no previous history of violent behavior or significant illegal sales activities.
Usually, politicians take great pains to prove they are tough on crime so they won’t be characterized as soft or weak. Webb doesn’t have to worry about such labels. As a Marine Corps lieutenant in Vietnam he won the Navy Cross –second only to the Medal of Honor in military prestige – for taking out three enemy bunkers almost single-handedly and using his body to shield a comrade from a grenade blast. He’s a Naval Academy graduate, bestselling novelist and former Secretary of the Navy who resigned rather than going along with the 1980s downsizing of the fleet.
Webb was sworn in to the U.S. Senate in 2007. In 2008, he engineered passage of a massive new G.I. Bill he had introduced on his first day in office, allowing a new generation of veterans the same educational benefits enjoyed by those returning from World War II. He’s a guy who gets things done, and he won’t be browbeaten by chattering dilettantes.
The senator wants his commission to consist of recognized experts -- nominated by the President, congressional leaders and the nation’s governors -- willing to examine our justice system holistically and thoroughly, and come up with serious policy recommendations. He wants to examine prison institutions and administrations, re-entry programs for those released from prison, genuine drug treatment and other issues associated with this flawed system.
"Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness," Webb said.
At the very least, his bill will enable the kind of scrutiny that’s long overdue in this country.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Seacoast Online
Author: D. Allan Kerr
Copyright: 2009 Seacoast Media Group
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Seacoastonline.com: A higher love for American justice
In fact, the number of drug offenders in prison has grown to more than 500,000 since 1980. That’s an increase of 1,200 percent.
Last month, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia pointed out that while we make up only 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States boasts 25 percent of the world’s known prisoners. "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," he said on the Senate floor.
Webb, a mere freshman in the Senate, has decided to tackle that flawed system by introducing something called the National Criminal Justice Commission Act. If you know anything about Webb, you know this effort won’t be any Hostess cupcake. He’s proposing an 18-month blue-ribbon bottom-to-top re-evaluation of a criminal justice system he calls "a national disgrace."
We’re spending close to $70 billion a year on corrections – much of it related to non-violent offenders and drug users -- but are still faced with rampant gang violence, especially along the Mexican border, the senator says. There are about one million gang members in the U.S. today, and Mexican cartels have a presence in more than 230 U.S. communities, according to Webb.
In his introduction of the bill on the Senate floor and in a PARADE magazine cover story you might have seen with your Sunday paper last week, Webb offers up all kinds of statistics to back his argument. He notes that while African-Americans make up only 12 percent of our national population, they also represent 74 percent of the country’s prison population for drug sentences. He makes a very compelling argument for this national commission.
But I’m not really a numbers guy. Too many numbers sometimes obliterate the bottom line. I try to be more of a common-sense guy, and my common sense has always been stymied by this society’s insistence on the criminalization of marijuana. The prohibition of marijuana, like the Prohibition of alcohol decades earlier, makes gangsters of entrepreneurs and criminals out of pacifists, many of them guilty of no other crime. I’m convinced the day will come when marijuana will be as legal as tobacco, alcohol and caffeine, but never imagined a politician bold enough to take that necessary first step.
When Webb comes out on the Senate floor and says "we’re putting too many of the wrong people in prison," I dare to hope this is the man who’s not afraid to raise the question.
I don’t know why it’s never been seriously addressed before. No one can tell me it makes sense to arrest a guy for smoking a joint and lock him up with career criminals jailed for violent crimes. As Webb wrote in PARADE, prisons are "breeding grounds that perpetuate and magnify the same types of behavior we purport to fear."
While it’s true I’m no numbers guy, Webb mentions two figures that caught my attention. In 2007, 47.5 percent of drug arrests in this country were for marijuana offenses – nearly HALF. And almost 60 percent of those in state prisons for drug-related offenses had no previous history of violent behavior or significant illegal sales activities.
Usually, politicians take great pains to prove they are tough on crime so they won’t be characterized as soft or weak. Webb doesn’t have to worry about such labels. As a Marine Corps lieutenant in Vietnam he won the Navy Cross –second only to the Medal of Honor in military prestige – for taking out three enemy bunkers almost single-handedly and using his body to shield a comrade from a grenade blast. He’s a Naval Academy graduate, bestselling novelist and former Secretary of the Navy who resigned rather than going along with the 1980s downsizing of the fleet.
Webb was sworn in to the U.S. Senate in 2007. In 2008, he engineered passage of a massive new G.I. Bill he had introduced on his first day in office, allowing a new generation of veterans the same educational benefits enjoyed by those returning from World War II. He’s a guy who gets things done, and he won’t be browbeaten by chattering dilettantes.
The senator wants his commission to consist of recognized experts -- nominated by the President, congressional leaders and the nation’s governors -- willing to examine our justice system holistically and thoroughly, and come up with serious policy recommendations. He wants to examine prison institutions and administrations, re-entry programs for those released from prison, genuine drug treatment and other issues associated with this flawed system.
"Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness," Webb said.
At the very least, his bill will enable the kind of scrutiny that’s long overdue in this country.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Seacoast Online
Author: D. Allan Kerr
Copyright: 2009 Seacoast Media Group
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Seacoastonline.com: A higher love for American justice
