AG Doubles Down on Mass Incarceration.

[Cutlass]

Not content to end the program of improving the quality of criminal prosecutions,

Sessions says Justice Department will end forensic science commission

BY Sadie Gurman, Associated Press April 10, 2017 at 3:58 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday he is ending an Obama-era partnership with independent scientists that aimed to improve the reliability of forensic science, as longstanding concerns remain about the quality of such evidence in court cases.

The Justice Department will not renew the National Commission on Forensic Science, a panel of judges, defense attorneys, researchers and law enforcement officials that had been advising the attorney general on the use of scientific evidence in the criminal justice process. The department will instead appoint an in-house adviser and create an internal committee to study improvements to forensic analysis, Sessions said.

...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown...artment-will-end-forensic-science-commission/

Today AG Sessions also put us back on track for useless mass incarceration of non-violent offenders.

How Jeff Sessions wants to bring back the war on drugs
By Sari Horwitz April 8

When the Obama administration launched a sweeping policy to reduce harsh prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, rave reviews came from across the political spectrum. Civil rights groups and the Koch brothers praised Obama for his efforts, saying he was making the criminal justice system more humane.

But there was one person who watched these developments with some horror. Steven H. Cook, a former street cop who became a federal prosecutor based in Knoxville, Tenn., saw nothing wrong with how the system worked — not the life sentences for drug charges, not the huge growth of the prison population. And he went everywhere — Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News, congressional hearings, public panels — to spread a different gospel.

“The federal criminal justice system simply is not broken. In fact, it’s working exactly as designed,” Cook said at a criminal justice panel at The Washington Post last year.

The Obama administration largely ignored Cook, who was then president of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys. But he won’t be overlooked anymore.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has brought Cook into his inner circle at the Justice Department, appointing him to be one of his top lieutenants to help undo the criminal justice policies of Obama and former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. As Sessions has traveled to different cities to preach his tough-on-crime philosophy, Cook has been at his side.

Sessions has yet to announce specific policy changes, but Cook’s new perch speaks volumes about where the Justice Department is headed.

Law enforcement officials say that Sessions and Cook are preparing a plan to prosecute more drug and gun cases and pursue mandatory minimum sentences. The two men are eager to bring back the national crime strategy of the 1980s and ’90s from the peak of the drug war, an approach that had fallen out of favor in recent years as minority communities grappled with the effects of mass incarceration.

...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...4ce6be-132b-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html


So an AG who himself belongs in prison is trying to put everyone else there first.

 

[Berzerker]

the new Jim Crow is back...well, it never really left

lets see how long it takes Trump to jail more people than Obama

 

[CaptainF]

the new Jim Crow is back...well, it never really left

lets see how long it takes Trump to jail more people than Obama

Are you ready for more private prisons, more free labor for corporations from said prisons, more money for drug cartels and more gang warfare in Mexico and the USA? I sure am! Boy oh boy what fun times lay ahead. We can surely expect higher drug prices, leading to higher profit margins for drug dealers, more drug violence, no decrease in drug availability or potency, no decrease in the addiction rate, and a whole lot more broken families and ruined lives, all for. . . nothing!

Maybe when some of these hillbilly heroin addict Trump voters get thrown in jail they will start to regret their vote, but somehow they will blame it on Obama or Hillary, I'm sure.

 

[Berzerker]

Sessions will have to declare this war on the doctors and pharmaceutical companies pushing powerful opiates

 

[CaptainF]

Sessions will have to declare this war on the doctors and pharmaceutical companies pushing powerful opiates

But there's just not enough of them to fill those private prisons all the way up! I mean GEO Group, one of the largest private prison companies in the world, gave so much money to Humpty Trumpty's campaign that it would be rude of him not to reward them somehow! Gotta cast a wide net, imprison all those non-violent drug users so that GEO's stock value goes through the roof and Elf Sessions makes lots of $$$!

Somehow I think rich white drug users and dealers, whether they be coke snorting Wall Street traders or corrupt pill mill "doctors" will be exempt from this draconian punishment. Handing out drug felonies takes away your right to vote, and that's something I'm sure Elf Sessions wants only for the black and brown folk.

 

[Cutlass]

Are you ready for more private prisons, more free labor for corporations from said prisons, more money for drug cartels and more gang warfare in Mexico and the USA? I sure am! Boy oh boy what fun times lay ahead. We can surely expect higher drug prices, leading to higher profit margins for drug dealers, more drug violence, no decrease in drug availability or potency, no decrease in the addiction rate, and a whole lot more broken families and ruined lives, all for. . . nothing!

Maybe when some of these hillbilly heroin addict Trump voters get thrown in jail they will start to regret their vote, but somehow they will blame it on Obama or Hillary, I'm sure.

White opiod addicts are victims, and they get treatment. Prisons are for the colored.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

White opiod addicts are victims, and they get treatment. Prisons are for the colored.

I was trying to think of a way to phrase this. Well done.

 

[Ajidica]

White opiod addicts are victims, and they get treatment. Prisons are for the colored.

That's been something that been making me really angry. When there was the crack cocaine epidemic in black communities in the 80s, people were banging on about how it was the result of "bad morals" or "criminal tendencies", and that they should just "get a job", "take pride in their community", "just say no", and "tough-on-crime". Now that there is a drug epidemic that as presented by the media largely affects white people its all "they have an illness and need help", "recovery programs to help the community", and "police understanding". If the people who argued for the "tough on drugs" approach in the 80s were to apologize for it, admit it didn't work, or even stayed silent, I would be fine with it; but no. The same people who were arguing for a tough-on-crack approach to the addicts are now, at the same time, arguing for a "caring treatment" approach to opioids.

 

[Senethro]

Same with how HIV research/treatment didn't get funding when it was a disease of gay people/drug users.

A problem is only recognized as a problem when "good" people suffer. When politicians can say "our" kind of people.

 

[metalhead]

That's been something that been making me really angry. When there was the crack cocaine epidemic in black communities in the 80s, people were banging on about how it was the result of "bad morals" or "criminal tendencies", and that they should just "get a job", "take pride in their community", "just say no", and "tough-on-crime". Now that there is a drug epidemic that as presented by the media largely affects white people its all "they have an illness and need help", "recovery programs to help the community", and "police understanding". If the people who argued for the "tough on drugs" approach in the 80s were to apologize for it, admit it didn't work, or even stayed silent, I would be fine with it; but no. The same people who were arguing for a tough-on-crack approach to the addicts are now, at the same time, arguing for a "caring treatment" approach to opioids.

I've been ranting about this for a while. Makes me sick.

I assure you though, opioid addicts will not be spared in this new offensive in the war on drugs. They won't be able to declare victory in this war without a significant number of victims, so they'll have to start rounding up the poor whites. "Poor" always trumps "white" when it comes to deciding if people ought to be victimized for political gain.

 

[Lexicus]

"Poor" always trumps "white" when it comes to deciding if people ought to be victimized for political gain.

I think I would probably dispute that "always."

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I think I would probably dispute that "always."

They are certainly both high cards, but I'd say Metalhead is correct. A wealthy black person will still be persecuted for their race, but can afford a lawyer. When a poor white person is persecuted for being poor they get a public defender that makes a "deal" for them and waves goodby as they pull out on the prison bus.