Monday August 16, 2010. 4:20 pm
Crucial Blog Entry #65
MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES by Stephen Harper & The Conservatives is Injustice for ALL.
Last week Canadian Prime-Minister Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day & the Conservative Government announced that MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES would be ushered into Law to combat "Organized Crime" and that an additional $9 Billion dollars would be spent on enforcing and imprisoning more Canadians for greater lengths of time in newly built "Super Jails".
Could this be the Conservatives WORST IDEA EVER? It sure does sound like it to CRUCIAL MATTERS. www.crucialmatters.com
At a time when the United States is finally acknowledging that its decades' long "WAR ON DRUGS" is a MASSIVE FAILURE and they are actually loosening their laws for simple possession, Canada wants to follow in its tragic footsteps. The US is now reluctantly conceding that the "War On Drugs" was a colossal moral, social and bitter legal battle, handing out MASSIVE sentences for sometimes just handfuls of drugs and not getting the "Big Fish" that they were seeking in the first place. The "WAR ON DRUGS" has led to VERY harsh, unjust and extremely long prison sentences that in the past were reserved for the hardest criminals guilty of the most heinous crimes. The WAR ON DRUGS is a war on people: our brothers, our sisters and our neighbours.
President Barack Obama announced and signed into law on August 3rd, 2010, that the Crack Sentencing guidelines and Minimum Mandatory Sentences would be reduced to more reasonable levels for offenders. Simple Possession of Crack in the US Federal System led to Minimum Mandatory Sentences of 5 years, no questions asked and no leniency allowed to the Judges. See www.famm.org for more information from FAMILIES AGAINST MANDATORY MINIMUMS.
With that announcement by Barack Obama, he has now paved the way for more justice for people that were granted very little when they were caught with 4 or 5 grams of Crack. And now Canada wants to commit the same moral mistakes.
There are now over 2.3 million people incarcerated in US prisons and their willingness to Lock-Up there own people is unmatched in the modern world. One in every 100 American adults now wallows in jail at a cost of between $36 000 and $50 000 per year, per inmate. You could send them to Harvard for that. The percentage of people under some form of parole or probation is 1 in 31. When it comes to the percentage of population locked-up, the US incarcerates five times more people than Britain, nine times more than Germany and 12 times more than Japan. This is NOT a goal that Canada should be trying to emulate.
This money could and should be pumped into Education and quality Health Care for all, rehabilitation and re-integration into society and more positive steps forward rather than draconian stiff sentences, leaving people and families broken and locked-away uselessly for lengthy periods of times.
What have we learned from US MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES for?
1. That "MANDATORY MINIMUM" sentencing guidelines introduced during the Reagan / Bush 1 era in the 80's gave convicted felons major time in Federal Institutions and took the power out of the very qualified US Judges by setting Guidelines that people had to be sentenced within. Cookie-cutter sentencing that Judges detested for the lack of control that each individual case and circumstances deserved.
2. Federal Inmates were FORCED to do 85% of their time sentenced, only getting 54 days a year "good-time" for every year incarcerated. Add this to longer and harsher sentences and the punishment usually always outweighs the crime.
3. That system was also based on trying to turn the convicted felons into "INFORMANTS" to rat out their friends, foes, innocent people or ANYONE just to get their sentences reduced by allowing Judges to go below the Guidelines for "cooperating with the authorities". When faced with a 10 or 15 year sentence people will say anything or do anything to get out of these lenghthy sentences.
4. The US is now the most imprisoned people percentage-wise in the world thanks mostly to Mandatory Minimum Sentences..
5. Turning the Prison system into a Private / For Profit business has lead to increased lobbying for harsher laws & sentences. If business is "good" for your "Prison-For-Profit" then you will want to throw as many people away as possible and spend the very least in food, housing, education and rehabilitation since it is a Profit driven business.
6. The US Federal Bureau of Prison business is UNICOR. "Employee's/ Inmates" work for pennies a day to produce products the US Government sell for market value at "slave-labour" wages. Last year's sales totalled over $900 million dollars. UNICOR benefits from having more people in prison sentenced to longer periods of time. See www.unicor.gov for more information on UNICOR and Federal Prison Industries.
At a time when California and other liberal minded states are loosening laws in regards to marijuana possession and seeing the benefits of both the medical and social use of marijuana, we need to look towards the future and see that legalizing marijuana and perhaps other illegal substances and eliminating MINIMUM MANDATOTY SENTENCES for drug offenses is the morally right thing to do. Billions would be saved immediately and that money would be able to be pumped into the Education & Health Care systems, benefitting us all.
For Canada's elected officials to want to go down this proven failed route with MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES is a tragedy waiting to happen that is easily prevented. Say NO to MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES and get in touch with your local Member of Parliament to voice your opinion on this very Crucial Matter.
Keep It Crucial.
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CRUCIAL MATTERS
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paul@crucialmatters.com
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other Information & Crucial Links:
www.famm.org FAMILIES AGAINST MINIMUM MANDATORIES, Washington D.C
www.unicor.gov US FEDERAL PRISON INDUSTRIES
www.ussc.gov/guidelin.htm US Federal Sentencing Guidelines
www.cannabisculture.com Marc Emery's website and Prison Blog
While Finland Is Soft on Crime Dan Gardner reported 2002 in The Ottawa Citizen
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue43/Gardner43.htm
and 5 minute video about Bastoy Prison, in Norway tells of alike approach of an island, with 115 inmates, who are NOT locked up. Indeed they have a boat! And their rooms look like a motel! Sometimes it is interesting to look at what other countries do with inmates, so that you can see that backwardness and tough on crime is NOT the only way!
http://current.com/items/88860207_free-range-jailbirds.htm
Michael Healy goes inside Bastoy Prison in Norway, the world's first eco-prison and one which has been attracting a lot of attention from around the world. Everything in the prison is eco-friendly. The island facility holds 115 prisoners, including murderers and rapists. They live in houses, are not locked in and are responsible for the care of about 200 chickens, eight horses, 40 sheep and 20 cows. They also tend the fields, pick berries and fish on the prison's 30-foot boat. All very good asks Michael, but does it work?
PHOTOS of Bastoy Prison, Norway.
http://www.statsbygg.no/prosjekter/prosjektkatalog/585_bastoy/html/foto/f_01.html
Click on the word "neste" for the next photo...
Check out the buildings, the classroom (with computers!) the chapel etc.
The site itself is written in Norwegian.
http://blog.residesi.com/2008/12/norwegian-prision.html
Rev. Samuel Kawilila, Executive Director, CURE ZAMBIA, (4th CURE International Conference, June 09)
(1).Samba Sangaré, former prisoner of Mali, notes:
To the best of my knowledge, Africa did not know the system of prisons. We had forms of sanctions in the social schemes which were different from imprisonment. We learned imprisonment with the colonial system. The name of prison itself has been Africanized from a word which was originally French, the “cachot” which is called “kaso” in African language. Africans did not know what it was initially and since they did not speak French they called it “kaso”. It did not exist traditionally. It is a new tradition that colonization introduced (interview with Samba Sangaré,
August 12, 2002, Lafiabogou, and Bamako-Mali).
(2). In the following excerpt, Kenyan ex-prisoner Koigi wa Wamwere lets his grandmother speak to the important connections of imprisonment.
Look at us today. We are prisoners in our own huts in the white man’s farm. We live enclosed like goats…Before the white man came, we never had prisons and no one was punished before guilt was established by everyone in the community and family members… And when the people killed, life was not paid for with life but with animals and labour. If you killed and were found guilty, you paid for the life you took with animals and not with your life. If you and your clan could not pay the animals, you took the dead person’s place in his family. We knew nothing of the injustice of an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth that commits the same sins it punishes other people for.(The Journal of Pan African studies, vol.2 no.3. March 2008).
Thanks for the comments & info!
ReplyDeleteKeep It Crucial!!
Paul B