By Derek Gilna
In a
previous life I was active politically for many years and carefully studied
with interest the ebb and flow of the wave-like motion of political trends in
this great country. One of the realities
of American society is once a trend gets started and gains momentum, it is hard
to stop, but stop it must.
Witness the
“War on Drugs,” which took hold in the eighties and gained serious momentum for
twenty years, spawning a whole industry taking advantage of the perceived
threat of drug use, and creating a new group of prison-industry millionaires
profiting from the misery of hundreds of thousands
unfortunate souls swept up in the “trend” to make our streets “safe.”
Thirty
years later, the American public knows that our streets are no safer as a
result of the billions spent to incarcerate. In fact, crime rates have dropped more
in states that have drastically reduced their prisoner populations. Drug use, propelled by consumer demand,
continues to exist, reduced not by heavy-handed prosecutions and long prison
terms, but by education and rehabilitation.
Illegal substances still come into our country via the same routes from
the same countries, shipped by the same organizations. Since there is no way to arrest the overseas people
who mastermind this industry, the justice system takes out its anger and
frustration at being unable to stop the flow by hammering the bottom-rung
offenders, most of whom are drug users themselves.
However,
even the strongest wave has to crest at some point, and although it might be
hard to see from your perspective at this point, so it has been with the “War
on Drugs.” “Troops” are being
“withdrawn,” as hiring freezes of additional assistant U.S.
attorneys have gone into effect, and vacancies have not been filled. The chief drug-war “general,” Attorney
General Holder, has declared the war to be over, and instructed his
subordinates to follow his orders to reduce prosecutions and the length of
sentences.
Non-partisan
support for sentence relief in Congress is at its highest-level in memory, the
Sentencing Commission has reduced two-levels from drug offenses effective
November, and is also contemplating a similar move with white-collar
offenses. The President’s Pardon Office
is due to announce new procedures to address the large number of non-violent
offenders who were “over-sentenced,” and increase the number of sentence
commutations. Look for even more action on this after the November elections
are concluded.
In short, all of the
indicators point to the fact that, at long last, the trends are moving in the
direction of relief for all prisoners. It's about time, for everyone's sake.
