Senator Webb: U.S. prisons are a national disgrace - Drug legalization should be "on the table".

[Turborama]

Run time: 05:39 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TCYP5gZUN0   Posted on YouTube: April 23, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 23, 2009 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 2679

 
Wow, Kiran Chetry (and/or her boss) seems to really want it legalized, this is the 2nd or 3rd time I've seen her really pushing this topic on her show in the past month.

It's time to look at drug laws

By Dave Safier, Special to The Explorer
Published:

April-22-2009

=snip=

If teachers and other professionals worry about talking openly about easing drug laws, it's nothing compared to the pressure on politicians. Any elected officials who don't have firm locks on their seats know they have to talk tough about "cracking down on drug users" or find themselves out of a job next election.

Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia has made a small crack in the wall of silence. He's leading the charge in Congress for reforming our criminal justice system. In a floor speech, he spoke of the skyrocketing number of people we imprison in this country:

"We have 5 percent of the world's population; we have 25 percent of the world's known prison population. We have an incarceration rate in the United States, the world's greatest democracy, that is five times as high as the average incarceration rate of the rest of the world. There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice."

And one of the reasons for the size of our prison population, Webb continued, is the rising number of people we lock up for drug offenses: from 41,000 in 1980 to more than 500,000 today, a 1,200 percent increase. Many of them are guilty of nothing more than possession.

This is a simple statement of facts, but coming from a member of Congress, it stands out as a courageous act, especially since Webb is a freshman senator from a moderate-to-conservative state and won his seat by a razor-thin margin.

Continues: http://www.explorernews.com/articles/2009/04/22/opinion/doc49ee5175ae8a7083633945.txt

[sasquatch]

1. I'm sooo glad he replaced Mikaka in 2006

[angstlessk]

4. and I am glad I lived in VA in 2006 and helped by voting for the man!!!!

hell, I thought he was a blue dog at the time, but a fricking deep blue pit bull would be better than .. as you say mikaka man!

[tomm2thumbs]

2. the 500,000 are all democrats of course - without them, there'd be no prisons

<extreme sarcasm>

[Fly by night]

6. If you're not a Democrat going in, you are one when you get out.

I should know.

FBN (aka Federal Bureau of Prisons # 16502-075)

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Did he mention this has happened under increasing privatization of prisons?

and under increasing nuber of stories of players in the legal system being paid to send people to prison?
In this last month alone, I have read of 3 judges charged with being paid to sentence people to prison vs. probation, etc.
What happens when you have a privatized/contractor run/ accountable to no one for profit prison running system that makes huge profits, then add crony judges to the mix?
A mini- Iraq is what happens.

[sasquuatch55]

5. Time has come today!

nt

[L. Coyote]

7. Doesn't he know Cheney's stock portfolio will crash with this kind of talk?

:rofl:

[ljm2002]

8. Webb is a hero for doing this...

...I am so thrilled to see someone going all out on this issue.

[Oldenuff]

9. Timely video...

and it sure seems to me that the topic of drug legalization (especially Cannabis) has been coming up more frequently....finely.

Thanks to Jim Webb for standing up,and lets hope that there will be others that find the cojones to finely admit that the War on Drugs has been far more effective in delivering astronomical profits to those who provide (and smuggle) illegal drugs,than to stopping their usage.Not to mention the hefty profits that the private prison industry makes.

After all...if you were in the prison for profit industry,which would you rather have as the majority of inmates?Non violent drug offenders...or gangbangers...murderers...rapists....

[northofdenali]

10. Legalize and legislate.

Reagan was the start of the downfall of this nation. Let's not continue the slide.

[cooolandrew]

11. Now I get the Sen. Webb following this is the issue that changes the whole equation in a minute. >

End gang crime, hostage taking, burgularies, some robberies, empty prisons and transfer funds to treasury. Win, win, win, win. Now if there is crimes comitted on drugs arrest at that point but with gang crime eliminated it would still be a massive reduction and improve national security 10 fold. It doesn't encourage people to do drugs it makes them uncool their legal and not edgy.

[Wizard777]

12. Talking tough about cracking down on drug users will have then out of a job in the next election.

With people talking legalization. No one is gonna wanna listen to that crap. If drugs doesn't destroy your family and loved ones. I will! Vote for me. The drug schedules are now a fraud. They say Marijuana has no medical uses. But it is now widely known that it does have many medical uses. We're finding more medical uses for it all the time. But even before the BNDD went and lied through their teeth to Congress about this to get the Marijuana tax stamp act passed. Before that legislation passed. Marijuana was used as base for a lil over 85% of our countries medicines. So we need to empty out the prisons of people that use or sell marijuana. To make room for people that defraud Congress into "war," treachery, tyranny, and despotism. One of these days they are gonna make it a crime to lie to Congress. We've had Republicans lie us into two wars. The war on drugs and the war in Iraq. Congress need to at the very least establish that in declarations of war foreign and domestic. Any lies to Congress in pursuit of or under the banner of "war" will result in perjury charges and the penalty for that perjury will be nothing less than death. It is far better to put to death one liar than to allow one lie to kill thousands or even millions. Conquer the druj! Not the people.

[pleah]

13. K&R

[nyc 4 Biden]

14. THANK YOU SENATOR WEBB!!!!!

It's about time someone seriously addressed this issue.

OUR PRISON SYSTEM IS MAKING US LESS SAFE!

[Voice for Peace]

15. Good for both of them

appreciate some sane reporting on this

[pjt7]

16. Senator Webb

maybe America's finest Senator.

We need him to get more press coverage & be the leader of the D's.

He should replace Harry Reid, immediately. (IMO)

[beac]

17. Bursting with pride for my senior Senator!

He impresses me more every day. :bounce: :patriot:


My junior one, not so much. Warner has been a HUGE disappointment. :( :mad:

[bamacrat]

18. This is exciting.

The dialogue is beginning to increase.

[AlbertCat]

19. No politician wants to be labeled "soft on crime"

Make that "soft on middle class, regular Joe crime....torture, bank fraud....not such a concern."

No one mentions the Netherlands. What horrible things have transpired there because of legalization? Anyone?

And Webb of course says ALL options should be on the table...but does not push for legalization specifically.