http://www.justice.gov/pardon/actions_administration.htm#obama

http://www.pardonpower.com/2010/09/600-days-obama-in-very-rare-air.html

Tracking Obama's Petition Statistics

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Please contact your state’s Congressional legislators and tell them to support this much-needed step toward meaningful prison reform!

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http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/prison_reform_will_congress_finally_move_forward

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http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/a_supreme_change_in_juvenile_justice

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http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/new_sentencing_rules_still_dont_fix_the_systems_flaws

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http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/mad_as_hell_about_the_failed_us_prison_system

Mad As Hell About the Failed U.S. Prison System

by Michael Hamden

category: Prison Reform

Published March 10, 2010 @ 05:34AM PT

Yeah, I’m angry. I’m all riled up because our misguided criminal justice policies destroy individuals, families and entire communities. I’m steamed because at a time of financial crisis worse than any downturn since the Great Depression, government throws away billions of dollars (more than $39 billion, by most estimates) on policies that have proven to be abject failures. And I’m furious that people continue to call for ever harsher sentences, penalties and the further stigmatization of offenders in the face of overwhelming evidence that current practices are counter-productive and unsustainable.

It’s especially frustrating, because we know that there are more positive, effective means of holding criminals accountable that are far more successful and far less costly.

The insatiable desire for vengeance is itself mad! The statistics are stark, and by now familiar. The U.S. incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, whether you consider it in terms of a percentage of the population or in absolute numbers. Yes, more than South Africa during the years of apartheid. More than the Soviet Union before its dissolution. More than China. And more even than the brutal regime of North Korea. Shameful!

Roughly 2.4 million people are locked up in this country, many for nonviolent offenses. Some reports conclude that as many as 50% of federal prisoners are serving time for drug-related offenses. (In some future article, I’m sure I’ll get around to discussing the draconian drug laws that infringe personal liberty in this “land of the free,” but at the moment there are bigger fish to fry.)

It’s crazy! It costs an average of about $24,000 a year to lock somebody up. But years of experience, social science research and common sense all point to work, education and the strengthening of family and community ties as the best way to bring criminal offenders back into the fold. And after all, given that 95% of prisoners eventually return to our communities, shouldn’t that be our objective?

Prisoners are people just like us: sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers of people we all know. And in case you don’t think you could possibly find yourself among them, staring out from a small, foul-smelling cell through cold steel bars, think again. There are more than 4,000 federal criminal laws, and vastly more federal regulations that can lead to criminal penalties. Additional laws and regulations at the state level mean that virtually everyone violates the law every day.

Don’t believe it? How ’bout on the highway? Your taxes? And, hey! Ever heard of the “honest services” law? Under that laudable piece of legislation, a person can be convicted and sentenced to prison for depriving another of “honest services.” (18 U.S.C. § 1346, just in case you’re doubtful.) What are “honest services,” you might well ask?  No one knows because the law doesn’t define them and the courts have yet to decide. The issue was heard by the Supreme Court on March 1 (Skiling v. U.S., Docket No. 08-1394), but at least until a decision is announced, don’t take anything home from your job.  Be sure to perform your work competently, and for goodness sake, be punctual. It simply wouldn’t do to be late for work or stay too long on a break. It might turn out to be criminal! So, be kind to your fine feathered friends. For a duck may turn out to be you!

We can find better ways to use $39 billion than locking people away for years at a time, especially when they pose little or no risk to the public. Instead, require the perpetrator to rectify the wrong done (if there was a wrong done). Surely crime victims are better served by being repaid for financial harms sustained or receiving compensation for injuries inflicted. Currently, they have to be content with the offender’s incarceration and an noncollectable restitution order. An offender who’s required to truly “pay” for the crime would be more likely to realize the error of his or her ways than someone who’s warehoused with more dangerous career criminals, and all without access to meaningful opportunities to work and gain an education.

Here’s an idea: Let’s reserve expensive prison cells for those who really must be punished harshly: people, that is, who pose too great a risk to public safety or social order. As for others, let’s see if we can get them to pay for their crimes in rational ways. If such an approach fails, it’s never too late to lock ’em up. To me, that makes a lot more sense. But no politician has ever lost an election by advocating the criminalization of an ever-expanding range of conduct. To many of them, I suppose that abandoning such a potent political lever would seem insane.

Someone defined the term “crazy” as doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting a different result each time. We’d be crazy to continue the failed policies of the past. They simply cannot be sustained. Sooner or later, we’ll run out of money. (Oh, wait. We already have.)

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Check out: http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/990

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F34p0YiSp8g&feature=player_embedded

What it’s about:

1. Alienation of people: We are creating refugees amongst our own people. Inmates come back not feeling like they are part of their own community; not knowing “we the people” means them too.

2. Break up of families: unreasonable prison policies and a culture of oppression is further tarring up families and communities. How can this system support fathers in taking responsibility?

3. Transparency in government: We are turning one group of people to another (great majority of inmates are minorities) With Media barred from facilities and no independent oversight there is no accountability in Massachusetts DOC. Why isn’t media allowed in? If they want to investigate abuses and mismanagement why are they are constantly denied access.

4. President’s Leadership needed: How can President go and see Guantanamo Bay but doesn’t look into his own prisons? Can he assume that everything is right here? How come he can address schools, Middle Eastern countries, but will not address prisons?

5. System accountability: Every prison is different; there is no “system.” So who is responsible for outcome? Each State should be accountable about its prison system to the President. Focus on one place at a time. Find what’s wrong in MA to pass it on to another institution.

http://obamaanswerthis.com/

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The Second Chance Act of 2007 provided federal prison administrators with the authority to release prisoners to halfway houses one year before their sentences expired. That Act also urged administrators to expand programs that would help prisoners build stronger family and community ties while the prisoners served their sentences. For whatever reason, the current BOP Director Harley G. Lappin chooses not to abide by the letter or the spirit of this Congressional legislation.

Director Lappin has led this agency since the Bush years. I am hoping that President Obama will soon appoint a new Director to lead the Bureau of Prisons. That new Director ought to embrace the Obama vision of enlightenment. Certainly, I understand that our country struggles through tough economic times. The BOP would not require additional funding, however, to implement the changes authorized by the Second Chance Act. It simply needs leadership that would advance prison policy from the dark ages.

President Bush signed the Second Chance Act longer than one year ago. It is inconceivable that during the past 12 months the Director could not have made changes within the BOP budget to provide more resources for community confinement centers. In the prison where I am held, where we have had a steady population in excess of 500 prisoners, only one many has been authorized for 12 months of halfway house placement during the past year.

Besides the BOP restrictions on halfway house placement, Director Lappin has kept policies in place that render it more difficult for prisoners to nurture family and community ties. The most blatant example of abusive policies that separate prisoners from family members is the 300-minute limitation on monthly telephone access for federal prisoners.

Prior to the George W. Bush presidency, federal prisoners could use the telephone to communicate with family much more freely. Monthly telephone limitations did not exist. The limitations began in 2001, and Director Lappin has kept them in place. That telephone restriction ought to be rescinded at once.

Congress did not pass the Second Chance Act haphazardly. The law passed with overwhelming bipartisan support because Congressional leaders recognized that prisoner recidivism rates were abhorrent. Those prisoners who built strong networks of support, who succeeded in finding employment, and who had time to decompress through halfway house placement stood the best chance for successful reentry.

America needs new leadership within the Bureau of Prisons. At the very least, it needs a Director who will embrace the enlightened prison reforms authorized by the Second Chance Act.

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As a long-term prisoner, I am grateful to all bloggers, journalists, and media representatives who help more Americans understand the complexities of confinement. During the first 21 years that I served in prison, the only talk or reports I heard about prison demanded longer sentences and harsher living conditions. We need prison reform to improve our nation’s prison system, and the climate appears right to advance the call.

On March 26, Senator Jim Webb introduced a bill in the Senate to create The National Criminal Justice Act of 2009. When enacted into law, that legislation will form a commission to bring sweeping reforms to the criminal justice system. Prison reform will follow, though the new laws that result from this Act may only bring relief to prisoners…

As Senator Webb expressed in his recent PARADE magainze article, incarcerated drug offenders have soared 1,200 percent since 1980. Most of those drug offenders do not have histories or proclivities for violence. Despite their not posing a  threat to the stability of our society, they serve sentences far longer than many offenders whose crimes left victims behind.

Our prisons now confine nearly 2.4 million people. America will benefit from the improved prison system that will result from the recommendations following the commission’s report to Congress. The act that Senator Webb initiated should not preclude additional prison reform legislation that would bring relief to the tens of thousands who languish in American prisons today. As I have, many of the nonviolent offenders have already served significant portions of their sentences in prison, and continued confinement wastes taxpayer resources.

Every day I write new content about America’s prisons, the people they hold, and strategies for growing through confinement. I publish that content at PrisonNewsBlog and on Change.org. I hope that other bloggers will join me in spreading awareness on the need for prison reform.

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The federal prisoners with whom I serve time at Taft Camp were disappointed when they read the bill. Most of those prisoners are serving relatively short sentences. They expected Senator Webb to introduce legislation that would initiate immediate prison reform. Instead, Senator Webb initiated a process that is much more comprehensive, and will last at least 18 months.

Once the commission presents its findings to Congress, in the fall of 2010, many of the prisoners at Taft Camp will have completed their sentences. Thus they feel disappointed that the prison reform coming will not offer them relief.

I am much more optimistic than many of my fellow prisoners. My optimism persists because I expect Senator Webb’s National Criminal Justice Act of 2009 will lead to significant prison reform, even if it does not advance my release date by a single day. I have nearly 22 years of prison behind me for a nonviolent drug offense. This commission shall make recommendations for policy changes designed to reduce the incarceration rate, decrease prison violence, and establish meaningful re-entry programs. Although I am nearly finished serving my sentence, I look forward to seeing prison reform that will ensure future nonviolent offenders don’t languish so many decades in American prisons.

If this act results in a report to Congress in the fall of 2010, the meaningful prison reform legislation that will follow may not take place until the 112th Congress, in 2011. The relief to prisoners, then, may only apply to those with release dates currently schedule for 2012 or beyond. From what I was able to deduce from reading Senator Webb’s bill, nonviolent offenders who have release dates after 2012 will see relief, and I suspect it will be significant. Those who have earlier release dates may not go home any sooner as a result of this reform legislation.

I am optimistic, however, because although this bill has a long lead time, it does not preclude other prison reform legislation from moving forward. Our country is in crisis, and news reports show that the cost of incarcerating nonviolent offenders cripples many budgets. We may yet see prison reform legislation that helps those in prison today.

I am conditioned to the prison experience. This development by Senator Jim Webb and others encourages me. I will work hard to advance the concept of prison reform regardless of whether my own release date changes.

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