If you wanted to tackle a knotty problem like ending Prohibition how would you do it?

[kristopher]

I'd highlight the failures.

We've seen a blast of coverage on Mexico lately as if it were something new. It isn't.

Today we heard Obama tell the nation "I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation. I don't know what that says about the online audience. The answer is no, I do not think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."

He could have chosen a lot of different ways to introduce this, or better yet, he could have said nothing at all, right? So WHY did he introduce the topic and why did he introduce it like that?

Aren't the people who are most dead set against legalizing pot the same people who are squealing the loudest about the ballooning deficit? All my experience tells me they are.

Now I read this from our friends at TPM: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/03/webb_specter_introduce_bill_to_overhaul_americas_c.php/

WEBB, SPECTER INTRODUCE BILL TO OVERHAUL AMERICA'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

(Editor's Note: This statement was provided by the office of Senator Jim Webb.)
Blue-Ribbon Commission to Offer Reforms on Incarceration Rates, Sentencing Policies, Gang Violence, Prison Administration & Reintegration of Offenders

Washington, DC--Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) today introduced bipartisan legislation to create a blue-ribbon commission charged with conducting an 18-month, top-to-bottom review of the nation's entire criminal justice system and offering concrete recommendations for reform. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), Ranking Member on the Judiciary Committee, is the principal Republican cosponsor.

The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, S.714, is the result of decades of investigation and more than two years of intensive fact-finding in the U.S. Senate. In the 110th Congress, Webb chaired two hearings of the Joint Economic Committee that examined various aspects of the criminal justice system. In October of 2008, he conducted a symposium on drugs in America at George Mason University Law Center.

http://webb.senate.gov/email/criminaljusticereform.html>

"America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace," said Senator Webb. "With five percent of the world's population, our country houses twenty-five percent of the world's prison population. Incarcerated drug offenders have soared 1200% since 1980. And four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals. We should be devoting precious law enforcement capabilities toward making our communities safer. Our neighborhoods are at risk from gang violence, including transnational gang violence...



From Fact Sheet at above site:

SEN. WEBB’S NATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMISSION ACT OF 2009
March 2009

SUMMARY

The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, introduced by Senator Jim Webb on
March 26, 2009, will create a blue-ribbon commission charged with undertaking an 18-month, top-
to-bottom review of our entire criminal justice system. Its task will be to propose concrete, wide-
ranging reforms designed to responsibly reduce the overall incarceration rate; improve federal and
local responses to international and domestic gang violence; restructure our approach to drug policy;
improve the treatment of mental illness; improve prison administration; and establish a system for
reintegrating ex-offenders.

WHY THIS LEGISLATION IS URGENTLY NEEDED

• The United States has by far the world’s highest incarceration rate. With five percent of the
world’s population, our country now houses twenty-five percent of the world’s reported
prisoners. More than 2.38 million Americans are now in prison, and another 5 million remain on
probation or parole.

• Our prison population has skyrocketed over the past two decades as we have incarcerated more
people for non-violent crimes and acts driven by mental illness or drug dependence.

• The costs to our federal, state, and local governments of keeping repeat offenders in the criminal
justice system continue to grow during a time of increasingly tight budgets.

• Existing practices too often incarcerate people who do not belong in prison and distract from
locking up the more serious, violent offenders who are a threat to our communities.

• Transnational criminal activity, much of it directed by violent gangs and cartels from Latin
America, Asia and Europe, has permeated the country. Mexican cartels alone now operate in
more than 230 communities across the country.

• Mass incarceration of illegal drug users has not curtailed drug usage. The multi-billion dollar
illegal drugs industry remains intact, with more dangerous drugs continuing to reach our streets.

• Incarceration for drug crimes has had a disproportionate impact on minority communities,
despite virtually identical levels of drug use across racial and ethnic lines.

• 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.

LEGISLATION: REVIEW AND FINDINGS

The Commission shall review all areas of Federal and State criminal justice practices and make
specific findings, to include an examination of:

• Reasons for increase in the U.S. incarceration rate compared to historical standards
• Incarceration and other policies in similar democratic, western countries
• Prison administration policies, including the availability of pre-employment training programs and
career progression for guards and prison administrators
• Costs of current incarceration policies at the federal, state & local level
• The impact of gang activities, including foreign syndicates
• Drug policy and its impact on incarceration, crime and sentencing
• Policies as they relate to the mentally ill
• The historical role of the military in crime prevention and border security
• Any other area that the Commission deems relevant

LEGISLATION: DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION

The Commission shall make recommendations for policy changes designed to:

• Re-focus incarceration policies to reduce the overall incarceration rate while preserving public
safety, cost-effectiveness, and societal fairness
• Decrease prison violence
• Improve prison administration, including competence & career enhancement of administrators
• Establish meaningful re-entry programs for ex-offenders
• Reform our nation’s drug policies
• Improve treatment of the mentally ill
• Improve responses to international & domestic criminal activity by gangs & cartels
• Reform any other aspect of the system the Commission determines necessary

[eridani]

1. Right. Of course the best way to grow our economy is to continue to throw billions at our GI Bill--

--in reverse system, the prison-industrial complex. Yessireebob, we sure do need to keep deskilling people to prepare them for the new economy.

[izzie]

2. Jail for profit really got to me.

One has to wonder now which comes first. The crime or a place to put them. It is almost like the crime act. More police so one needs more laws to state the new crime as proof you need more police. I can re-call my father telling me as a kid they got a talking down by the police and now they put the same act into a jail and that was 50 years ago. I hardly get up tight about a little smoking of pot and hardly think a kid has to go to jail for such stuff. Course it is an easy thing for the police to aim for as it keeps up their numbers. To have a system filled with smokers and a man who robs people of their life saving living in a home worth millions hardly seems fair at all. I think it is time to up-date the whole system. A social revolution is on the way.

[depakid]

3. I might look at the political dynamic of how prohibition came to be in the first place

Hint: It didn't start "from the top."

[kristopher]

4. Did those who posted comments read the post?

This is how something like this GETS DONE.

It is clear that the goal of this effort is to fix the prison system.

To fix the prison system, they MUST decriminalize drug use.

[Fumesucker]

5. But they cannot legalize drugs..

The government cannot admit that it has been lying for the last seventy plus years..

It's not going to happen.

[kristopher]

6. That isn't true.

We change direction on policy issues all the time. It is difficult, but this is (from a policy wonks perspective) a time for change.

[Fumesucker]

7. So the government is going to admit it has been lying for the last seventy years?

We have been told for many decades now that it is absolutely necessary to fight the drug war, that "drugs" are an existential threat to our nation, the government simply cannot back down on that claim without losing all credibility with anyone more intelligent than an eggplant.