DOJ to Release Thousands of Inmates Early

hm1996

hm1996

Moderator
Staff member

You don't suppose that their not so cleverly hidden agenda could be to further enhance the democratic voter rolls just in time for the upcoming mid-term elections, do you?

Naahhh, I'm sure the thought never entered their minds.
rolleyes.gif


Quote:
Justice Department invites thousands of inmates to seek clemency


April 23, 2014, 7:05 p.m.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday unveiled the most ambitious federal clemency program in 40 years, inviting thousands of jailed drug offenders and other convicts to seek early release as part of a new program intended to correct sentencing injustices and relieve prison overcrowding.

Though eligibility restrictions may limit how many prisoners are ultimately released to several hundred, experts said they had not seen such a sweeping use of presidential clemency power to achieve a policy goal since President Ford's amnesty for Vietnam draft dodgers in the 1970s.

The program is part of a campaign being waged by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. to scale back the use of mandatory sentences and reduce the overall prison population, particularly among African American drug offenders serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes.

Since taking office, President Obama has lagged well behind other modern presidents in granting pardons or commutations. But while it remained unclear how many prisoners would benefit, the program is likely to bring his numbers in line with recent predecessors and possibly push them far beyond.

What is most unusual is the move to solicit requests for clemency from prisoners and to streamline the process for getting applications to the president's desk.

Prisoners will be notified of the new policy starting next week, and they will be able to fill out an electronic survey that will be used to evaluate their application. Prisoners will be provided free, volunteer lawyers who answered a call to service issued in January by Deputy Atty. Gen. James M. Cole.

Cole also said Wednesday that the department's current pardon attorney, Ron Rodgers, would step aside and Justice Department lawyer Deborah Leff, a longtime prisoner advocate, would take his place.

Rodgers had been seen by some as an obstacle to approving large numbers of clemency applications. Volunteers will be sought within the department to help Leff and her staff process the thousands of applications expected.

The primary target of the program will be crack cocaine users and dealers who were sentenced under a particularly tough law that was relaxed by Congress in 2010. An estimated 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners would not be incarcerated today if they had been sentenced under the new law, though many of those will not be eligible for release under the program.

"Correcting these sentences is simply a matter of fairness that is fundamental to our principles at the department, and it's a commitment that all Department of Justice employees stand behind," Cole said. "The fundamental American concept, equal justice under law, requires that our laws be enforced fairly — and not just going forward. It is equally important that we extend this fairness to those who are already serving prison sentences for their crimes."

Experts cautioned that the department's stringent criteria for release would limit the number of those who would be eligible for a presidential commutation.

Prisoners must have already served 10 years and must be facing a substantially longer sentence than they would have received today, Cole said. They must have no violent incidents on their records and no affiliation with gangs or large criminal organizations.

The Justice Department did not estimate how many prisoners might be eligible. Although the program is not limited to drug offenders, Cole said "the vast majority" of those considered would be from that group.

Prisoner advocates welcomed the announcement and the change of leadership in the pardons office, but expressed concerns that the criteria might be too restrictive.

"We'd like to see the criteria expanded so more people would be eligible," said Jeremy Haile of the Sentencing Project, a Washington advocacy group. Haile said that although thousands of prisoners would probably apply for commutations, possibly only hundreds would be approved unless the criteria were loosened.

Some influential Republicans criticized the announcement, raising concerns about the fate of bipartisan legislation now moving through Congress to attack the same problem in a more comprehensive and permanent way.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.), who most likely would have to approve any such legislation, attacked the clemency program.

"In an unprecedented move to dramatically expand the clemency process for federal drug offenders, President Obama has again demonstrated his blatant disregard for our nation's laws and our system of checks and balances embedded in the U.S. Constitution," Goodlatte said in a statement.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a key figure in shaping a pending bill to reduce mandatory-minimum sentences, cautioned Obama against "seeking to change sentencing policy unilaterally."



http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-justice-clemency-20140424,0,1617703.story#ixzz2zog8SVGQ

Regards,
hm
 
They will all be enrolled in Obamacare and given voter registration cards with their release papers, probably an Obama phone and a free EBI cards as well....
 
"The primary target of the program will be crack cocaine users and dealers who were sentenced under a particularly tough law that was relaxed by Congress in 2010"

Wonder how many of these are of the African American persuasion?
 
Originally Posted By: .223 shooter"The primary target of the program will be crack cocaine users and dealers who were sentenced under a particularly tough law that was relaxed by Congress in 2010"

Wonder how many of these are of the African American persuasion?


You took the words out of my mouth.
 
And where do these Felons find work?

Exactly! No jobs equals higher crime rates and they will be behind bars before you know it. Possibly they can head over to Holders house and gang rape him, that should wake him up!!
 
Quote:The program is part of a campaign being waged by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. to scale back the use of mandatory sentences and reduce the overall prison population, particularly among African American drug offenders serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes.


The article even goes so far as to say, it's gonna be about turning several hundred BLACK DRUG DEALERS loose.
 
Originally Posted By: SkyPupThey will all be enrolled in Obamacare and given voter registration cards with their release papers, probably an Obama phone and a free EBI cards as well....


Absolutley... 25 states have enrolled their entire prison population in Obamacare. None of them have any income, they all qualify for subsidies. The states can insure them for $10/month or less. They are enrolled individually however, not under a prison system umbrella policy, when they leave prison, they remain enrolled, and until such time as they find gainful lawful employment, they remain subsidized. They will have insurance for $10/month, while those of us who work will, according to the democrats, gladly pay thousands to subsidize them.
 
DOJ Pardon Atty. Quits as Obama Plans to Free Thousands of Drug Convicts

APRIL 24, 2014

As President Obama prepares to use his executive power to release thousands of felons (serving time under “racist” drug sentences) the Justice Department’s top official in charge of pardons quits rather than let criminals out of jail.

At least someone at the agency charged with enforcing the law and providing federal leadership in controlling crime, has some scruples. Of course, the official statement on the abrupt resignation of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Pardon Attorney, Ron Rodgers, is that he suddenly requested reassignment after heading the division for six years. One newswire story quotes a DOJ Deputy Attorney General saying that Rodgers’ departure is “in the tradition” of senior executive service attorneys who ask for reassignment.

The facts tell a different story. As head of the DOJ’s Pardons Office Rodgers clashed with the Obama administration over a controversial plan to release—or reduce the sentences of—convicted drug offenders. It’s part of the president’s effort to end racial discrimination in drug-related sentences. It started with the 2010 signing of a law (Fair Sentencing Act) that for the first time in decades relaxed drug-crime sentences he claims discriminate against minority offenders. The measure severely weakens a decades-old law enacted during the infamous crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged urban communities nationwide in the 1980s.

But the Fair Sentencing Act is not retroactive so the president launched a broad plan this month to help those sentenced under the older, stricter law which required mandatory prison for first-time offenders and a five-year sentence for trafficking offenses involving more than five grams of crack cocaine. This punished a disproportionate number of blacks, the administration says, compared to more affluent whites and Hispanics that enjoy lighter sentences for possessing the more expensive powder cocaine that most blacks can’t afford.

So this week Attorney General Eric Holder announced a new DOJ clemency initiative that’s expected to free thousands of prisoners serving time for crimes related to crack cocaine. The agency expects to get bombarded with petitions, Holder said in a video posted on the DOJ website, and will assign dozens of new attorneys to its pardon office, which is now headed by an Obama team player named Deborah Leff. The clemencies will “restore a degree of justice, fairness and proportionality,” Holder said, adding that the DOJ is “committed to recommending as many qualified applicants as possible for reduced sentences.”

More than 20,000 inmates “sentenced under the old regime” will likely qualify for clemency, according to Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who held a press conference this week to announce the initiative. “For our criminal justice system to be effective, it needs to not only be fair; but it also must be perceived as being fair,” Cole said. “Older, stringent punishments that are out of line with sentences imposed under today’s laws erode people’s confidence in our criminal justice system, and I am confident that this initiative will go far to promote the most fundamental of American ideals – equal justice under law.”

With that said, here’s an interesting tidbit related to this story. One of the federal lawmakers (California Congresswoman Maxine Waters) that for years pushed to reduce drug sentences over racial disparities accused the CIA of selling crack cocaine to blacks in her south central Los Angeles district to raise money to support clandestine operations in Latin America, including a guerrilla army. Waters and her buddy, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, were driving forces behind the Fair Sentencing Act and are undoubtedly celebrating the new clemency criteria.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/0..._medium=twitter
 
I have had it with "non-violent" drug offenders. There is no such thing, except for the hippie who grows his own weed in his attic grow room. The fact that you are a drug dealer implies violence. They shoot, rob and victimize people as a matter of daily business and survival in the world that they have chosen to live in. The people they sell to have to victimize people to get the money to buy their poison. Non of them are non-violent. They just happened to not have gotten caught for the 1000's of crimes that each commits over a career of being a criminal.


The US violent crime rate is at it's lowest point in decades and we have more people in jail than any other country in the world. You know why our Prisons are over crowded and why our crime rate has dropped? Because we have more people in prison than anywhere on earth. For 40 years we have locked "non-violent" drug offenders in prison and it has had a dramatic effect. Now we are reversing course. Great idea.

Build more prisons and keep building em until there is nobody left that wants to be in them. It has got to be cheaper to put someone behind bars than it is to pay for the destruction that they cause, the welfare they will collect and the 7 illegitimate children they will create, who we will also have to pay for. One way or another we will pay for them. Might as well be where the only people they can victimize are each other.
 
Crack is pretty much a death sentence in and of itself. Users will tell you the addicition is unlike any other. I know a couple guys that got hooked on it, both up in age when they got into it, brothers, succesful businessmen. Both died of heart failure within 5 years of getting involved with it. One was single, the other left 3 kids and a wife.

Dad had an employee back when this stuff first got to be the rage, hard working guy, serious pot head. Told the old man he'd do anything he asked of him, but he had to have a joint now and then to get through the day. The old man gave him a chance, because he was up front about it when he asked for the job. Said it didn't matter what you asked him to do, you could give him the hottest, the coldest, the ugliest, the nastiest, the dirtiest job you could ever dream of, and as long as he had a joint, he'd stand there and do it ALL DAY LONG. Didn't fuss, didn't complain, loyal employee through and through. He simply appreciated the job, and worked his a$$ off for the old man. Got hooked on Crack back when it got popular. Told my sister's 2 boys about 3 months into it, that if they ever touched the stuff he'd beat them to death and save them suffering through it. That he'd signed his own death warrant. Within a year of offering them that sermon, he died at the ripe old age of 28. Cause of death was ruled a massive infection of the membrane surrounding his heart.

These Crack Dealers are murderers, just as sure as if they pulled the trigger on someone, they don't deserve early release. They all deserve to die the same slow painful death they subject their clients too.

 
When I was in Detroit suburbs, and being a funeral director, we had overdoses several times a week. However, most were heroin addicts. The drug was often cut to make more profit, and thus the addicts used double doses to achieve....death.

Knew some coke heads too. One was the boss's son, who would disappear for sometimes a week. Stole vehicles, ran over $10,000 up on the company gas card once downtown. It was a sad thing to see, but I believe he is still alive.

Another guy I vaguely knew via fishing dropped the stuff when he lost his wife, family, home and boat. Somehow managed to get it all back, and everyone was proud of him. Then, and a VERY short time later, they found him in his boat cracked up and completely dead.

Just being involved brought users in contact with a very dangerous city element. I would not be surprised if many of them sold themselves out the the primates of the inner city for a rock.

Ugly, ugly, ugly.
 
As some here know, I've been having an ongoing issue with some of these "non-violent" drug
offenders for the past 6 months. "non-violent" is a real subjective term. There has been
no violence yet but threats have been made and guns pointed. Only thing that has been
lacking is someone pulling the trigger. Currently they are all sitting in jail awaiting
trial. Again. All have been arrested, sentenced and released multiple times. If they
get turned loose, the stress level will go sky high at our place again and we just don't
have the time, energy or attitude to deal with it. Again.
 
Users of hard, addictive drugs are not able to control their actions when in the throes of withdrawal. They may truly regret their actions later, but it is to late when they commit murder in the process of obtaining money. There is nothing anyone can do to help them kick drugs till they make their own mind up to do whatever it takes to get off the stuff. So many of the rehab places are just a money making gimmick. The only way to kick the stuff is pure guts. Anyone who is older or walks with a cane is in danger of attack because the desperate user assumes they must have something. Going to jail or a rehab mostly works for a small portion because they do not change their lifestyle and get away from others who have drugs. If they don't get away from their old druggy friends they don't have a chance. It is sad to see potentially good people go down that road. And even worse to see old people beaten to death because they can't give up their drugs if they don't have any to start with. "I only wanted his drugs, or money, I did not mean to kill him" has happened here several times in the last couple of years.
 
Originally Posted By: RJM AcresAs some here know, I've been having an ongoing issue with some of these "non-violent" drug
offenders for the past 6 months. "non-violent" is a real subjective term. There has been
no violence yet but threats have been made and guns pointed. Only thing that has been
lacking is someone pulling the trigger. Currently they are all sitting in jail awaiting
trial. Again. All have been arrested, sentenced and released multiple times. If they
get turned loose, the stress level will go sky high at our place again and we just don't
have the time, energy or attitude to deal with it. Again.

Hopefully you are armed at all times, for the sake of your family. Next time a gun is brandished you would legitimately be "in fear for life or serious bodily harm"
 
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