Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 9:33 am | By: Radical Russ
(Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice) The 2008 figures show California’s crime index (key offenses reported to police) stands at its lowest level since 1963, including the lowest rates of homicide in 40 years. Among youth, 2008 arrest rates continue the trend of the last seven years, with felony rates at their lowest level since statistics were first kept in 1955 and record-low overall arrest rates around half the level of the 1950s. For every race and both sexes, youth crime rates are at their lowest trough since reliable records have been kept.
Of course, “fair is fair”: those who would own crime decreases should also own crime increases. California’s new 2007 and 2008 figures contain some truly bad news as well: the aging crime and drug abuse waves continue to crest. Here, we have a pretty good idea what went wrong. Conservatives in power fought the 1980s and 1990s middle-aged drug and crime surge by tossing tens, then hundreds of thousands in prison for longer periods—which, it turns out, actually worsens addiction (who could have known?). Liberals ignored the crisis altogether and still do. In 2007, a record 4,100 Californians died from overdoses of illicit drugs, triple the number in 1980. Now we have what no one thought possible: a burgeoning 40- and 50-age crime epidemic, whose felony totals rocketed from 22,000 in 1980 to 112,000 in 2008.
How has California law enforcement attacked this graying crime scourge driven by surging abuse of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, pills, and booze? By drastically boosting arrests for one particular offense… wait for it… misdemeanor marijuana possession. Note carefully: arrest rates for violent crimes, property offenses, felony drug sales, all other drugs, all felonies, all misdemeanors—that is, virtually everything else—declined (often sharply) over the last 15 years. But arrests of Californians for simple marijuana possession rocketed from 21,000 in 1990 to 61,000 in 2008—a population-adjusted rate leap of 127%.
Where did this lunatic strategy come from? Granted, there’s a massive aging drug crisis bellowing for attention, but it’s not pot. Meanwhile, crime clearance reports show that in 2008, law enforcement FAILED to solve 43% of all reported murders, 58% of reported rapes, and 57% of felony violent crimes—one of the worst years for policing on record.
The reefer mad, like the “Officer X” who was on the Rob Van Dam show when I guested, would say that it’s because of the marijuana arrests that crime rates are so low. This is what I call “Magic Tiger Rock thinking”. See, I’ve had this magic tiger rock ever since I was a kid, and since I’ve had it, no tigers have attacked me.
Policing is a zero sum game. Officer time spent on a misdemeanor marijuana possession arrest is time not spent on patrol for real crime. This is how prohibition endangers even those who don’t use cannabis. Busting potheads is an easy day at work. Tracking down murderers, rapists, and thugs is real work… and those people shoot back!
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 11:20 am | By: Radical Russ
(Oregonian) SALEM — Faced with a $78 million hole in the state public safety budget, lawmakers are proposing to save money by delaying a voter-approved measure requiring longer sentences for property thieves. Also, they want to release prisoners early for good behavior and ease penalties for people caught with small amounts of drugs.
The bill also would make nonviolent criminals eligible for early release based on good behavior. Estimated savings: $8 million.
“I don’t like letting people out of jail,” said Rep. Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a veteran of 31 years in law enforcement.
“If it wasn’t for the budget crunch, we wouldn’t be having the debate,” he said. “But the cuts are so devastating that we have to save money.”
Barker estimates the state could save $95 million to be plowed back into prisons, courts and state police.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski sent a letter Monday praising the four Democrats who led the negotiations.
The deal will “generate enough savings to maintain critical public safety services like State Police 24/7 patrol, Oregon Youth Authority beds, court days and other services,” he wrote.
The state’s prisons budget has grown 20 percent each biennium since 1995.
Oregon already has marijuana decriminalization up to an ounce, but there are still those caught in the system with more than that amount and those who were growing marijuana. Legalization of marijuana, as proposed by Oregon NORML in the Oregon Harm Reduction Act, would cut the costs associated with enforcing marijuana laws in the state ($61.5 million, as estimated by Jeffery Miron) or at least allow them to be redirected to the “State Police 24/7 patrol, Oregon Youth Authority beds, court days and other services.” Then the money raised from the taxes and profits on consumer cannabis could also be “plowed back into prisons, courts and state police.”
How long will our states be able to afford the fruitless endeavor of trying to stop adults from smoking cannabis and leaving all that market’s riches to criminals?
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 12:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.
During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.
Deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak announced on Tuesday that eight prisons will be closed, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs. Natural redundancy and other measures should prevent any forced lay-offs, the minister said.
The overcapacity is a result of the declining crime rate, which the ministry’s research department expects to continue for some time.
Remember this the next time a prohibitionist tells you how terrible things became once the Dutch began tolerating sales and use of marijuana in coffee shops. They’re closing prisons because they haven’t enough criminals; we’re home to the largest imprisoned population on the planet in history.
Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 8:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
Wayne Kramer’s post on returning to Sing Sing prison to perform a concert with Tom Morello, Jerry Cantrell, Billy Bragg, Perry Farrell, and other musicians:
(Huffington Post) The Sing Sing show was a bonus. To say it was memorable would be a massive understatement. As would be understating the importance of reaching out to the people on the receiving end of the greatest failure of social policy in America’s domestic history.
You would have to be living on the moon to not know what a disaster the “War On Drugs” has been. Twenty billion dollars a year for the last 30 years, two million Americans in prison — 60% of them non-violent drug offenders — and you can go out on any American street corner and buy cheaper, higher quality heroin and cocaine than you could anywhere in America 30 years ago. The political expediency of “get tough on crime” along with the sure-fire vote getting “lock them up and throw away the key” mentality has successfully created the highly profitable Prison Industrial Complex.
On Saturday, I asked a corrections officer at Sing Sing what the prisoner population in New York State is right now. “Just over 50,000,” she replied. Then, it occurred to me: When I was imprisoned for drug offenses in the 1970s, the entire Federal Prison population totaled just over 50,000 inmates. Then the C.O. added that, when she started her career in corrections 20 years ago, there were 23 prisons in New York State. As I write this today, there are over 60!
Crime stats have stayed consistent over the last 30 years, but incarceration rates have more than quadrupled. It’s the human cost that has been the most damaging. I’m talking about non-violent drug offenders. Countless families broken up, the marriages destroyed, three generations of kids with fathers (and mothers) in and out of the system. These are mostly brown and black people. People from America’s cities who, as screenwriter David Simon describes them, “Leftover people. People who were necessary in an industrial America but who are of no use to the economy today.” Non-violent drug offenders who are locked up are people who are pawns in urban political gamesmanship. Nobody talks about them. There’s no political will to look at it. There’s no political capital in it. It’s a no-winner. But, there’s certainly money in prison building and guard hiring.
Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 11:20 am | By: Dudemaster
For those who may remember Will Foster, and for those who are new to the story, Ed Rosenthal has been a key factor in helping Will to maintain his freedom. Unfortunately, his freedom will always come at a personal cost and Will’s freedom is again, a subject of debate.
In the late nineties, Will Foster was convicted of growing a 5×5 ft. marijuana garden in the basement of his Tulsa, Oklahoma home. I testified at the trial and upon landing again in Oakland and getting in a car to go home, a radio program was discussing the Tulsa race riots of 1921, in which the entire black population of the city was either murdered or escaped. It was by far the most blatant example of ethnic cleansing ever perpetrated in the United States. The thought of what happened in Tulsa sent a shiver up my spine. Shortly afterwards, I learned that Will Foster was sentenced to 93 years in prison.
After spending four and a half years in prison, pressure from media attention and public outrage led the Oklahoma Supreme Court to release Will and parole him for a 20 year probationary period on the basis that a 93 year sentence was cruel and unusual punishment.
He was freed, and due to his degenerative arthritis, chose to move to California to escape persecution as a medical marijuana user. He was allowed to move to California as long as his probation was continued in California and he had a sponsor in the state, [me]. Will and his daughter Anna lived with me for almost a year. In that time he had established himself enough to get an apartment, find work, and renew his life. Three years went by and when it came time for California to renew his 12-year probation, the state decided that because California would never give a person more than three years probation for weed, they would not be extending the probation period. Oklahoma asked him to come back and he chose to remain in California, where he had established a life. He remained in communication with the Oklahoma authorities to try to work out a solution administratively that would keep him in California. Although the state of Oklahoma continued to issue warrants, they made no attempt of retrieving him.
Can you imagine going back to Oklahoma and its strict marijuana laws, being watched, being tested, all while having degenerative arthritis which only marijuana soothed? For years, Will tried to negotiate with the Oklahoma authorities, all to no avail.
In October of 2005, an alarm went off in a property that Will was renting. He went to see what was going on and when the police came, an ID check showed that he had a probation warrant in Oklahoma. He was arrested solely on the probation charge. After sitting in jail for almost six months, the Sonoma Country judge, Judge Daum, upon reviewing the facts, decided that Will was complying with state law and that because Oklahoma had not come to extradite him, the matter was out of his jurisdiction and Will’s case was dismissed. Will was released and renewed his life once more.
Imagine the disruption of being dragged away and placed in a state of suspended animation for months, everything is either lost or stored. All relationships are placed on hold and then, to be released back into life again after the state says “we didn’t really mean it, sorry”.
All was going fine until Will got into a really negative part of his relationship with a former lover who convinced local narcotics authorities and the DEA that they would find something big in a raid of his home. They didn’t, what they did find was a medical marijuana garden in compliance with local and state guidelines and small amounts of other controlled substances in his home that may or may not have belonged to him. Will was arrested and then the issues of the Oklahoma warrant came up again.
What would have been a trivial case has become a life-threatening exercise in injustice. Will has been in jail for a year, awaiting trial. If he loses the trial, which includes mostly marijuana charges, the Oklahoma warrant is sure to come into play, and if he wins it may.
There are technical questions as to whether this new warrant is still subject to the judge’s order, and whether Governor Schwarzenegger’s signature on the warrant overrides the judge’s discretion. A different judge than Daum will be deciding this case.
Beyond the health and well-being of Will, his case should be of great importance and concern not only to the medical marijuana community, but also any American taxpayer. Sonoma Country, California has been footing the bill for over a year to enforce not state or local laws in state hit exceptionally hard by the economic downfall, but the Draconian and extremist drug policies of the state of Oklahoma.
Along as being a friend and ally of the medical marijuana community, Will Foster is the poster child of how the criminal justice system is still locked in a mindset of hammering people with expensive and irrational jail sentences- regardless of personal circumstances- for the perpetration of a victimless crime.
This is where it stands folks, Will is in jail in Santa Rosa, CA and he needs your help.
There are several ways you can help him:
Courtroom dates and times will be posted at www.medicalmarijuanaofamerica.com. Donations to his legal defense are greatly appreciated. Make out checks to Chris Andrian, Atty. and mail to P.O. Box 196 Jenner, CA 95450
I’m just curious; can someone check on President Obama and tell us if he is still laughing? If he is, let’s give him a urine test and screen him for THC because this isn’t funny.
America’s criminal justice system needs repair. Prisons are overcrowded, sentencing policies are uneven and often unfair, ex-convicts are poorly integrated into society, and the growing problem of gang violence has not received the attention it deserves. For these and other reasons, a bill introduced last week by Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, should be given high priority on the Congressional calendar.
Mr. Webb has enlisted the support of not only the Senate’s top-ranking Democrats, including the majority leader, Harry Reid, but also influential Republicans like Arlen Specter, the ranking minority member on the Judiciary Committee, and Lindsey Graham, the ranking member of the crime and drugs subcommittee.
There is no companion bill in the House, and one needs to be written. Judging by the bipartisan support in the Senate, a national consensus has emerged that the criminal justice system is broken.
Senator Webb’s getting more and more air time on his recently submitted bill. Please contact your elected officials and let them know you support a re-evaluation of our criminal justice system especially in how it pertains to non-violent drug offenders.
With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different–and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.
Drug offenders, most of them passive users or minor dealers, are swamping our prisons. According to data supplied to Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, those imprisoned for drug offenses rose from 10% of the inmate population to approximately 33% between 1984 and 2002. Experts estimate that this increase accounts for about half of the dramatic escalation in the total number imprisoned over that period. Yet locking up more of these offenders has done nothing to break up the power of the multibillion-dollar illegal drug trade. Nor has it brought about a reduction in the amounts of the more dangerous drugs–such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines–that are reaching our citizens.
Justice statistics also show that 47.5% of all the drug arrests in our country in 2007 were for marijuana offenses. Additionally, nearly 60% of the people in state prisons serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity. Indeed, four out of five drug arrests were for possession of illegal substances, while only one out of five was for sales. Three-quarters of the drug offenders in our state prisons were there for nonviolent or purely drug offenses. And although experts have found little statistical difference among racial groups regarding actual drug use, African-Americans–who make up about 12% of the total U.S. population–accounted for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.
I urge you to hit the link to check out the rest of this great article from a Senator from my state of Virginia that most definitely ‘gets it’. Note that that are a few key items in the piece – namely the distinction between hard drugs (cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines) and soft drugs (marijuana) and that the enforcement of drug laws are racist in nature and implementation. If your state is acting on or considering prison and sentencing reform, please let Senator Webb’s office know about it.
[This story fits perfectly with my mantra that it's not how wonderful legalizing marijuana could be, it's how awful prohibition of marijuana is that will bring about the change we seek. -- "R"R]
With one in 31 Americans now under some form of correctional supervision, mass incarceration is hitting closer to home for urban, suburban and rural residents who never envisioned family members would one day be locked away in remote prisons. Some have even been shipped off to other states. (Out-of-state transfers are routine in the federal system, and increasingly common in overcrowded state prison systems that contract with private prison operators.)
While California, New York and Texas have begun to show slight decreases in their bloated prison populations, the South has become the epicenter of the latest incarceration upsurge: Kentucky (#1), Florida (#5), Virginia (#6), Alabama (#7), and Louisiana (#8) are in the nation’s top 10 for imprisonment rate increases from 2000 to 2007. Drug-related arrests—nearly 2 million in 2007—continue to play a major role in driving up the numbers of jail and state prison inmates, while the majority of federal prisoners are doing time for drug offenses (more than 95,000 men and women in 2007).
Not every Democratic legislator is fearful of criminal justice reform. Freshman Virginia Senator Jim Webb is pushing for US prison reform this spring. The link mentions that
Hmm, I’m pretty impressed a sitting official is more concerned with doing what is obviously right as opposed to making sure he gets re-elected. Senator Webb is different from many elected officials in that he is qualified to do things other than be a career politician.
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 2:30 pm | By: Radical Russ
An employee at a local pot dispensary charged with conspiring to distribute scores of pounds of marijuana for several years was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 30 months in jail.
Timothy Doolittle, along with seven others, was arrested in July 2007 at Bakersfield’s Natures Medicinal Inc., which had been operating at 323 Roberts Lane and is owned by co-defendants David Chavez Sr. and David Chavez Jr.
At one point, Doolittle faced up to 20 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in November to the felony charges, but he was found to be a “minor player” in the operations, his attorney David A. Torres said.
Doolittle worked at Natures for two years where he distributed about 188 pounds of marijuana from September 2004 to July 2007, according to the criminal complaint filed in court.
The charges were part of an ongoing tension between state laws, which allow distribution of medicinal marijuana, and federal laws, which do not. Several pot dispensaries in Bakersfield shut down because of the crackdown.
Protests rang out at the time of the crackdown. Medical marijuana advocates here, including Douglas McAfee, president of Bakersfield NORML, a pro-legalization group, called the busts “an overreach of the federal government.”
188 pounds of marijuana in that time period averages out to about 5½ pounds a month or about 4½ ounces per business day (188 lbs. / 34 months / 20 business days). That hardly sounds like a major drug kingpin to me. Sounds to me like one Californian not paying any sales taxes or payroll taxes or income taxes for 2½ years and California footing the bill for his room, board, and guarding for 2½ years. And all the while, there will still be dispensaries and medical marijuana in California, no matter how many lives the federal government shatters.
Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 12:23 pm | By: Radical Russ
The head of Ohio’s prison system gave state legislators a no-nonsense budget talk yesterday, saying, “We’ve lost the war on drugs, yet we keep sending people to state prisons.”
Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, made an impassioned plea for sentencing reforms to divert more offenders from overcrowded state prisons and ease the burden on the financially strapped system.
The alternative: closing another prison in 2011, Collins told a House committee reviewing the state budget.
The director said state prisons are bulging with 32 percent more inmates than they are designed to hold, and the population will hit 60,000 in the next decade unless changes are made. It was 50,719 on Monday.
Gov. Ted Strickland’s two-year budget proposes spending a total of $3.65 billion in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 to operate prisons, community-corrections facilities and halfway houses funded by the state. Collins said the proposed budget, though large, will require cutting about 500 positions from his payroll.
“We cannot continue to believe the only option is to punish people by sending them to prison,” Collins said. “We need to stop sending people to prison who we are just ‘mad at.’ … Prison beds should be maintained for those who are just plain ‘bad.’ ”
I love that line! Again it comes down to the simple economic truth that the states can no longer afford to be in the business of “sending messages” about one’s personal drug use. The public may be “mad at” those of us who choose marijuana over martinis and cannabis over cigars, but arresting us to deter our use has not worked and has cost the public billions in revenue, expenses, and lives.
RevRayGreen: MASS TWEET THIS -@ChuckGrassley Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer sadness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
RevRayGreen: @ChuckGrassley http://bit.ly/55Ejsi Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer madness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
SneakerPimp: one last thing Puff puff pass to any one who wants it
SneakerPimp: i wanna here about the imminent MiniSpof sounds like time for some
SneakerPimp: im estatic and excited for NSL today.
SneakerPimp: mountain time wake n bake
SneakerPimp: oh yea also wake n bake
SneakerPimp: its central im high as a kite everybody
SneakerPimp: ill grab that WUD
WakeUpDead: @Russ, I dont think that wireless is going to work out for the show, it was choppy and studdered just like last week. Hardline may be the only way. Puff [...]
WakeUpDead: A MINI Spof, Lock up your Weed, in 18 years that is. Really Man congrats! Greatest days of my life when my kids were born, hell yeh, great news [...]
BenJaMin: Late night Stash!!!
SneakerPimp: heres a bong rip for spof
RevRayGreen: errr test over....
RevRayGreen: on hold..
RevRayGreen: @RR I'll try and lob a call to you.....
SneakerPimp: where is the first field of cannabis gonna be?
SneakerPimp: !
Radical Russ: Breaking News: MrSpof's wife's water just broke! A MiniSpof is imminent!
SneakerPimp: oh russ its not my fault that i dont understand choppy word:stoned:
SneakerPimp: @Mrspof congratulations tell us all about it tommrow
Radical Russ: OK, test over. Sorry. Only needed a half hour. Be back tomorrow afternoon.
slash5city: don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west
thaistik: Local Crime Stoppers notice.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pot shop burglars sought
Crime Stoppers is looking for information on the suspects who police say burglarized a medical marijuana dispensary and stole cash, drugs [...]
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
California crime stats show crime dropping, but marijuana arrests skyrocketing
sounds like time for some 
mountain time wake n bake 
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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