Bernie Sanders unveils criminal justice reform plan aiming to curb prison population

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: dfnj2015

He is far and away the most popular candidate among the 18-35 vote. That is now a demographic that outnumbers all others. So if Bernie could galvanize that age group (something Obama was successful at doing) he will win the presidency.

Won't happen and for good measure.

Young left leaners are skeptical of the Democrat party Democrats fall far short of pursuing ambitious change, favoring pragmatic solutions and incremental steps instead.

This doesn't bode well for the younger MINORITIES, not race, but population, who "like" the Democrats, but know they aren't cutting it and many of them won't vote and identify as Independents, rightfully so

The ones that will vote, do so out of spite and not necessarily based out of concern for policy, not very realiable at all.

I trust this Administration to deal with this issue and not "Do Nothing Dems".

a reply to: Xcalibur254

I'm all for reforming our prison/Justice system but I don't think Sanders plan will reduce incarcerated people by half.

Hardly anyone is in prison simply for drug offenses.

Wa Post link

The Facts

There’s no question that in the United States, many people are arrested for marijuana possession. Nearly 600,000 people a year are arrested for marijuana possession, or more than one marijuana possession arrest every minute, according to estimates from Justice Department data.

But relatively few of those arrested end up in prison. Most prisoners are in state systems, and the Department of Justice does not break down exactly the percentage of people who are in prison for marijuana possession — just all types of drug possession, including hard drugs such as heroin. The federal data, however, does provide that breakdown.

So what do we find? In the state correctional institutions, only 3.4 percent of prisoners were in jail for all types of drug possession as of Dec. 31, 2015, according to the Justice Department. While Boehner claimed that the prisons have been filled with nonviolent prisoners, the data show that 54.5 percent are in prison for violent crimes such as murder, rape and robbery and 18 percent involve property crimes; another 11.6 percent are in prison for public order offenses.

In the federal system, the numbers for marijuana possession are astonishingly low. Only 92 people in 2017 were sentenced for marijuana possession in the federal system out of a total of nearly 20,000 drug convictions, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission

It's a good step but I don't think it will change the number of prisoners we have by much.

Bernie is hardly one of the dems. They are largely neoliberal, corporatist, Warhawk hacks, just like the republicans. There’s a reason he’s the most popular representative by far, and that the news constantly bashed him and the corporations fear him. Those same corporations (other than the farmers) would love another trump season. When you’re on the same side as corporations, the mic, the warhawks, the crazy doomsday evangelical right, and the white supremacist groups, maybe it’s time to question what you’re supporting.

originally posted by: stosh64
a reply to: Xcalibur254
And here, at the very end of the article, is the whole point of bernies bill.

He's also called for more states to join Vermont and Maine in allowing imprisoned felons to vote.

.

I'll pass on allowing felons to vote WHILE in prison.

Oh, heck no to letting inmates vote. That would be a sure win every time for the democrats if that happened.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

The US if it is really interested in Justice for it's people needs to do something that a lot of them will hate, they need to nationalize there entire prison system, ban private enterprise from law enforcement and the criminal justice system entirely and take the running of those prisons out of the hand's of all the individual states into the hands of there federal government.

At the moment the US prison system is widely seen as a disgusting, corrupt and vile thing in the rest of the developed world, private enterprise earn's VAST sum's of money taken from there tax's that could be used on other projects to hold a huge percentage of there population often on trumped up and petty charges and often then throwing away the key, the US has a lot of thing's very wrong with it but as well as the severe need for social reform and to get the corporations OUT of there government and put the power back into there voters hand's this is one of the most important issues - so severe that many country's refuse to extradite to the US due to the unfairness and corruption prevalent within the US justice system.

At the moment in the US there seem's to be very little interest in tackling the root cause of crime which is mostly social inequality but also there seems to be very little incentive to tackle it and a great deal of incentive from private prison enterprise to keep things the way they are as modern slave owners making money from each and ever prisoner making that prison system extremely lucrative - and extremely costly to the US government - perhaps far more than it would be if they ran it all themselves.

originally posted by: Chance321

originally posted by: stosh64
a reply to: Xcalibur254
And here, at the very end of the article, is the whole point of bernies bill.

He's also called for more states to join Vermont and Maine in allowing imprisoned felons to vote.

.

I'll pass on allowing felons to vote WHILE in prison.

Oh, heck no to letting inmates vote. That would be a sure win every time for the democrats if that happened.

Is he in favor of restoring gun right to felons too?

Does anyone remember that little story about the snake.. The girl gets bit, surprised, because she trusted it, "But I am a snake". I don't care what this man or any of them want to introduce. It's all lies anyway.

originally posted by: TheGreatWork
Does anyone remember that little story about the snake.. The girl gets bit, surprised, because she trusted it, "But I am a snake". I don't care what this man or any of them want to introduce. It's all lies anyway.

Not useful. The vast majority are liars. About 2% may be honest. If you have no ability to tell which is which, you are no use in helping the rest of us. It’s not even hard to tell. Look at voting records. Look at contribution records. Look at flip flopping. Between those three things there you can pretty clearly ascertain which politicians are full of sht and which are following their beliefs and representing their people with integrity. The vast majority here and at the polls fail to do this, so no surprise we get serenaded by a parade of liars, hacks and con men. Bernie, gravel, Ron Paul, kuccinich, Perot, nadir, all honorable men who were fighting with integrity to improve this country and take it back for the people. In each situation we lost our chance as instead people voted for the same bs lies of other corporate candidates who had the best funding and came up with the catchiest lies. And when the next real deal comes through? I’m sure you’ll all buy your bought and packaged corporate mouthpiece again, and wonder why everything is still going to #.

originally posted by: pexx421
Bernie is hardly one of the dems. They are largely neoliberal, corporatist, Warhawk hacks, just like the republicans. There’s a reason he’s the most popular representative by far, and that the news constantly bashed him and the corporations fear him. Those same corporations (other than the farmers) would love another trump season. When you’re on the same side as corporations, the mic, the warhawks, the crazy doomsday evangelical right, and the white supremacist groups, maybe it’s time to question what you’re supporting.

If you spend some time you might find you like what Bernie is saying:



It's not always about optics and spin.

Why do people fall prey to media folly,very obvious this guys a shill for socialist groups.,and as always plenty of ideas,but no way to solve them,distract the public from the trutha reply to: Xcalibur254

a reply to: Xcalibur254

what needs reforming is the bail system. too many poor people in jail awaiting trial because they cant even afford the bond money. too many people pleading guilty to crimes that they didn't commit because they can't afford to stay in jail for months awaiting trial for a sentence that would be shorter than their bail time.