Pubdate: Tue, 27 Jan 2009
Source: Macomb Journal (IL)
Copyright: 2009 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.macombjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4787
Author: Gloria Acker

FIRST-TIME DRUG OFFENDERS DESERVE BETTER TREATMENT

President Bush's Jan. 19 commutations of former Border Patrol agents
Ramos and Compeon should be commended as an act of mercy. The border
agents received mandatory minimum sentences that the judge could not
tailor to fit them or their crime. However, the border agents are not
alone.

Thousands of first-time, low-level, and nonviolent drug offenders are
serving sentences just as long or longer. Many of them seek clemency
each year, but President Bush granted less than a dozen commutations
in his eight years in office. President Obama should grant many more.
In his inaugural address, President Obama promised us government that
works. Mandatory minimums don't. They create injustice, fill our
prisons, cost taxpayers a fortune, and don't reduce crime.

First-time drug offenders should not be imprisoned; they should be
made to undergo very long, intense drug rehab, counseling and probation.

Long-term prison is not always the answer to getting someone help so
they won't make, deal or use drugs again. Being incarcerated can
destroy a person's mind faster than most street drugs. It costs
taxpayers more money to house them in prison for long periods of time
than it would to educate them.

I have a brother who is doing 22 1/2 years for making and selling
methamphetamine, his first drug offense.

He was a straight-A student all through school, had his own business
laying underground wiring, was a husband, father, son and brother.
Because he got with the wrong woman (she was using and making) he is
doing the time and she is walking the streets. Where is justice here?
I think my brother deserves to be punished for what he has done, but I
don't think it should have been 22 1/2 years.

The Bureau of Prisons is responsible for the custody and care of more
than 201,000 Federal offenders. Approximately 85 percent of these
inmates are confined in Bureau-operated correctional facilities or
detention centers.

At the end of 1930, the agency operated 14 facilities for just over
13,000 inmates. By 1940, the Bureau had grown to 24 facilities with
24,360 inmates. Except for a few fluctuations, the number of inmates
did not change significantly between 1940 and 1980, when the
population was 24,252. However, the number of facilities almost
doubled (from 24 to 44) as the Bureau gradually moved from operating
large facilities confining inmates of many security levels to
operating smaller facilities that each confined inmates with similar
security needs.

This is a result of federal law enforcement efforts and new
legislation that dramatically altered sentencing in the federal
criminal justice system.

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 established determinate sentencing,
abolished parole, and reduced good time; additionally, several
mandatory minimum sentencing provisions were enacted in 1986, 1988,
and 1990. From 1980 to 1989, the inmate population more than doubled,
from just over 24,000 to almost 58,000. During the 1990s, the
population more than doubled again, reaching approximately 136,000 at
the end of 1999 as efforts to combat illegal drugs and illegal
immigration contributed to significantly increased conviction rates.

Total federal inmates: 201,518. There is no reason that we the
taxpayers should be paying to house this many inmates in our federal
prison system when there are other and better alternatives for the
first time drug offenders.

The government took away everything and is making these inmates do 85
percent of their sentence while state prisoners get good time and
parole and early release.

As for our Illinois government, I have a 45-year-old brother doing 22
1/2 years in federal prison for a first time drug crime, while the
governors of our state are embezzling our money to make them richer
and they get nothing but a slap on the wrist. Where is justice here?
I think what they have done is just as bad if not worse than what my
brother and many other have done. Is Ryan going to get clemency
because of his age? What about all of the inmates that have died in
prison because of old age and yet they had to pay their price for the
crimes they did? Why is he or Blagojevich any different than any one
else?

Granting clemency to some deserving prisoners won't fix everything,
but President Obama should use commutations to begin a dialogue with
Congress about how to get rid of mandatory minimums.

Gloria Acker, Macomb