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African-Americans and Hispanics likely would benefit the most from a change. African-Americans account for about 30 percent of federal drug convictions each year and Hispanics account for 40 percent, according to Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a non-profit group involved in research and policy reform of the criminal justice system.
If state policymakers were to adopt similar policies, the impact of changes at the state level could be even broader, said Mauer. Currently, about 225,000 state prisoners are incarcerated for drug offenses, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Read more: www.foxnews.com...
On May 7, 2011 The United States Sentencing Commission released some surprisingly unsurprising statistics. According to the commission, we’re locking up far too many Latinos because of immigration crimes.
Proposition 36:
Revises the three strikes law to impose life sentence only when the new felony conviction is "serious or violent".
Authorizes re-sentencing for offenders currently serving life sentences if their third strike conviction was not serious or violent and if the judge determines that the re-sentence does not pose unreasonable risk to public safety.
Continues to impose a life sentence penalty if the third strike conviction was for "certain non-serious, non-violent sex or drug offenses or involved firearm possession".
Maintains the life sentence penalty for felons with "non-serious, non-violent third strike if prior convictions were for rape, murder, or child molestation."
Originally posted by Daedal
I don't agree with the attorney general very often but, this is a step in the right direction. A fresh outlook and less burdensome penal code, especially for non violent drug related crimes, will help too unravel decades of injustice and inequality.
Source
In remarks prepared for delivery to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder also favors diverting people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expanding a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders.
Originally posted by butcherguy
I think that people that use drugs for recreation are stupid. (just my opinion)