More Calls for Obama Criminal Justice Reforms

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/11/5/212529/973

Earlier I made some suggestions for President Elect Barack Obama's transition team. One was John Wesley Hall, President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), who before getting his own blog, blogged at TalkLeft as Last Night in Little Rock.

John has just released this NACDL Message From the President on Obama's election. Here are some quotes:

[T]here is much work to be done by the new president and the next Congress. The prison camps at Guantanamo Navy Base have become a symbol of shame around the world. President-Elect Obama should close them within hours of taking the oath of office. Those believed responsible for crimes against Americans should be charged and prosecuted in the federal criminal justice system or in traditional military courts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The time has come to address the racism that infects the U.S. criminal justice system. Congress should eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, a reform supported by President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden. To further root out racial and ethnic bias within the federal criminal justice system, Congress should pass the Justice Integrity Act, introduced this year by Vice President-Elect Joe Biden, which would mandate the creation of pilot programs in 10 federal districts to evaluate racial and ethnic fairness in the U.S. Attorneys Offices.

These two measures are just the beginning. We will not have a truly color-blind system of justice until our policymakers address the over-incarceration of minorities, racially disproportionate application of the death penalty, racial and ethnic profiling, and the chronic underfunding of indigent defense.

The criminalization of undocumented workers should cease. Mass arrest is not immigration reform; it is an admission that our immigration policies have failed.

This has been the longest presidential election season I have ever seen. We were excited with the election of 1968, but that excitement was lost for Americans until this year. I’m relieved that it is finally over, because now it is time to buckle down and get to work.

More Calls for Obama Criminal Justice Reforms | 5 comments (5 topical)
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Racial/ethnic disparities are obvious to anyone (5.00 / 2) (#2)
by JSN on Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 09:51:03 PM EST
who has visited juvenile detention centers and adult jails. When the juvenile offenders turn 18 they are promoted to the adult criminal justice system.

The racial disparities for those held for longer than a week in jail do not appear to differ significantly from the racial disparities in prison. The racial/ethnic disparities depend very strongly on offense type/severity, gender and age.

What that means is that most of the racial/ethnic disparity already exists when the offenders are booked and any criminal justice system amplification of the disparity operates within the first week of detention. IMHO the prosecution and sentencing policies play a very minor role in the amplification of racial/ethnic disparities (with the exception of plea bargaining).

School zero tolerance policies have increased the frequency of minority contacts with the juvenile justice system but that is not the sole cause of the observed juvenile racial/ethnic disparities. A high percentage of the juveniles detained have been abused and they have a high incidence of mental illness.

I think the next administration should devote a lot of resources in trying to reduce the amount of juvenile crime.

What is needed to bring this to the attention (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by No Blood for Hubris on Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 10:49:18 PM EST
of Obama?

Who has access/knowledge/useful intuition?

This is the knowledge gap that needs to be overcome, here and now. Very do-able, I might (and do) add.

Yup (none / 0) (#1)
by coigue on Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 09:34:17 PM EST


"crusader for justice" (none / 0) (#4)
by diogenes on Thu Nov 06, 2008 at 07:01:54 AM EST
If this were France, then this would be so. In the Anglo-Saxon legal system, the Judge and Jury are supposed to be the impartial crusaders for justice. The US Attorney General is fundamentally should be a just prosecutor who has power to act in the event of rogue injustices in the legal system. If Obama picks a strong prosecutor as attorney general and wants to have a roving ombudsman in the administration to give him the other side of the story, so be it.

While most of the (none / 0) (#5)
by JamesTX on Thu Nov 06, 2008 at 12:01:17 PM EST
real comments Obama has made about the criminal justice nightmare relate to racial disparities, I urge that we not let this one issue become the single defining issue of the need for criminal justice reform. That will provide an easy way out for the criminal justice system. The criminal justice machine, faced with pressure to reform their treatment of racial minorities, will simply shift their injustices elsewhere. There will be no real change of the system, only a change in the demographics of the victims.

The current criminal justice system is based on a misguided ideological belief system about crime and punishment which needs to be deconstructed, dismantled and re-conceptualized. The myths that were propagated by the Reagan revolution were thinly disguised racial and ethnic cleansing measures focused on encouraging the public to believe certain basic things about crime that are not true. Among those beliefs is the idea that criminal behavior is based in some kind of deep and immutable personal characteristic -- some even suggesting genetics. The resulting system was built around using all resources available to keep people in the criminal justice system for life rather than finding new ways to understand the problem and reintegrate those who brush with the law back into productive social roles. This has all been presented to the public as a means to permanently and irreversibly segregate the population into those who have and have not ever been charged with a crime. The underlying message is that those who have never been snagged by the criminal justice system should have the right to live their lives without ever encountering or interacting with anyone who has been charged with a crime. That idea is absolutely not practical, and it is time that it is rethought.

Here's a good article over at TalkLeft. it shows good ideas, and paths that could be taken to truly enforce fair and just laws. The focus is on ethnic minorities, however the premise is a good one. If only the thoughts on this blog were something that were taken word for word and looked at by the President-elect's team...

I do like the final line, by the commentor, stating that :

The underlying message is that those who have never been snagged by the criminal justice system should have the right to live their lives without ever encountering or interacting with anyone who has been charged with a crime. That idea is absolutely not practical, and it is time that it is rethought.

I believe they hit it right on the head there. I have a bias obviously, but I challenge anyone to disprove what they said.

Spitzer won't be charged in prostitution scandal

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will not be charged in connection with the prostitution scandal that prompted his resignation, the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York said Thursday.
Eliot Spitzer resigned his post as New York governor in March.

Eliot Spitzer resigned his post as New York governor in March.

"After a thorough investigation, this office has uncovered no evidence of misuse of public or campaign funds," U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said in a statement.

The attorney's office also said it found no illicit activity related to Spitzer's withdrawal of funds for, and his payments to, the Emperors Club VIP, which authorities have said was a prostitution ring.

"In light of the policy of the Department of Justice with respect to prostitution offenses and the longstanding practice of this office, as well as Mr. Spitzer's acceptance of responsibility for his conduct, we have concluded that the public interest would not be further advanced by filing criminal charges in this matter," Garcia said.

Spitzer resigned in March after it was revealed that he was among the Emperors Club's patrons -- "Client 9," according to court papers detailing the service's workings. Court documents detailed arrangements for a nearly two-and-a-half hour rendezvous between Client 9 and a high-class prostitute -- identified as "Kristen" -- at the Mayflower hotel in Washington in February.

Spitzer was linked to the Emperors Club when when IRS and FBI officials noticed suspicious transfers of larger sums of money between several of the governor's personal accounts, sources told CNN.

Those sources say red flags were raised when the money ended up in the bank accounts of shell companies linked to the Emperors Club.

In June, the leader of the Emperors Club, Mark Brener, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in federal court. Prosecutors said Brener's service charged between $1,000 and $5,500 an hour for trysts in New York; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; London, England; and Paris, France.

Police seized more than $1 million in cash from Brener's apartment at the time of his arrest.

Here we go again folks. The old Political two step. Again we see yet another filthy politician getting away with sex offenses. If this were joe nobody, he'd be on the registry by now. Yet another example of how the politicians take care of their own.

Pathetic. Fucking Christ, will we never see true equality under these drakonian laws? If you are a politician then you have nothing to fear from them.. A couple of calls to a buddy on Capitol Hill and everything just disappears!?!

This shit needs to stop. Either let us all go free, or start prosecuting these shitbags the same as anyone else.

It's Finally Decided...

OH HELL YEAH!


Finally, American's of all classes, races, creeds can look at this country of ours and say we truly do live in a land that is equal, one that supports all of its citizens.  Thank God, this day has finally come.

The path ahead is wide open for President-elect Obama, everyone needs to pay attention.  I think this is gonna be one hell of a ride!

Texas Board of Education member won't retract claim Obama plotting with terrorists

Here's a real doozey for you folks ...

AUSTIN — State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar isn’t backing down from her published assertion that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is plotting with terrorists to attack the United States.

The Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group that monitors the board, released a public statement Monday asking Dunbar to retract the statement.

"I don’t have anything in there that would be retractable," said Dunbar, R-Richmond. "Those are my personal opinions, and I don’t think the language is questionable."

In a column posted on the Christian Worldview Network Web site, Dunbar wrote that a terrorist attack on America during the first six months of an Obama administration "will be a planned effort by those with whom Obama truly sympathizes to take down the America that is threat to tyranny."

She also suggested that Obama would seek to expand his power by declaring martial law throughout the country.

"No matter who you support for president, we should all be able to agree that Ms. Dunbar’s disgusting attack is a shocking example of the extremism that has infected the state board," network President Kathy Miller said.

"It's stunning that a board member who helps decide what Texas children learn in their public schools would say something so disgusting and reprehensible. She should be taking refresher courses in civics and good citizenship, not deciding what Texas kids learn."

The State Board of Education will begin revising public school social studies curriculum standards after adopting standards for science next year.

Those standards will determine the content in new public school textbooks.

"Right now, we're still in America and we still have freedom of speech," Dunbar said. "And unless that's changed, I'm not aware of it."

Yes, there might still be freedom of speech, but there are also words like Malice, Libel, and Lie that come into play here. This might be her opinion, however as she is in a position of state government, even her opinion is open for public debate, as well as possible legal ramifications.

Another right-wing Christian nut job trying to sway people's opinion by spreading lies about someone that will provide great change to this country. My only hope is that when it is her time to be looked at for that position again, others will remember this and ask her to step aside.