From Draconian Drug Laws to Life Without Parole -- Join the Movement Against Harsh Sentencing

With one in 100 American adults behind bars, more and more juries across the country are handing down sentences of life without parole. Now is the time to question what it means for society to turn from state-sanctioned executions to punishments that impose what many prisoners describe as "in-house death sentences."

These sentences equate to a social death. And most of those Americans serving these extraordinarily long sentences are there because of the war on drugs. Prisons across the United States are full of individuals that have committed minor drug law violations who then are sentenced under harsh mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines

Even people who commit crimes such as murder actually receive shorter sentences and are less likely to return to jail than nonviolent offenders. Nevertheless, after coming to terms with their crimes, they are still wasting away in America's gulags. Time and again, the parole board fails to weigh all of the relevant statutory factors together with the prisoner's positive accomplishments and productive behavior while incarcerated. Instead, the parole board tends to focus almost exclusively on the nature of the petitioner's crime that was committed so many years before.

On June 16, a public forum will be held in New York City by The Campaign to End the Death Penalty to discuss this important issue. CEDP is the only national membership-driven, chapter-based grassroots organization dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment in the United States. They have active chapters in cities and campuses across the country -- from Berkeley, California to Austin, Texas to Chicago, Illinois. We as a society need to realize that we can be both tough and smart on crime without wasting valuable tax dollars and destroying lives in the process of protecting our communities.

Follow Anthony Papa on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Anthony Papa

Comments

[devadasi]

11:15 PM on 06/12/2008

Drugs should be legalized in this country. The crime rate would go down by at least 75%. The war on drugs is a sham.

[WorkingClass]

09:24 PM on 06/12/2008

Nixon's war on drugs trampled on the constitution and incarcerated thousands of innocent people and is still doing so for no good reason. The war on drugs proved that the American people would tolerate an unconstitutional assault on their liberties. It was the training wheels for the war on terror. As long as the war on drugs continues this will never be a civilized nation.

[racom]

08:28 PM on 06/12/2008

100% agreement. This country, with 5% of the world population, has 25% of the world prison population. A large percent in prison are there due to drug related issues. A small amount of cannabis can result in many years of imprisonment, no reasonable solution to the perceived problem of the authorities. For the 50 years I have followed the governments war against hemp I have never seen any laboratory research reports that show it to be as deadly, destructive or addictive as tobacco. I recommend you do your own research of the history of hemp in this country, it is discriminatory, racist, political and wrong. Interesting little footnote, check the origin of the name, marijuana. Pure bullshit!