Drug Sentencing

John Rudolf

Drug Sentencing Reforms Halt Decades of Prison Population Growth

HuffingtonPost.com | John Rudolf | Posted 12.29.2011

Read More: Prison Reform, Prison Population, Drug Sentencing, Cocaine Sentencing, Crack Cocaine Sentencing, Prison, Incarceration Rates, Crack Cocaine, The Docket, Drug Crimes, Politics News

NEW YORK -- In 1986, as the crack cocaine epidemic ravaged America's inner cities, a Democratic Congress passed legislation dictating harsh mandatory ...

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ACLU & Elon James White: Just Say NO to the War On Drugs

Elon James White | Posted 08.31.2011

Read More: War on Drugs, African American Prison Population, Crack Cocaine Sentencing, Drug Sentencing Disparity, Drug Sentencing, Prison, Crack Cocaine, African-Americans-Prison, Video, Comedy News
Elon James White

2011-07-01-failed.jpg

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Justice Is Served

Laura W. Murphy | Posted 08.30.2011

Read More: Drug Sentencing, Aclu, Crack Cocaine Sentencing, Drug Law Reform, Cocaine-Sentencing-Disparity, United States Sentencing Commission, Politics News
Laura W. Murphy

Following much thought and careful deliberation, the United States Sentencing Commission took another step toward creating fairness in federal sentencing.

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Sentencing Disparity On Its Way Out -- And It's About Time

Rev. Al Sharpton | Posted 08.02.2011

Read More: Unfair Sentencing, Racial Disparities Prison Sentences, Drug Sentencing, Prison Sentence, Crack Cocaine Sentencing, Crack Cocaine, Crack Sentencing, Minorities in Prison, Eric Holder, Fair Sentencing Act, Politics News
Rev. Al Sharpton

Somewhere in a U.S. prison today, a young Black man sits behind bars counting down the days till he sees freedom. He has become hardened and likely more dangerous while his White cellmate was released years prior for virtually the same crime.

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No Room at the Inn

Andrea Lyon | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Illinois Budget, Sentencing, Criminal Justice, Drug Sentencing, Drug Policy, Rehabilitation, Budget, Chicago News
Andrea Lyon

If we are serious as a nation about crime reduction, and solving our budget woes, we have to spend our limited resources in a more intelligent way, look at our policies with a longer view, and embrace our brothers and sisters who are in trouble.

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Mothers Behind Bars in the United States: A Human Rights Issue

Malika Saada Saar | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Unfair Sentencing, Drug Sentencing, Incarceration, Incarceration Rates, Motherhood, Incarcerated Parents, Prenatal Care, Shackling, Impact News
Malika Saada Saar

Mothers behind bars are invisible to most of us. To the extent they are thought of at all, they are caricatured as the ultimate bad mother who has violated the basic maternal commitment to care for her children.

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Rapper T.I. Gets 11 Months in Jail -- Hallelujah

Morris W. O'Kelly | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Lil Kim, Hip-Hop, T.I., Ti-Jail, Drug Sentencing, Ti Parole, African American Justice, Firearms, African American Issues, Parole Violations, T.I. Prison, African Americans, Entertainment News
Morris W. O'Kelly

When Lindsay and Paris are brought up on federal weapons charges as opposed to possession of a controlled substance, then and only then should we begin asking the question whether justice was unfairly served. 

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A Bittersweet Moment

Laura W. Murphy | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Aclu, Drug Sentencing, War on Drugs, Crack Cocaine Sentencing, Crack Cocaine, Politics News
Laura W. Murphy

Late on Wednesday evening, the U.S. Senate passed, by unanimous consent no less, a long-overdue bill that will help to reform one of the most egreg...

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Senate Panel Approves Weakened Cocaine Sentencing Bill

The American Prospect | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Jeff Sessions, Drugs, Crack Cocaine Sentencing, Crack Cocaine, Cocaine, Dick Durbin, Drug Sentencing, Powder Cocaine, Sentencing Guidelines, Politics News

Earlier this morning, Sen. Dick Durbin announced that he and Sen. Jeff Sessions had reached a "compromise" in the Senate gym over Durbin's bill, which...

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Rockefeller Drug Law Reforms Go Into Effect

Eric T. Schneiderman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Rockefeller, Rockefeller Drug Laws, Judicial Discretion, Criminal Justice, Drug Sentencing, Drug Reform, War on Drugs, New York News
Eric T. Schneiderman

For all the (fair) criticism of Albany's dysfunction, our state government did get something right this year. The drug law reforms go into effect today.

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Will Cameron Douglas Do More Prison Time Than Colombia's Top Drug Kingpin?

Anthony Papa | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Breaking Entertainment News, Methamphetamine, Injustice, Michael Douglas, Mandatory Minimums, Drug-Lord-Arrested, Drug Sentencing, Cameron Douglas, War on Drugs, Colombia-Drugs, Unfair Sentencing, Cameron Douglas Drug Bust, Jail Time, Colombia-Drug-War, Diego Montoya, Drug Lord, Entertainment News
Anthony Papa

It's time to end these draconian war on drugs laws and implement a sentencing structure that promotes fairness and justice.

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Obama Crack Sentencing Laws Change In Works

AP | LARRY MARGASAK | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Drug Sentencing, President Obama, Obama Drug Sentencing, Obama Crack Policy, Obama, Obama Drug Policy, Barack Obama, Crack-Sentencing, Politics News

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration joined a federal judge Wednesday in urging Congress to end a racial disparity by equalizing prison sentenc...

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Failed Drug War Now Targets Whites

Earl Ofari Hutchinson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Meth, Whites, Drug Sentencing, Bush, Clinton, Blacks, Crack Cocaine, Sentencing Project, Powdered Cocaine, Drug War, Drugs, Race, Politics News
Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The result of the fiction that blacks are the prime drug users and abusers has been devastating in law and public policy.

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"The Jim Crow Laws of the 21st Century": Will New York Change?

Odile Weissenborn | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Rockefeller Drug Laws, California Prison System, Drug Sentencing, Governor Paterson, Prison System, Economy, Prison Legal News, Drugs, Solomon Moore, War on Drugs, DOJ Prosecutor, Deficit, Death Penalty Information Center, Alternative to Incarceration, Low-Level Drug Offenders, Partnership for Responsible Drug Information, Paul Butler, Taxpayer Money, Bernard Madoff, Budget Deficit, Prison Reform, Prison Population, Drug Treatment, Incarceration, Crime, Budget, Incarceration Rates, Paul Wright, George Washington University Law School, Punishment, Sentencing, Jim Crow, New York Senate, Prison, California Commission on Fair Administration of Justice, Drug Offenders, New York Times, New York Budget, Nelson Rockefeller, Death Penalty, New York State Assembly, Richard Deiter, Madoff Jail, Errol Louis, Alternative Treatment Drug Offenders, Palladia, Politics News
Odile Weissenborn

In New York, the 36-year-old Rockefeller Drug Laws may be massively overhauled.

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New Year, New Administration, More Clemency

Jason Flom | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: George H. W. Bush, George Bush, Drug Sentencing, Grammys, Criminal Justice, Drugs, Music, Ben Taylor, Unfair Sentencing, The Beatles, Whitney Houston, George H.W. Bush, New Jersey, The Fugees, Carly Simon, Jail, Drug Trafficking, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Crime, John Forte, Exeter, Keith Richards, New York City, Elvis Presley, Presidential Pardons, Criminal Justice System, Prison, Beatles, Lava Records, Bush Pardons, Music Industry, Cocaine, Phillips Exeter, Politics News
Jason Flom

Obama ran on a campaign promise of change. He can begin by using the pardon power generously to correct as many individual cases of injustice as possible.

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Tatum O'Neal's Drug Bust Sentence: Appropriate or Not?

Anthony Papa | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Addiction Treatment, Tatum O'Neal Drugs, War on Drugs, Prison, Cocaine, Drug Sentencing, Tatum O'Neal Crack, Drugs, Politics News
Anthony Papa

Nonviolent drug offenders like Tatum O'Neal should be given an opportunity to receive treatment, not jail time. This would be a more effective solution for both the individual and the community.

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Onward and Ever Upward -- But Not in a Good Way

Jamie Fellner | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Drug Sentencing, Human Rights, Drug War, Prison, Prison Remittance, Racism Prisons, Parole Laws, Prisons, Politics News
Jamie Fellner

Why the never-ending prison growth? Three ill-considered policies: the war on drugs, draconian sentencing laws, and punitive parole practices.

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

Anthony Papa | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Death Penalty, War on Drugs, Drug Sentencing, Mandatory Minimums, Politics News
Anthony Papa

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."

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