IF you want to understand all that is wrong with America's criminal justice system, take a look at the nightmare experienced by Edward Young. Young, now 43, was convicted of several burglaries as a young man but then resolved that he would turn his life around. Released from prison in 1996, he married, worked six days a week, and raised four children in Hixson, Tenn. Then a neighbor died, and his widow, Neva Mumpower, asked Young to help sell her husband's belongings. He later found, mixed in among them, seven shotgun shells, and he put them aside so that his children wouldn't find them. [continues 1123 words]
LOS ANGELES - I dropped in on a marijuana shop here that proudly boasted that it sells "31 flavors." It also offered a loyalty program. For every 10 purchases of pot -- supposedly for medical uses -- you get one free packet. "There are five of these shops within a three-block radius," explained the proprietor, Edward J. Kim. He brimmed with pride at his inventory and sounded like any small businessman as he complained about onerous government regulation. Like, well, state and federal laws. [continues 756 words]
At a time when Americans may abandon health-care reform because it supposedly is "too expensive," how is it that we can afford to imprison people like Curtis Wilkerson? Wilkerson is serving a life sentence in California -- for stealing a $2.50 pair of socks. As The Economist noted, he already had two offences on his record (both for abetting robbery at age 19) and so the "three strikes" law resulted in a life sentence. This is unjust, of course. But considering that California spends almost $49,000 annually per inmate, it's also an extraordinary waste of money. [continues 704 words]
At a time when we Americans may abandon health care reform because it supposedly is "too expensive," how is it that we can afford to imprison people like Curtis Wilkerson? Mr. Wilkerson is serving a life sentence in California -- for stealing a $2.50 pair of socks. As The Economist noted recently, he already had two offenses on his record (both for abetting robbery at age 19), and so the "three strikes" law resulted in a life sentence. This is unjust, of course. But considering that California spends almost $49,000 annually per prison inmate, it's also an extraordinary waste of money. [continues 720 words]
This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won. "We've spent a trillion dollars prosecuting the war on drugs," Norm Stamper, a former police chief of Seattle, told me. "What do we have to show for it? Drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency. It's a dismal failure." For that reason, he favors legalization of drugs, perhaps by the equivalent of state liquor stores or registered pharmacists. Other experts favor keeping drug production and sales illegal but decriminalizing possession, as some foreign countries have done. [continues 697 words]
"We've spent a trillion dollars prosecuting the war on drugs," Norm Stamper, a former police chief of Seattle, told columnist Nicholas D. Kristof. "What do we have to show for it? Drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency. It's a dismal failure." Decriminalization of many drugs may be the way to go. This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won. [continues 787 words]
This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won. "We've spent a trillion dollars prosecuting the war on drugs," Norm Stamper, a former police chief of Seattle, told me. "What do we have to show for it? Drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency. It's a dismal failure." For that reason, he favors legalization of drugs, perhaps by the equivalent of state liquor stores or registered pharmacists. Other experts favor keeping drug production and sales illegal but decriminalizing possession, as some foreign countries have done. [continues 702 words]
Here's a foreign affairs quiz: 1. In the two years since the war in Afghanistan, opium production has: (A) virtually been eliminated by Hamid Karzai's government and American forces. (B) declined 30 percent, but eradication is not expected until 2008. (C) soared nineteenfold and become the major source of the world's heroin. 2. In Paktika and Zabul, two religiously conservative parts of Afghanistan, the number of children going to school: (A) has quintupled, with most girls at least finishing third grade. [continues 499 words]
