What, is he high!?

posted by The Sailor @ 5:11 PM Permalink

His lips were moving which is why I figured Attorney General Michael Mukasey was lying when he said:

nearly 80 percent of the crack defendants who could apply for a reduction in their sentences have some kind of criminal past.

"This tells us those who are eligible for early release are very likely to commit another crime," Mukasey told the Fraternal Order of Police. "These offenders are often violent criminals who are likely to repeat their criminal activities."

and I was right:

As seen below, conflating those persons convicted of a violent crime – only 13% of federal prisoners – with those having a prior record, including low-level drug crimes, distorts the portrait of the current prison population and the implications for sentencing reform. Overall, nearly three-fourths (72.1%) of federal prisoners are serving time for a non-violent offense and have no history of violence.
Data for this analysis is taken from various reports of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, United States Sentencing Commission, and an analysis of the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities.

Somehow our laws got so perverted that 1 gram of crack cocaine was sentenced the same as 100 grams of powder cocaine.

That meant users of crack were sentenced the same as dealers of powder.

AG Mukasey felt so strongly that all the black folks who'd been sentenced for crack possession should continue to stay locked up, despite the Supreme Court decision, despite the Sentencing Commission, despite the actual statistics, that he even lied to Congress to intervene:

Mukasey and other Justice Department officials asked Congress to block the commission's decision in several meetings of the House and Senate judiciary panels

Yes we have a criminal justice system, the JustUs system is criminal.



Cross posted at SteveAudio

Labels: criminal justice system