The New York Times has a front page story on 12/12/12 about the tragedy of life sentences in federal prison for minor drug offenders. The stories of four other minor drug offenders are also capsulized.
You can call the White House at 202-456-1111 and ask President Obama to commute these sentences this holiday season.
The U.S. has 41,000 prisoners serving life sentences; the United Kingdom has 41.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
New York Times: Life Sentences for federal drug offenses
Monday, December 10, 2012
Marijuana is legal in two states; Regulation writing commences
On Dec. 10, 2012, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed Amendment 64 which was passed by 55.34 percent of Colorado voters on November 6, 2012. This act puts Amendment 64 into effect. It is legal to possess and use marijuana in Colorado privately, and to grow three mature marijuana plants and keep the harvest. One may also give away for no consideration up to one ounce of marijuana. Today the Governor appointed a task force to develop regulations to carry out the Amendment's provisions creating a legal industry to cultivate, process and sell marijuana under state law.
Previously, on Dec. 6, 2012, Washington Initiative 502 took effect, pursuant to its terms, having been passed by 55.7 percent of Washington voters. It is legal to possess and use up to one ounce of marijuana (and larger quantities of marijuana infused products), but not to grow it, buy it or sell it. According to the Secretary of State's website, in contested statewide races, marijuana got more votes than every other candidate, other than U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell. Every statewide office holder who won in a contest, from the Governor-elect, Jay Inslee on down, got fewer votes than legal marijuana and Initiative 502. Marijuana even got more votes than President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
Marijuana legalization in Washington is under the jurisdiction of the Liquor Control Board.
On Dec. 5, 2012, the Liquor Control Board published a notice that it is seeking public comment to begin to develop rules to license producers of marijuana. They want written suggestions and comments by Feb. 10, 2013, by email, fax or mail.
By the way, outgoing Governor Christine Gregoire, in 2011, filed a petition with the Drug Enforcement Administration to reschedule marijuana for medical purposes.
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
The House I Live In
"The House I Live In," the documentary by Eugene Jarecki, was screened at Georgetown University Law Center on Dec. 4, where I saw it and met the director.
It is the best documentary on the "war on drugs" that I have seen. It is a feature length motion picture that has been shown in theaters around the country. It is available on Netflix. It is on the short list for an Oscar nomination.
Substantively, it has remarkable breadth and coherence and the cinematography is excellent. It won the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival this summer.
I strongly encourage you to see it!
Scores of NGOs appeal to Obama for clemency for crack offenders
On Nov. 19, 2012, scores of non-governmental organizations and academics appealed to President Obama to establish a commission to review the sentences of crack cocaine cases to carry out the just purposes of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. Thousands of persons who are serving long federal prison sentences for violating the Controlled Substances Act received no benefit from the 2010 legislation. Presidents Kennedy and Ford established similar commissions to review large numbers of federal convictions after a major change in law or policy.
Sphere: Related ContentWednesday, November 28, 2012
Rural judge forced to sentence over 1000 to federal mandatory sentences
U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett (Northern District of Iowa) laments in The Nation to unjustly sentencing over 1000 low-level drug offenders to long sentences in federal prison because of mandatory sentencing laws. Judges are discouraged from speaking out about policy, but this is a courageous statement by a courageous judge.
He writes about the devastation that this causes to families, and its inherent injustice.
He could also have written about the extraordinarily wasteful expense. In 2010, the operating cost to house the average federal prisoner for a year was $25,500. To house the 1000 prisoners that he sentenced to a mandatory sentence costs $25.5 million per year. (He has sentenced thousands more prisoners to non-mandatory drug sentences). If the average of the sentences for those thousands -- some got the 5 year minimum, some got the 10 year minimum, and many got many years more than the minimum under the sentencing guidelines -- was ten years, then we would be talking about a quarter billions dollars to house just the prisoners that this single judge has sentenced. This cost is many multiples more than the Congressional Budget Office estimated in 1986 that the Narcotics Penalties and Enforcement Act of 1986 would cost. The CBO estimate, for the fifth year after this law was enacted, would amount to $27.7 million. This terribly mistaken law has now been in force for 26 years, with no prospect that it might be revised soon.
(Long-time readers of this blog know that 26 years ago the House-version of this law, a key feature of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, came out of my word processor when I was assistant counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. I have been working to repeal the law since 1989.)
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