Glenn Greenwald: The Incredible Courage Of Jim Webb's Prison Bill

Salon:

There are few things rarer than a major politician doing something that is genuinely courageous and principled, but Jim Webb's impassioned commitment to fundamental prison reform is exactly that. Webb's interest in the issue was prompted by his work as a journalist in 1984, when he wrote about an American citizen who was locked away in a Japanese prison for two years under extremely harsh conditions for nothing more than marijuana possession. After decades of mindless "tough-on-crime" hysteria, an increasingly irrational "drug war," and a sprawling, privatized prison state as brutal as it is counter-productive, America has easily surpassed Japan -- and virtually every other country in the world -- to become what Brown University Professor Glenn Loury recently described as a "a nation of jailers" whose "prison system has grown into a leviathan unmatched in human history."

Read the whole story: Salon

Comments

[AvangionQ]

Our prison population is the largest per capita in the world -- that we are subsidizing semi-private corporations to run our prisons is only exacerbating the problem ... when we seek to address the root cause of this disproportionate number of non-violent offenders being locked away, the answer is clear -- our War on Drugs is a failure, as was prohibition before it, and is in no small part contributing to our economic woes ... perhaps its time for a change ...

[Dolmance]

The fact that there's even a need for a bill like this is why I left the US years ago. I mean, I love America. I just don't like the people very much.

[OKSunny]

I read his article in the "Parade" magazine and listened to him on NPR this morning....he seems to know what he is talking about and I agree with a lot of what he said...I get the impression that he is for the legalization of marijuana, but won't say it out right. ...he wants to put together a commission with an 18month limit to reform the drug laws (translation=after reviewing the marijuane policies any idiot can see that it should be regulated like alcohol)

[JLee]

Rachel Maddow needs to get Webb on her show, like, stat. She started out as a prison activist and I'm pretty sure she's ecstatic about this bill.

[PATina]

Man.... looking at the comments I know this is wishful thinking on my part.... but I hope the readers actually get that this article isn't about legalizing drugs or even about reforming the criminal justice... it's an attempt to differentiate a real leader from just another politician.

Great message, Glenn !!! (but it just may have fallen on deaf ears).

[pinner]

Let us all be alcholics then and drug users???--starts out small next will be meth coccaine heroin??--walking around now with hardly no cloths on---"music" videos??--next fighting for all to go naked--you think??? Lost our morals and interity??--look at border now--another mess neglect for 8 years--not all through out America---funny are we telling other countries to clean up the enemies who attacked us and we cannot control our own borders or enemies coming in- our own back yards now??...hmmm I am confused?

[considerthis]

Yes, you are very confused. Have you heard of personal responsibility? I comes with maturity. that's what's missing here

[rich3324]

".hmmm I am confused?"
At least you're right about one thing.

[Grunty1]

That probably shouldn't have been a question...

[Grunty1]

Honestly, what the HECK are you trying to say?
I think someone is already drunk or high...

[Dolmance]

Yes, you are most definitely "confused."

[dwright]

THe only thing that I don't like in the article is again the unrelenting criticizing of Obama and his answer to the legalization of Pot answer. Can they give the guy a break. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. I am quite sure that Obama knows that the criminal justice system is unfair and I have heard him talk about that. Just because he didn't "seem" to take the question seriously doesn't mean that he doesn't seriously think about it. I still don't understand why we don't look to the "root" of the problem instead of blaming Obama. Where were all these critics of the spoken word when George Bush was president?????? I sure hope that someone is doing a data analysis of all the ways in less than 3 months President Obama has been attacked. George Bush was in crawford texas during his first three months and we were in a recession. I don't remember hearing anything about that - or the fact that we were attacked during HIS presidency and then he became the guy that could protect us. IF everyone thinks the media is so liberal - where were they then?

[AnotherTry]

But Clinton didn't work for them and But Bush shouldn't work for us. Obama is president now.

[ella52]

Webb is such a brave man politically; for our Veterans and now for the way he is approaching reform of this crazy and outdated prison reform.
It is just reassuring to me that some people in Washington are trying to attack some of the most fundamental problems of our time and find new answers.

[SousioXXX]

We all need to support Senator Jim Webb. No matter what state we are from. I'm from El Paso, Texas and will send this man money and whatever other support I can. I went to his official wbsite and signed up for email updates. Webb is going to war for us. He needs our help. This man is the dream come true. Someone in government that wants to do the right thing and overhaul our evil and corrupt criminal justice system and overturn the many insane laws. Our dream of ending prohibition and creating a smarter, kinder, gentler America is possible with men like Webb fighting for it. There will be those who do not wish him well. And we must not wish them well. Long live Jim Webb, truly our brother, and our keeper.

[dwright]

Agreed. I have been ranting about this for years. We would rather put non-violent drug offenders in jail/prison for years than send them to college or even a trade school (which would cost the tax payers less). It has also been used as an underhanded way to deny the vote to minorities, thus keeping the elite white power structure. I am glad those days appear to be over. Yes, I am white, but I am not "scared" of people in power that look different than me, as long as they are thoughtful and intelligent i.e. Obama.

[wagadog]

Great picture of him. Great snapshot of his current thinking.

In Texas, there are two bills to improve conditions of incarcerated women:

HB 3653: bans the SHACKLING of a woman inmate during labor and delivery (with exceptions when necessary).

HB 3654: requires county jails to have a MEDICAL CARE plan specifically for pregnant inmates and also requires them to COUNT and REPORT how many pregnant women they are incarcerating on a monthly basis.

The idiocy of incarcerating relatively harmless "criminals" is compounded when they, and their children, are so badly physically mistreated. They're often not even given blankets or toothbrushes, much less proper medical care when they and their unborn children are most vulnerable.

So much for these "tough on crime" evangelical conservatives "protecting the unborn."

[dwright]

Oh, don't get me started on their hypocrisy when it comes to "the right to choose" and enthusiastically supporting the death penalty. Of course the rational is, "one is innocent" and the other is guilty. I thought we were born in sin? But that of course is another argument. I support pro-choice because it is not right for me to dictate my opinions of morality on others. I am against the death penalty because it is not a deterrent, nor are folks institutionally murdered always guilty. Most importantly, it is a person that is already here and not simply the "potential" to be a person.

[uprt]

Sen. Webb' s bill provides his proposed commission with" office space available for day-today Commission activities and for scheduled quarterly meetings." in The Office of National Drug Control Policy .

[3dtrix]

I ache for my country - the America I was raised in, the country I love so deeply, is not the America I live in today. How can any citizen hold his head up when we so callously destroy the lives of so many of our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters? And for what? For what? Are our cities safe? Are our rural areas free from drug blight? WHAT WE ARE DOING IS NOT WORKING. On any plane - by any measure. When a course of action is ineffective, the ONLY sane alternative is to change the plan. Change - oh yeah, CHANGE. I remember that word - it's what the whole country, the whole world cries out for. Things absolutely, positively will not get better doing them the way we have. You can take that to your bailed-out bank...

[katlade]

Anyone who tells George Bush to mind his own business has my respect. He needs to replace Reid as majority leader. Reid is such a weenie.

[3dtrix]

Sounds good to me...

[Yermammy]

Glenn's right about Webb being courageous. What happened to President Obama? Where's the investigations for the crimes of the last eight years? Hmmmm? Where's the change? He's turning into a sham and a fraud, and if he keeps up the policies that Bush started, he's going to be complicit. Someone better tell him about it! Spain ain't playing around with this sh#t. They're already signing out warrants for Gonzalas et alia. What a shame that Spain has to do our job.

[lochnessmonster]

Give the new administration a chance! It is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. If he took it on he'd be doing too much but you think he is doing to little.

[Grunty1]

[Where's the investigations for the crimes of the last eight years? Hmmmm?]

Why do you assume that there IS NOT an investigation underway? Just because there haven't been any arrests yet does not mean the investigation does not exist.

[PATina]

I wouldn't go so far as to say he's turning into a sham and a fraud... but I do believe he is capable of being a great leader... but is settling for just being a great politician.

[WorkingClass]

,,,,,"well, they have to take that position because it's too politically risky not to; they have no choice and it's the smart thing to do."

How I wish Democrats would listen to Greenwald on this. The idea that bad behavior = good politics has been spoon fed to you by the corporate media.

Contrast and compare Web and Obama on this issue. What is your honest conclusion?

Reform of the justice system (along with reform of the health care system) is a vital issue for the working class. We have not been represented in Washington since Bill Clinton kicked us out of the Democratic Party. At least health care is being discussed. Now, at last, there is a champion for reform of the justice system. Please support Jim Web.