Tornado Alley (PROG)

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‘3 strikes’ bill goes nowhere

adrian walker

Boston Articles
January 14, 2012|By Adrian Walker

There are members of the Massachusetts Legislature who believe its best work is done with a minimum of public scrutiny, and some of them voted with their feet on Thursday.

A conference committee hearing on increasingly controversial “three strikes and you’re out’’ criminal sentencing legislation was abruptly canceled when the House members pulled out. They didn’t like the idea of airing their many differences in public, and they hate the Senate’s bill, too.

“I’m not going to go to a conference committee and just stare at each other,’’ said Eugene O’Flaherty of Chelsea, House chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “If we’re going to have a discussion it should be about the things that brought us together in the first place, which is what some consider a disparity in sentencing.’’

It’s a complicated picture, but I’ll take a stab at a summary. The Senate wants life sentences for those who commit three felonies - not all felonies, but three from among a long list. The House believes the list should be much shorter and limited to violent crimes. The House would also like to reduce sharply the number of mandatory minimum sentences for drug cases, and also decrease the size of school zones where drug crimes earn more severe penalties, from 1,000 feet to 100 feet, a notion that leaves the Senate cold. Governor Deval Patrick, who filed his own crime bill last year, is much closer, philosophically, to the House.

Activists say the bill passed by the Senate would drastically increase prison overcrowding, a building crisis that gets far too little recognition.

The notion of getting tougher on repeat offenders gained a huge boost when Woburn police Officer John Maguire was shot to death in 2010 by Dominic Cinelli, who had been paroled despite receiving three life sentences. The state’s Parole Board was overhauled in the wake of the Cinelli debacle, but that has not quelled the public outrage. Outrageous as the Cinelli case was, it’s still odd that some lawmakers are calling for tougher enforcement at a time when violent crime is down and the rate of parole has already slowed substantially.

The administration makes the argument that the state has a law to put habitual offenders away for long stretches of time, a law that has only been used 84 times in the past decade. But that law - which guarantees offenders a shot at parole after serving half their sentences - is so weak that prosecutors have simply ignored it. Advocates insist that a new law will be used far more often.

http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-14/metro/30624332_1_life-sentences-mandatory-minimum-sentences-sentences-for-nonviolent-offenders

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This afternoon on Australia ABC radio there will be a discussion on overcrowding
in California prisons .. triple stacked bunks was mentioned in the preview ..

Prisons remove overflow bunks

Move cuts down on heavy crowding
By Don Thompson / The Associated Press
March 3, 2012

California prisons marked a milestone yesterday when officials said they had removed the last of nearly 20,000 beds
that had been jammed into gymnasiums and other common areas to house inmates who overflowed traditional prison cells.

Inmates in rows of double- and triple-stacked bunk beds became an iconic symbol of the
overcrowding crisis, Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said in announcing an end to the practice.

more .. http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/314969/prisons-remove-overflow-bunks?page=full

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Too many prisoners! .. http://www.squidoo.com/prison-overcrowding-is-quickly-becoming-a-major-problem-in-the-united-states

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Incarceration in the United States

Incarceration in the United States is one of the main forms of punishment and/or rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. At year-end 2009 it was 743 adults incarcerated per 100,000 population.


Number of inmates. 1920 to 2006. (absolute numbers) General US population grew only
2.8 times in the same period, but the number of inmates increased more than 20 times.


7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009.


A graph showing the incarceration rate under state and federal jurisdiction per 100,000 population 1925-2008. Does not include prisoners held in the custody of local jails, inmates out to court, and those in transit. The male incarceration rate is roughly 15 times the female incarceration rate.

more .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

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Added to the abysmal failure and consequences of the 'war on drugs', minimum sentencing laws, '3 strikes you're out', PRIVATE INCARCERATION INSTITUTIONS .. all that .. THIS WONDERFUL FACT FILLED graphic says much to the problem of overcrowded incarceration establishments ..

The Private Sector Is 'Doing Fine' ..But You Don't Feel It



http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76721958

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.. early intervention for troubled children and families .. education .. a decent minimum wage ..
awareness AT THE TOP of the importance of an understanding of the worth of a common good ethic .. JOBS!!!

Purpose beyond Power .. Wolfgang H. Reinicke Jun. 14, 2012 .. three bits ..

"We stand at a critical juncture. Recreating democracy and open societies in a global age requires investment in new ideas to rebalance political, economic, and social power at both the national and the global level. Nationally, we need to experiment with new mechanisms for policymaking and implementation, reconnecting democratic institutions to citizens and emerging networks of civil society. Globally, we must allow political and social power to establish their rightful place next to economic power."

and

The refusal of today’s elites to promote an effective balance of the three powers – to recognize a
larger purpose beyond maximizing each individual power – has visibly translated into a waning
regard for the public good. This has dramatic consequences for liberal democracy and open societies.

finally

We have lost two valuable decades to respond adequately to globalization and the crisis of liberal democracy and
open societies. It is time to begin an honest reflection about power and its purpose in today’s rapidly changing world.

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76638759

.. when will the cycle turn? ..