Though Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's comments calling federal prisoners convicted of low-level drug possession "victims" and likening the drug war to Jim Crow grabbed most of the headlines, the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Marc Levin yesterday testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on the subject of mandatory minimums. See approving coverage from The National Review. At Simple Justice, Scott Greenfield has a critique of prosecutor testimony presented at the hearing.
RELATED: See coverage of the Right on Crime campaign's effort to export the "Texas model" of sentencing reform to Oregon and pushback by Democrats there. An Oregon DA offered this criticism, which in Grits' view is a fair one: “It is deceptive to suggest that because other states started out with outrageously high incarceration rates and reduced those rates slightly, Oregon should follow suit...Other states should follow our lead and reduce their incarceration rates to the rates we have always had.” While I generally agree with Right on Crime, I also agree with that sentiment. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (pdf), in 2012 Oregon imprisoned its citizens at a rate of 378 per 100,000 population compared to 601 in the Lone Star State. Texas still has a long way to go.
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NOTE: non-lawyers visiting the SJ (Simple Justice) site should consider just reading and avoid the urge to Comment.
For some reason (this year) it has morphed into a lawyer only camp where non-lawyers are considered a 'Them' due to previous comments left by non-lawyers that didn't include hugs and kisses.
It's a guilty by association dilemma. Sadly, the lawyers & criminal justice reformers / activists are considered a 'Them' by the D.As'. and their offspring.
You've been warned.
It appears to me that anyone, anywhere, who is not a DA, Judge, or legislator is a "them."
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