Friday, July 06, 2012

Senator Jim Webb - Help Him Re-Shape the Criminal Justice System


Another old overlooked draft I'm publishing today to see what progress is being made in the failed "war on drugs".

The drug war is failing. Similair to the drug alcohol probition failed. this new "war" has far more crimanal activity, needless imprisonments on many users and deaths. To my knowledge, Bill S306 is still on hold in the House dominated today by Republicans?

Am I correct on the hold-up? If so, why. The failure is acknowledged by a large majority of public safety officers.

If this country didn't have so many other politically caused problems, we could have time for a national debate on the success and failure of our present system.

Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) has reintroduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, legisation to "create a blue-ribbon commission to look at every aspect of our criminal justice system with an eye toward reshaping the criminal justice system from top to bottom."

The NCJCA, S. 306 in the current Congress, had broad and bipartisan support and passed the House of Representatives in 2010, but did not make the Senate calendar before the end of the year.

Please use web form at StoptheDrugWar.org to urge your US Representative and your two US Senators to pass S. 306 so the commission can get started!

Please follow-up by calling their offices too -- if you don't know their numbers (or aren't sure who they are), you can reach them by calling the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

The need for S. 306 is urgent. As Sen. Webb's web site notes:

* With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses 25% of the world's reported prisoners.

* The number of incarcerated drug offenders has soared 1200% since 1980.

* Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals.

* Approximately 1 million gang members reside in the US, many of them foreign-based, and Mexican cartels operate in 230+ communities across the country.

* Post-incarceration re-entry programs are haphazard and often nonexistent, undermining public safety and making it extremely difficult for ex-offenders to become full, contributing members of society.

Every day that passes without criminal justice reform is a day that thousands of people who don't need to be in prison, who may have never deserved to go there, continue to languish needlessly behind bars, separated from their friends and families who want them back. Thank you for taking action.

Click here to take action now: Stop the Drug War.

THANKS for helping to improve America.


1 comment:

steven edward streight said...

I agree that the war on drugs has failed and too many are incarcerated for petty amounts of marihuana.