Call for prison reform are finally drawing attention from policy makers and members of the law enforcement community. Via the Scout Report at the University of Wisconsin:

• U.S. Prison system a costly and harmful failure
  about recent JFA report.
• California a leader in number of youths in prison for life
• Crack cocaine sentence cut is stalled by retroactivity
• NPR: Should Sentencing Reform Be Retroactive? [Real Player]
• Unlocking America [pdf]
• Bureau of Justice Statistics

Within the vast world of pressing policy problems, system-wide prison reform in the United States has been a subject that has vexed even the most dedicated experts and committed activists. Over the past four decades, the prison population has risen eight-fold, and people have laid the blame on everything from mandatory sentencing laws to economic restructuring in America's manufacturing regions.

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A taser death captured on video at the Vancouver airport has caused an uproar in Canada.

The shocking death of a Polish traveler who was confronted by policemen with stun guns at the Vancouver airport last month has shamed Canada and its federal police, editorials said Friday.

A bystander's video released late Wednesday showed Robert Dziekanski dying after a bizarre series of events that culminated in police approaching him on October 14 and, in less than one minute, zapping him repeatedly with a Taser stun gun. The 40-year-old immigrant had traveled to Canada to live with his mother.

The Globe and Mail accuses the RMCP of conducting a disinformation campaign and calls the incident a "summary execution of an innocent man for the crime of being disoriented, for not understanding, for being a stranger."

How long did the police wait before tasering the man, who did not speak English? 24 seconds. He was not a threat to anyone else and was not resisting arrest. They needed an interpreter, not a a taser gun.

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Grits for Breakfast takes issue with New York Times columnist Bob Herbert over "states' rights." Big Tent Democrat weighed in here with an opposing view.

I'm with Grits for Breakfast. When I think "states' rights" I think of the alternative, which has resulted in the mass federalization of state crimes. As Grits says:

I'm horrified by the abuse of the Interstate Commerce Clause to justify federal regulation in areas where it has no business, transforming what was intended to be a limited federal government into a nearly all-powerful one.

I consider the federal War on Drugs and the expansion of federal prisons, law enforcement and immigration detention a direct spite to the separation of federal and state powers articulated in the Constitution.

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The U.S. Sentencing Commission is holding a hearing today on whether to make the November 1 sentencing guideline reductions for crack cocaine retroactive. (Background here.)

You can read all of the letters submitted to the Commission for today's hearing here. I think the Commission will decide in favor of retroactivity. If so, it will be a huge policy decision.

Such a mass commutation would be unprecedented: No other single rule in the two-decade history of the Sentencing Commission has affected nearly as many inmates. And no single law or act of presidential clemency, such as grants of amnesty to draft resisters and conscientious objectors after World War II and the Vietnam War, has affected so many people at one time.

Retroactivity will be of some help to many of the 19,500 federal inmates currently serving time for crack offenses. The principal opposition is coming from prosecutors and the Justice Department, hardly a surprise.

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The Denver Post begins a series today on the inadequate job the feds are doing with respect to prosecuting crimes on Indian reservations.

Since Indian reservations fall under federal jurisdiction, crimes occurring on them are prosecuted by the Justice Department in federal court. Today's article highlights the number of sex assault and other violent crimes that never make it to prosecution. Two thoughts come to mind: [More...]

In September, I wrote about Sarge Brinkley, a young injured Army vet who returned to the U.S. addicted to pain pills. Once home, he robbed two pharmacies for percocet.

I'm writing again because his preliminary hearing is November 16, and he needs your help. Please send a letter to convince the D.A. to offer a reasonable deal.

A West Point graduate who is currently facing twenty-odd years in prison for robbing a Walgreens under California's minimum sentencing laws. He used a gun (unloaded) and robbed the drugstores of only Percocet - no money, harming nobody.

Here's the kicker -- he was addicted to the opiates after smashing his hip while serving abroad in the Army -- the military medical system
kept misdiagnosing him, and feeding him more of the painkillers. Add in some serious PTSD (he guarded mass graves in Bosnia from desecration at one point) and he spiraled down.

Sargent turned himself in, has been in a rehab program in county jail for over a year and a half while he awaits sentencing, and by all accounts is
doing well. The Santa Clara DA wants to chuck the book at him, and he'll be gone.

The California Report covered Sarge's case last week.

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(larger version here.)

Via Sentencing Law and Policy, the Criminal Law Committee of the Judicial Conference ( a body of federal judges established by Congress with the purpose of enacting policy for our federal courts) is urging the Sentencing Commission to make the recent reductions in crack cocaine sentencing guidelines retroactive. The letter is available here (pdf.)

There are 19,500 inmates serving time for crack cocaine in federal prisons. Some other good links:

• Sentencing Project and its letter (pdf)to the Commission urging retroactivity. It's crack reform sentencing page is here.

• Families Against Mandatory Minimums

As long as the Executive Branch does not exceed its constitutional authority, the Judicial Branch must generally defer to a prosecutor's charging decisions. Judges are nonetheless occasionally critical of particular prosecutions. Rarely are they as vocal as Judge Phil Gilbert.

Gilbert says even though [Katie] Heath co-operated with a drug investigation, she was hit with a mandatory sentence of 20 years. That's after she's already served time in state prison.

Katie served a year in state prison on a methamphetamine distribution charge. After her release, she made progress toward living a stable life. She got a job. She went back to school. She was taking care of her kids. Leave it to the federal Justice Department to destroy her chance at living a meaningful life.

"She obviously was trying to turn her life around and then this federal indictment hits her with a 20 year mandatory minimum" says Judge Phil Gilbert. "It just raised a lot of questions of fairness."

Judge Gilbert recused himself rather than imposing the 20 years. He has the integrity to refuse to play along with the Executive Branch’s vicious and heartless charging decision. Good for him. (more ...)

This story addresses British sex offender laws, but it teaches a lesson to state and federal lawmakers in the United States: courting votes by advancing whatever new “tough on crime” legislation is in vogue only leads to confusing and conflicting legislation.

The simple question before the judges was whether the defendant was guilty of an offence of failing to register as a sex offender contrary to the 2003 Sexual Offences Act. “Any intelligent observer would have been baffled to discover there could be any doubt about whether or not the defendant was guilty of this criminal offence," said the judge, one of a panel of three hearing the case.

“For the Court of Appeal to decide the issue, we heard detailed submissions about the legislative provisions in no less than five statutes... The problem was so complicated that three judges had to reserve judgment because at the end of the hearing we could not work out whether or not the defendant was guilty. After reserving judgment we concluded that no offence had been committed. Yet the appellant had spent time in custody.”

Almost all acts or omissions that can sensibly be criminalized have been criminalized. Give it a rest, lawmakers. We don’t need the hodgepodge of criminal statutes you enact in a rush every election year. Criminal justice codes should be revised and simplified on occasion to further coherent and consistent policies. Sentencing practices in most jurisdictions would benefit from comprehensive reform. Unless legislators want to deal with the criminal justice system as a whole, they should learn to leave it alone.

What a frightening thought. Cops using steroids to bulk up and get the upper hand when dealing with suspects.

In New York City this week six police officers are being investigated for illegally using prescriptions to obtain anabolic steroids for body building. According to law enforcement experts, the prototypical steroid user is in his 30s, white and worried about competing.

The article then describes a cop named Matthew (not his real name) and relays his comments about how he and his fellow cops bulked up so they'd have a better advantage in taking down suspects.

Matthew's case is just one example in an increasing trend among urban police officers working tough beats.

....From Boston to Arizona, police departments are investigating a growing number of incidents involving uniformed police officers using steroids. So-called "juicing" has been anecdotally associated with several brutality cases, including the 1997 sodomizing of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in New York City.

Matthew eventually got fired, charged and served 23 days in jail.

Adam Liptak reminds us of an embarrassing fact:

In December, the United Nations took up a resolution calling for the abolition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children and young teenagers. The vote was 185 to 1, with the United States the lone dissenter.

Indeed, the United States stands alone in the world in convicting young adolescents as adults and sentencing them to live out their lives in prison. According to a new report, there are 73 Americans serving such sentences for crimes they committed at 13 or 14.

The Equal Justice Initiative advocates the restoration of parole availability for juvenile offenders who are sentenced to life. Its report is here (pdf). Liptak explains why that sensible proposal won't excite legislators:

On November 1, the Sentencing Guidelines for crack cocaine will drop two levels. Not enough to make up for the outrageous disparity between crack and powder guidelines, but a good start.

The remaining question is whether the guideline change will be retroactive and apply to the 19,500 previously sentenced defendants.

The Commission will hold a public hearing on November 13 (pdf.) Sentencing Law and Policy has the details.