Instead of Prison Commission Why Not Pass Legislation?

All you need to read in the NYT editorial of Saturday is the first paragraph: The nation’s criminal justice system is in need of an overhaul. This is particularly true of its incarceration policies. Too many people are being put behind bars who do not need to be there, at great cost to the states, and not enough attention is being paid to helping released prisoners re-enter society.

Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee

Washington already wastes too much time in meetings talking. Talk is fine if you are in the process of making a decision.  Talk is a waste of time when you already know what the problem is and how to fix it. Instead of wasting further time on another commission to tell us what we already know why not get real and get some backbone and pass legislation already filed in the 111th Congress to confront the problem? I understand Jim Webb is a media darling and his commission idea makes everyone feel good. But if he wants change in the prison system he should use his media darlingness to offer and promote proactive legislation that gets right to the point and does something right now, as other members of Congress (many of whom are CBCers) have already done.  Everyone, Democrat and Republican, understands that 2.3 million people in prison at $63 billion is counterproductive. The United States has led the world in the rate of incarceration for years.  No one needs to be formally informed of these facts, yet again, by a commission. Let’s look at the legislation that gets to the point of the problem:

1. H.R. 3245, Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of 2009: There are seven bills now in Congress attempt to confront the difference in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine. The bill removes the sentencing difference between powder cocaine and cocaine baked in a microwave, otherwise known as “crack.” We’ve been throwing young low level drug mules in jail for 23 years because of this sentencing difference. This is Bobby Scott’s bill in the House, Durbin’s version needs to get though Senate Judiciary. The Obama Administration needs to wake up and back these bills.

2. Second Chance Act Programs: Eric Holder and the Administration are bragging because they added money in the President’s budget for the Second Chance Act which was signed by W and sponsored by Danny Davis in 2007. They should be embarrassed. The U.S. makes recidivism all but certain by stripping felons of voting rights, making felons ineligible to receive student loans as well as any reasonable chance to be employed.  The Obama Administration should be adding millions more to this program and any other like it.

3. H.R. 1064: The Youth PROMISE Act: This legislation by Bobby Scott focuses on funding programs already proven to reduce crime. It costs less than two billion over five years. We spend $63 billion a year in incarceration. What is more cost effective? Jim Webb is on the version of this bill in the Senate. This is the kind of legislation he should put his energy into.

2007: The signing of the Second Chance Act

4. H.R. 1466, the Major Drug Trafficking Prosecution Act of 2009: The bill, by Maxine Waters, would eliminate all mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. Mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent offenders is one of the biggest reasons we have 2.3 million people in jail at an annual cost of $63 billion.

5. H.R.4328: This his bill seeks to shorten the sentences of prisoners who participate in designated educational, vocational, treatment, assigned work, or other developmental program.

6. H.R. 61: The Federal Prison Bureau Nonviolent Offender Relief Act of 2009 by Sheila Jackson Lee would direct the Bureau of Prisons to release individuals from prison who have served more than 50% of their sentence if that prisoner (1) is 45 years of age or older;
(2) has never been convicted of a crime of violence; and
(3) has not engaged in any violation, involving violent conduct, of institutional disciplinary regulations.

7. H.R. 1529: This legislation, by Charlie Rangel, seeks to “…permit expungement of records of certain nonviolent criminal offenses.” If this bill became law it would assist in giving felons in opportunity to become productive members of society. This legislation has been introduced in Congress since 2000 but bigdog Rangel is not pushing it which is a shame because when big Charlie is one of the most prolific members of the CBC when it comes to getting bills into law.

If now isn’t the time to move the legislation above please someone tell me when that time is.

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