Families Against Mandatory Minimums reports,”In an Oval Office Ceremony today, President Barack Obama signed sweeping reforms to federal crack cocaine laws, reducing unduly harsh sentences for crack violations and repealing the five-year mandatory minimum for simple possession of crack cocaine.  This is the first time that a mandatory minimum drug sentence has been repealed since the Nixon Administration.

The new law does not eliminate the mandatory minimum for trafficking crack cocaine, however the infamous 100-to-1 sentencing ratio is now reduced to 18-to-1.  Moving forward, 28 grams of crack cocaine will trigger a five-year prison sentence and 280 grams of crack will trigger a 10-year sentence.  The law could affect an estimated 3,000 cases annually, reducing sentences by an average of about two years and saving an estimated $42 million over five years.  The new law also increases sentences for drug offenses involving vulnerable victims, violence and other aggravating factors.”

For more detailed information about the history of the federal crack disparity and the changes that will result under the new law, go to the following link at FAMM’s website, www.famm.org.

Priseman’s on-line gallery can be seen here on the Amnesty International website.

No Human Way to Kill is for sale on Amazon.

The film follows the four men as they travel from New York to Texas, from Oklahoma to California on a road that takes them beyond crime and punishment and into their hearts and minds in “An American Journey.”

David is the Executive Director of New Yorkers For Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

See the trailer here http://www.qofj.com/media/AAL/Americanlife.html

Follow the film on Facebook.

Click here to read the Forbes commentary.

In August 2007, after 10 parole hearings (and being found suitable six times), Woodmore was finally released from prison.  While in prison, Woodmore obtained her GED, completed a vocational certification program, assisted with creating a battered women group, and became a member of an initiative to support youth at-risk of becoming ensnared in the criminal justice system.  Since her release, Woodmore has been active in advocacy campaigns with a range of local and statewide organizations, in an effort tot reduce California’s reliance on incarceration and harsh punishment.

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/news-and-journalism/soros-fellowship-for-woman-ex-prisoner.html/feed 0 http://gabrielcity.com/letters/what-i-want-my-words-to-do-to-you.html http://gabrielcity.com/letters/what-i-want-my-words-to-do-to-you.html#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:37:15 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=3072 What I Want My Words To Do To You offers an unprecedented look into the minds and hearts of women inmates of New York’s Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.  The film goes inside a writing workshop led by playwright Eve Ensler, consisting of 15 women, most of whom were convicted of murder.  Through a series of exercises and discussions, the women, delve into and expose their most terrifying realities as they grapple with the nature of their crimes and culpability.

Click here to learn more about What I Want My Words To Do To You.

This CEPR press release adds comments and details about the report:

“State and local governments are under tremendous fiscal pressure,” said John Schmitt, a senior economist at CEPR and lead author of the report.  ”Shifting just half of the non-violent offenders from prison and jail to probation and parole could save state and local governments $15 billion per year.

The study points out that some of the main causes of the rise in incarceration rates are policies such as “mandatory minimums” and “three strikes” laws that often lead to long prison terms for non-violent offenders.  Earlier research on the connection between crime and incarceration suggests that state and local governments could shift non-violent offenders from jail and prison to probation and parole with little or no deterioration in public safety.

Among key findings are:

• In 2008, one in every 48 working-age men were in prison or jail
• Non-violent offenders make up over 60 percent of the prison and jail population; non-violent drug offenders account for one-fourth of all offenders behind bars
• The total number of violent crimes in the United States was only about three percent higher in 2008 than it was in 1980.  Over the same period, the U.S. population increased by 33 percent while the prison and jail population skyrocketed by more than 350 percent.

At the June graduation this year, 28 men walked down the aisle to receive their diplomas.  Ten men received their Bachelor of Science degree and 18 men earned Associates degrees.  So far, Sing Sing, with the assistance of Hudson Link for Higher Education, has produced 196 graduates and an additional 107 inmates are currently enrolled in the program. It is interesting to note, out of the 196 graduates, 41 inmates have been released and not one has returned to prison.  Nationally, about 60 percent of inmates released from prison come back.

Click here to read the New York Times article.

Wilbert Rideau was sent to Louisisana’s notorious Angola prison in 1961, at the age of 19, for killing a bank-teller hostage after a botched robbery.  After 44 years and multiple retrials, he was released on Jan. 15, 2005.

His autobiography, In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance is more than a tale of transformation and triumph, it is also the story of how the Louisiana State Penitentiary changed from the bloodiest prison in America to one of the safest.  His vantage point as editor of the nation’s only uncensored prisoner-produced publication for 25 years lends the book unique insight and dispels many popular misconceptions about both the keepers and the kept.

In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance is for sale on Amazon.