Sentencing Reform

'Tough on Crime' No Longer the American Mantra?

Inimai Chettiar | Posted 05.02.2012

Read More: Overincarceration, Tough on Crime, War on Drugs, Incarceration, Sentencing Reform, Prison Reform, Prisons, Prison Privatization, Crime Rate, Crime News
Inimai Chettiar

Politicians have held strong to the conventional wisdom that being "tough on crime" will win elections and appease the public's appetite for safety. But the pendulum of public opinion is starting to swing in the other direction.

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Mandatory Minimum Gun Laws Ensure Nothing But Disparity

Julie Stewart | Posted 04.19.2012

Read More: Julie Stewart, Gun Laws, Prosecutorial Discretion, Plaxico Burress, Michael Bloomberg, Sentencing Reform, Famm, New York, Mandatory Minimums, Politics News
Julie Stewart

If you were not already convinced that mandatory minimum sentencing laws are a colossal fraud, recent developments in New York City should convert you.

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NJ Gov. Christie's Fresh Approach to Drug Offenders

Julie Stewart | Posted 03.27.2012

Read More: Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Julie Stewart, Chris Christie, New Jersey, Famm, Sentencing Reform, Mandatory Minimums, Politics News
Julie Stewart

Governor Christie's plan for nonviolent offenders -- coming as it does from a former U.S. Attorney and Republican statewide leader -- has the potential to be a game-changer.

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Cut Prison Spending First, Not Schools

Michael J. McCarthy | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Ft. Lyons, Colorado Budget, John Hickenlooper, Illegal Immigrants, Sentencing Reform, Denver News
Michael J. McCarthy

Gov. John Hickenlooper has proposed $570 million in budgets cuts, hacking off $332 million from K-12 education and trimming only a paltry $10 million from prisons.

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The Moral Urgency of Crack Retroactivity

Julie Stewart | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Mandatory Sentencing, Martin Luther King, Sentencing Reform, Mandatory Minimums, Crack Cocaine, Politics News
Julie Stewart

President Obama has reformed what many considered the most racially discriminatory sentencing policy in federal law. Now, he should do what is right -- apply the reform retroactively to all offenders.

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Sentencing Reform in the 2011 Colorado General Assembly

Mike Krause | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Pew Center on the States, Mark Waller, Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Independence Institute, Pat Steadman, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, Sentencing Reform, Christie Donner, Denver News
Mike Krause

The legislature's ability to affect the prison caseload, and thus the corrections budget, rests in its prerogative to write, and when necessary, re-write the state's criminal sentencing and parole laws.

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Modest Sentencing Reform Bill is Long Overdue

Mike Krause | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: House Bill 1352, Independence Institute, Sentencing Reform, Colorado, Denver News
Mike Krause

On April 15, the Colorado House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed House Bill 1352, which nibbles at the edges of some of the more egregious asp...

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What I Learned When I Spent Five Months at the Federal Prison Camp at Terre Haute

Robert Creamer | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Friendship, Prison Reform, Herman Melville, Last Decade, Rule of Law, Freedom, Sentencing Reform, Politics News
Robert Creamer

Like many low points in life, I learned a lot from my stay at Terre Haute that I would never have fully understood if I hadn't spent time there.

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American Injustice -- Anthony Williams and New York's Drug Laws

Randy Credico | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Anthony Williams, Rockefeller Drug Laws, Prison, Drug Laws, Sentencing Reform, Politics News
Randy Credico

Williams' woeful tale reads like an Americanized version of a Russian novel -- a tome written in four full boxes of records concerning his arrest, interrogation, trial, incarceration and appeals.

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Message to George Will: Racism Ignored is Justice Denied

Anthony Papa | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Racism, Crack Cocaine Sentencing, George Will, Drug War, African Americans, Sentencing Reform, Drugs, War on Drugs, Drug War Racism, Barack Obama, Politics News
Anthony Papa

The knee-jerk conclusion by some is that more black and brown people are in prison because the commit the majority of the crimes. But a closer inspection paints a vastly different picture.

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