It was 42 years ago that our miss-guided political system attacked America and declared, what is now undoubtedly deemed, the failed "War on Drugs." The attack has gone on for 42 years, cost over $2.5 trillion dollars, tallied up 45 million arrests and insurmountable collateral damages to society.  America is not now and never will be drug free.  It is time to declare a truce.

While our President and our politicians talk about how to end the "War on Drugs,"  most of the 7.8 million American's languishing in prisons or on some type of government supervision are non-violent drug offenders.  The lost lives and collateral damages are no longer acceptable for political gain rather then for public good.

 'Congressional Research Service' 2013 Report

Recommends Increasing Good Time Credits and Reinstating Parole for Federal Offenders.

FedCURE Special Report:  Alleluia!  After more then twenty-five years of campaigning for federal criminal justice reforms, to reduce the federal prison population, comes an historic, ground-breaking 2013 report, from of all places the Congressional Research Service (CRS) * titled, "The Federal Prison Population Buildup: Overview, Policy Changes, Issues, and Options." The report documents the United States' "historically unprecedented increase in the federal prison population." It supports the long held view by many, including FedCURE, its members, partners, fellow advocate organizations, former and current members of Congress, high level government officials, the nations most respected, independent nonpartisan think tanks, prominent scholars, criminal justice professionals and an overwhelming majority of the public, that Congress cannot build its way out of the mass incarceration dilemma it now faces, because of a failed criminal justice policy; and recommends Congress "changing or reversing some of the policies that have been put into place over the years which contributed to the increasing number of federal prison inmates," inter alia, increasing good time and reinstating parole. The BARBER AMENDMENT, a simple two sentence undisruptive statutory amendment, genuinely accomplishes these ends, with out disrupting release or reentry processes and public safety, by restoring--rolling back--federal good time allowances to pre-1987 levels. Virtually, BARBER is a $1.2 billion dollar annual austerity sentencing bill.

 

While elaborating on "several options Congress could consider if policymakers wanted to expand early release options for federal inmates, including (1) reinstating parole, (2) expanding good time credits, and (3) expanding the conditions under which courts could reduce sentences pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §3582(c)(1)(A)," it is abundantly clear that the report concludes, inter alia, that the way out of the dilemma--to reduce the growth of the federal prison population--is for Congress to employ "Early Release Measures." These measures include "(1) modifying mandatory minimum penalties, (2) expanding the use of Residential Reentry Centers, (3) placing more offenders on probation, (4) reinstating parole for federal inmates, (5) expanding the amount of good time credit an inmate can earn, and (6) repealing federal criminal statutes for some offenses." BRAVO!

 

Moreover, according to the report and righteously so, "Congress might also consider changing or reversing some of the policies that have been put into place over the years which contributed to the increasing number of federal prison inmates. Some of these options include placing some inmates in alternatives to incarceration, such as probation, or expanding early release options by allowing inmates to earn more good time credit or allowing inmates to be placed on parole once again. Congress could consider reducing the amount of time inmates are incarcerated in federal prisons by limiting the number of crimes subject to mandatory minimum penalties or reducing the length of the mandatory minimum sentence. Finally, policymakers could consider allowing states to investigate and prosecute offenses that have become subject to federal jurisdiction over the past three decades" Id., at p. 57.

 

Full Report, 60 pg. PDF (indexed to highlighted sections) available at: http://www.fedcure.org/documents/CRS_FederalPrisonPopulationBuildup_R42937-220113fc.pdf

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* Note: Special thanks to Nathan James, Analyst in Crime Policy, CRS, njames@crs.loc.gov, for this report.  The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is an arm of the Library of Congress devoted to providing for Congress research and analysis on legislative issues. In addition to meeting with Congressional members and staffers, CRS releases reports and issue briefs for members of Congress. These reports and issue briefs are made available to Congress through a web site that is not available to the general public. The CRS strongly believes that its sole purpose is to directly serve Congress and not the public. https://opencrs.com/faq/

 

The President and Members of Congress must work across the isle, side-by-side, on bipartisan legislation to end the "War On Drugs."  They must rely on the data mining findings of criminal justice records from the last three decades, conducted by the nation's top criminal justice professionals, reform advocates, NGO's, government and policy makers, that have established the very best evidence based practices the country has ever known; clearly defining what works and what does not work in criminal justice. They must act on the CRS report, supra.  FedCURE is calling on the President and Members of Congress to enact the BARBER AMENDMENT ~ a proposed bill to increase federal good time allowances ~ to safely reduce the federal prison population by at least 10%, at a cost saving's of $1.2 billion dollars annually.  These savings on incarceration can be redirected to reentry.

The "War on Drugs" was launched in 1970, by the 91st Congress, with Public Law 91-513, on which President Nixon successfully branded drug addicts as criminals. However, to his credit and not to be overlooked, a whopping two-thirds of Nixon's $100 million dollar crime budget went for treatment & rehabilitation.  The budget for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, alone, is $6.7 billion dollars for FY 2013.

America is the World's Mass Incarcerator because of the "War on Drugs."  No doubt about it.  "The Growing Inmate Crowding [in the Federal Bureau of Prisons] Negatively Affects Inmates, Staff, and Infrastructure."  The crowding is so severe and so dangerous that the GAO has sounded the alarms.  In its recently released detailed report and recommendations on the state of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (GAO-12-743), inter alia, GAO says the matter is only to get worse and something has to be done; and now!.   A copy of the report and its recommendations can be found here:  http://www.fedcure.org/documents/GAO-12-743-BOP-Crowding.pdf.  A GAO/FedCURE live video chat on GAO-12-743 can be found here:  See the video [19:04-19:52] here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/25878123.

New Film:  'Breaking The Taboo ~ What will it take to end the war on drugs?'  Featuring prominent statesmen including Presidents Clinton and Carter.  Narrated by Morgan Freeman (English version) & Gael Garcia Bernal (Spanish version).  58 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/user/breakingthetaboofilm

PBS:  Should Drugs Be Legalized?  86% for vs. 14% against.  PBS Program: Intelligence Squared Debates: http://www.fedcure.org/documents/LegalizeDrugs_IntelligenceSquaredDebatesPBS-070214.pdf.   TRANSCRIPT: http://www.fedcure.org/documents/LegalizeDrugs_IntelligenceSquaredDebatesPBS-TRANS-070214.pdf

We can and must do better. Vote for the BARBER AMENDMENT. |  http://www.fedcure.org/documents/HR1475.shtml

 

FedCURE

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