Huffington Post
April 29, 2010
Please join together now and lead the charge to end drug prohibition, just as a previous generation of mothers did to end to alcohol Prohibition in the 1930s. Now is the time to demand an end to the pointless and punitive criminalization of people who use drugs -- whether they are our children or our neighbor's children -- and the needless violence and death caused by the illegal drug trade.
We're starting that movement in San Diego.
Mothers, family members and people in recovery gathered in San Diego yesterday evening to bring focus to our country's failed drug policies and the damage they've done to our families. The rally and vigil kicked off a statewide campaign to stop the overdose deaths, mass incarceration and prohibition-related violence that are the result of our country's punitive and discriminatory drug policies.
We are joining together because we see, from our own families' experiences, that the war on drugs is doing much more harm than good.
As the drug war rages on, our loved ones' drug problems are neglected. Prevention, harm reduction and treatment programs are tiny and getting smaller as funding is cut. More than 26,000 lives are lost to the preventable tragedy of accidental drug overdose every year in the U.S., making accidental drug overdose the leading cause of injury-related death for people between the ages of 35-54 and the second-leading cause of injury-related death for young people. This crisis now claims more lives each year than firearms, homicides and HIV/AIDS.
Instead of actually addressing our loved ones' drug problems, the country spends billions to incarcerate them for nothing more than drug possession. Over 1.8 million people were arrested on a drug charge in the U.S. in 2008 alone -- 1.4 million of them for possession, not sales, manufacturing or trafficking. Nearly half of all drug arrests in 2008 were for a marijuana violation. Thanks in large part to the drug war, one in 32 American adults is either incarcerated, on parole or probation or under some other form of state or local supervision.
What's worse: they are never forgiven. When they come home, they face life-long exclusions, including the permanent loss of educational and employment opportunities, as well as public housing, food stamps and, in many states, the right to vote. Ultimately, what we see in our families is that addiction may be easier to overcome than a criminal record.
At the same time as our children are needlessly suffering and dying in the U.S., Mexico has ramped up its own U.S.-inspired drug war to the detriment of families there. Since 2007, prohibition-related violence has exploded in Mexico. Over 22,700 people have been killed in the last three years in the ongoing battle with drug cartels, which may generate as much as 60 percent of their profits from the marijuana trade alone. Unfortunately, this battle shows no signs of slowing.
Mothers must speak up now and demand that the U.S. and Mexico end this failed war on drugs -- a war waged on our families - and instead invest in a health-centered approach to drug use.
In California, moms have a major opportunity to end mass arrests of our children and to fight prohibition-relation violence by passing an initiative in November this year to decriminalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol. With one vote, we can dramatically reduce drug arrests in this state and take massive amounts of profits away from drug cartels.
Together, mothers can end the neglect and destruction of the drug war. We have to. Our families and our children are at stake.
We don't have to start from scratch. Eleven years ago, a group of parents in San Diego founded A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) to advocate for therapeutic drug policies. In over a decade, we've worked hard to expand access to drug treatment and opportunities for treatment instead of incarceration. We've learned that moms -- and dads and others who care -- can achieve great things together, including the passage of Proposition 36, California's landmark treatment-instead-of-incarceration law, in 2000.
It's time to demand more and we need your help. Join us.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Viewpoints: State's Sentencing Laws Flood Jails and Prisons
Mar. 7, 2010
Viewpoints: State's sentencing laws flood jails and prisons
By Ward Connerly
Special to The Bee
Imagine you decided to draw a bath, turned on the water, and then left the room to answer the phone. When you returned five minutes later the tub was overflowing. What would you do first? Turn off the water streaming into the bath or open the drain a crack? Of course, you'd turn off the water to stop the flooding from getting worse.
Now, imagine a corrections system overflowing with prisoners. How much good is releasing prisoners early without doing something to slow down the flood of people entering the system?
This scenario describes the problem and choice confronting California. Laws requiring lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent offenders, and mindless minimum sentences imposed under the state's "two-strikes" and "three-strikes" laws, have contributed to an overcrowded prison system. Confronted by a court order to reduce its prison population and a budget crisis requiring steep spending cutsCalifornia has made the mistake of opening the drain a crack while leaving the spigot wide open. across the board,
A new state law will provide for the release of approximately 6,500 prisoners over the next year. Local officials must recalculate how they plan to shorten sentences for good behavior and other credits. These recalculations will lead the state to release eligible offenders early. Offenders convicted of serious, violent or sex crimes are not eligible. The measure will purportedly save the state more than $100 million.
California's secretary of corrections called the law a "win-win situation" because it will cut down on recidivism and allow parole agents to focus attention on more-dangerous former convicts. Sentencing-reform advocates, including Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a nonpartisan advocacy group that opposes one-size-fits-all sentencing laws, could only shake their heads at such a statement.
If the secretary is right, then why were these 6,500 people sentenced to such long terms in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to assess risk and recidivism factors and make those part of the sentencing calculation? Unfortunately, California's mandatory-sentencing laws prohibit such sensible reckoning.
Mandatory minimums in California, as elsewhere, impose mandatory prison time on offenders who might be better served by shorter sentences, drug treatment or other graduated sanctions.
There are more than 41,000 prisoners serving time under California's "two-strikes" and "three-strikes" laws; two-thirds of whom did not commit crimes against people. Many are housed in maximum-security prisons that cost taxpayers an average of $31,000 per prisoner per year. It is these laws that created California's prison morass and led to the current attempt to address it through the early expulsion of prisoners.
But some California law enforcement officials don't see early release as a way out of the crisis. They are expressing (and stoking) fears that the release will lead to a new crime wave. They quickly found their poster child in Kevin Peterson. Peterson was charged with attempted rape just 12 hours after being released.
"Our greatest fear has been realized," said the head of a crime victims' advocacy group. And the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association seized on the Peterson arrest and filed a lawsuit to stop further releases.
Those of us who support reform of California's harsh sentencing laws appreciate the concerns raised by law enforcement and victims-rights organizations.
The problem, however, lies not in the fact that some people will serve shorter prison sentences, but rather in California's motivation, approach and execution. Hasty action in the throes of a legal and budgetary firestorm is not the way to make sound policy.
To be fair, the alleged new crime of Kevin Peterson cannot be blamed on the new law. After all, Peterson's release was accelerated a mere 16 days by the new program. But his case raises questions about whether the law should have applied to someone, like Peterson, who had previously committed violent felonies but was serving his current sentence for violating parole, which is considered a nonviolent offense.
Questions also have arisen about how to implement the law. In the wake of Peterson's latest arrest, Attorney General Jerry Brown suggested the law should not be applied retroactively, a view that seems likely to reduce the savings the law was expected to achieve.
California's release program, however necessary and well-intentioned, is not going to solve the state's prison-overcrowding problem. It's the equivalent of trying to stop the tub from overflowing by slightly opening the drain.
The state (and the federal government) must enact permanent, front-end reforms that will reduce the flow of prisoners into the system. At the top of that list should be repeal of all mandatory-minimum-sentence laws, including the fatally flawed "three-strikes" law.
Viewpoints: State's sentencing laws flood jails and prisons
By Ward Connerly
Special to The Bee
Imagine you decided to draw a bath, turned on the water, and then left the room to answer the phone. When you returned five minutes later the tub was overflowing. What would you do first? Turn off the water streaming into the bath or open the drain a crack? Of course, you'd turn off the water to stop the flooding from getting worse.
Now, imagine a corrections system overflowing with prisoners. How much good is releasing prisoners early without doing something to slow down the flood of people entering the system?
This scenario describes the problem and choice confronting California. Laws requiring lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent offenders, and mindless minimum sentences imposed under the state's "two-strikes" and "three-strikes" laws, have contributed to an overcrowded prison system. Confronted by a court order to reduce its prison population and a budget crisis requiring steep spending cutsCalifornia has made the mistake of opening the drain a crack while leaving the spigot wide open. across the board,
A new state law will provide for the release of approximately 6,500 prisoners over the next year. Local officials must recalculate how they plan to shorten sentences for good behavior and other credits. These recalculations will lead the state to release eligible offenders early. Offenders convicted of serious, violent or sex crimes are not eligible. The measure will purportedly save the state more than $100 million.
California's secretary of corrections called the law a "win-win situation" because it will cut down on recidivism and allow parole agents to focus attention on more-dangerous former convicts. Sentencing-reform advocates, including Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a nonpartisan advocacy group that opposes one-size-fits-all sentencing laws, could only shake their heads at such a statement.
If the secretary is right, then why were these 6,500 people sentenced to such long terms in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to assess risk and recidivism factors and make those part of the sentencing calculation? Unfortunately, California's mandatory-sentencing laws prohibit such sensible reckoning.
Mandatory minimums in California, as elsewhere, impose mandatory prison time on offenders who might be better served by shorter sentences, drug treatment or other graduated sanctions.
There are more than 41,000 prisoners serving time under California's "two-strikes" and "three-strikes" laws; two-thirds of whom did not commit crimes against people. Many are housed in maximum-security prisons that cost taxpayers an average of $31,000 per prisoner per year. It is these laws that created California's prison morass and led to the current attempt to address it through the early expulsion of prisoners.
But some California law enforcement officials don't see early release as a way out of the crisis. They are expressing (and stoking) fears that the release will lead to a new crime wave. They quickly found their poster child in Kevin Peterson. Peterson was charged with attempted rape just 12 hours after being released.
"Our greatest fear has been realized," said the head of a crime victims' advocacy group. And the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association seized on the Peterson arrest and filed a lawsuit to stop further releases.
Those of us who support reform of California's harsh sentencing laws appreciate the concerns raised by law enforcement and victims-rights organizations.
The problem, however, lies not in the fact that some people will serve shorter prison sentences, but rather in California's motivation, approach and execution. Hasty action in the throes of a legal and budgetary firestorm is not the way to make sound policy.
To be fair, the alleged new crime of Kevin Peterson cannot be blamed on the new law. After all, Peterson's release was accelerated a mere 16 days by the new program. But his case raises questions about whether the law should have applied to someone, like Peterson, who had previously committed violent felonies but was serving his current sentence for violating parole, which is considered a nonviolent offense.
Questions also have arisen about how to implement the law. In the wake of Peterson's latest arrest, Attorney General Jerry Brown suggested the law should not be applied retroactively, a view that seems likely to reduce the savings the law was expected to achieve.
California's release program, however necessary and well-intentioned, is not going to solve the state's prison-overcrowding problem. It's the equivalent of trying to stop the tub from overflowing by slightly opening the drain.
The state (and the federal government) must enact permanent, front-end reforms that will reduce the flow of prisoners into the system. At the top of that list should be repeal of all mandatory-minimum-sentence laws, including the fatally flawed "three-strikes" law.
Sheriffs Want Database of Prescription Drug Users
(NaturalNews Opinion Piece)
Sheriffs in North Carolina are petitioning state legislators to be given access to the database of patients who are in possession of powerful prescription painkillers and other controlled substances. The state sheriff's association fronted the idea last week, saying it would help them make more arrests of people who illegally sell prescription narcotics (painkillers), almost all of which are acquired through doctor prescriptions of FDA-approved drugs.
Astonishingly, almost 30 percent of North Carolina residents received a controlled substance prescription drug this year alone. That means the sheriff's drug database, if granted, would give law enforcement details of the medication habits of 3 out of every 10 residents in the state.
Read the rest of the piece at http://www.naturalnews.com/029736_sheriffs_drug_database.html
Sheriffs in North Carolina are petitioning state legislators to be given access to the database of patients who are in possession of powerful prescription painkillers and other controlled substances. The state sheriff's association fronted the idea last week, saying it would help them make more arrests of people who illegally sell prescription narcotics (painkillers), almost all of which are acquired through doctor prescriptions of FDA-approved drugs.
Astonishingly, almost 30 percent of North Carolina residents received a controlled substance prescription drug this year alone. That means the sheriff's drug database, if granted, would give law enforcement details of the medication habits of 3 out of every 10 residents in the state.
Read the rest of the piece at http://www.naturalnews.com/029736_sheriffs_drug_database.html
Monday, September 6, 2010
Corrections Quandary: Mental Illness and Prison Rules
The number of incarcerated men and women with severe mental illness has grown so tremendously in the last few decades that prisons may now be the largest mental health providers in the United States. Yet U.S. prisons are not designed or equipped for mentally ill prisoners. Prison conditions are hard on mental health in general, because of overcrowding, violence, lack of privacy, lack of meaningful activities, isolation from family and friends, uncertainty about life after prison, and inadequate health ser- vices.1 The impact of these problems is worse for prisoners whose thinking and emotional responses are impaired by schizophrenia, bipolar disease, major depression, and other serious mental illnesses. The mentally ill in prison also face inadequate mental health services that leave them under-treated or mistreated. In addition, poor mental health services leave many prisoners receiving, as Thomas C. O’Bryant points out, inappropriate kinds or amounts of psychotropic medication that further impairs their ability to function.
There is an inherent tension between the security mission of prisons and mental health considerations. The formal and informal rules and codes of conduct in prison reflect staff concerns about security, safety, power, and control. Coordinating the needs of the mentally ill with those rules and goals is nearly impossible.
Read the full essay at ttp://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/crcl/vol41_2/fellner.pdf
There is an inherent tension between the security mission of prisons and mental health considerations. The formal and informal rules and codes of conduct in prison reflect staff concerns about security, safety, power, and control. Coordinating the needs of the mentally ill with those rules and goals is nearly impossible.
Read the full essay at ttp://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/crcl/vol41_2/fellner.pdf
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
International Overdose Awareness Day
International Overdose Awareness Day
Dear friends,
Today in the US, there's already been a huge burst of activity in support of Overdose Awareness Day. Rallies & press conferences are happening in places like San Francisco and Hartford. Op-eds about Overdose Awareness Day are running on blogs & websites like Alternet.
People from around the world have been "tweeting" on Twitter for hours using the tag #od10 in their messages about overdose. And candlelight vigils are being held in dozens of communities tonight.
Thousands of people are coming together today to remember the lives of people they loved and still miss desperately. People are coming together in sorrow and grief, helping each other heal; people are coming together in frustration and anger, demanding their local government make naloxone available and pass a Good Samaritan 911 policy to make it safe for people to call for help if they witness an overdose. People come together in dozens of different ways today--to achieve different things, to remember different people--but all fundamentally for the same thing:
To draw attention to the fact that overdose death is preventable if we actually DO something about it.
Do you have teenagers? Do they know the deadliest combinations of drugs and alcohol? Do you? Do they know what to do if they see someone overdosing? Do you? Do they know what naloxone is and how it's used to save someone overdosing on an opiate like heroin or OxyContin? Do you?
The only way we can get our hands around the overdose crisis is to teach ourselves and our loved ones how to prevent, recognize and respond to an overdose--and to demand our legislators pass policies that make it safe for people to call for lifesaving help without fearing arrest. We can urge Congress to take action on the Drug Overdose Reduction Act. We can ask our local public health department if naloxone is available and if not, how can you make that happen?
I encourage you to check the Purple Ribbons for Overdose Prevention Facebook Cause page frequently. You'll find recent stories in the news about overdose, as well as links to actions you can take to help reduce overdose fatalities. You'll find people grieving their loved ones and posting stories about them as a tribute. You can be more involved with people just like you who care about this issue.
Meghan Ralston, cause creator
Dear friends,
Today in the US, there's already been a huge burst of activity in support of Overdose Awareness Day. Rallies & press conferences are happening in places like San Francisco and Hartford. Op-eds about Overdose Awareness Day are running on blogs & websites like Alternet.
People from around the world have been "tweeting" on Twitter for hours using the tag #od10 in their messages about overdose. And candlelight vigils are being held in dozens of communities tonight.
Thousands of people are coming together today to remember the lives of people they loved and still miss desperately. People are coming together in sorrow and grief, helping each other heal; people are coming together in frustration and anger, demanding their local government make naloxone available and pass a Good Samaritan 911 policy to make it safe for people to call for help if they witness an overdose. People come together in dozens of different ways today--to achieve different things, to remember different people--but all fundamentally for the same thing:
To draw attention to the fact that overdose death is preventable if we actually DO something about it.
Do you have teenagers? Do they know the deadliest combinations of drugs and alcohol? Do you? Do they know what to do if they see someone overdosing? Do you? Do they know what naloxone is and how it's used to save someone overdosing on an opiate like heroin or OxyContin? Do you?
The only way we can get our hands around the overdose crisis is to teach ourselves and our loved ones how to prevent, recognize and respond to an overdose--and to demand our legislators pass policies that make it safe for people to call for lifesaving help without fearing arrest. We can urge Congress to take action on the Drug Overdose Reduction Act. We can ask our local public health department if naloxone is available and if not, how can you make that happen?
I encourage you to check the Purple Ribbons for Overdose Prevention Facebook Cause page frequently. You'll find recent stories in the news about overdose, as well as links to actions you can take to help reduce overdose fatalities. You'll find people grieving their loved ones and posting stories about them as a tribute. You can be more involved with people just like you who care about this issue.
Meghan Ralston, cause creator
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