U.S. War on Drugs has been a Horrible Failure
Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes – combined
A new report tallies the staggering toll of the drug war.
In this video, former Salt Lake City Mayor and 2012 Justice Party presidential candidate Rocky Anderson decries the horrific social and financial consequences of mandatory minimum sentencing laws, sharing the outrageous case of Weldon Angelos, condemned to spend 55 years in federal prison for non-violent drug offenses. Even the Republican judge in the case regarded the sentence as excessive, and called upon President Obama to release Angelos.
Rocky also issues a call to arms for citizens to write to the president and their local congressional representatives, calling for the commutation of Angelos’ sentence and to overturn these counterproductive and costly mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
Weldon Angelos received a 55 year mandatory minimum sentence for selling marijuana, a sentence even his judge opposed. After serving 13 years, he was freed last year after bipartisan lawmakers, his judge, and his family worked together to reduce his sentence.
Now, Weldon is using his story to stop mandatory minimum sentences. Sign his petition here: http://www.change.org/jeffsessions
Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes — combined.
FINANCIAL INCENTIVE FOR PUTTING MORE PEOPLE IN PRISON
Private Prisons Yet Another Trump Giveaway to Corporate America
Reversing course from the Obama administration, Trump’s Justice Department announced it will continue the use of private prisons to house federal inmates.
Private prison stocks up 100% since Trump’s win
America’s two main private prison companies have seen their stocks surge 100% since the election as President Trump vows to crack down on crime and illegal immigration.
One of the reasons more people are in prison in the United States than another other country is because of the corporate profits it generates. Who’s responsible? Mostly Republicans due to their hard line attitudes about crime & punishment, and their being beholden to Corporate and Special Interests which profits from mass incarceration.
This is capitalism gone amuck.
After 30 years of being Tough on Crime in the U.S., no other nation incarcerates more of its citizens than we do. The War on Drugs has been a horrible failure.
We have five percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of its prisoners. The cost of housing all those inmates: $80 billion a year.
60 Minutes visited several German prisons and were amazed how laid back everybody seemed at each of them — prisoners and guards. Heidering Prison outside Berlin is as clean and bright as a Google campus. The prison is surrounded by fences, not walls, so inmates can see the outside world.
There is no death penalty.
Life inside prison mirrors life outside as much as possible. Germans call it “normalization.” It starts with small prison populations. Low-level offenders get fines or probation. Prison is reserved for the worst of the worst — murderers, rapists, career criminals. Cells have doors, not bars. It’s for privacy. Inmates can decorate as they please.
In Germany, 75 percent of lifers are paroled after 20 years or less.
The United States Justice System should be Humane like Germany’s
