Reforming The Criminal Justice System 3/3/2013

    [ I am back working through my prison journal. It is out of order… Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. sch 7/5/2025] 

Ah, a federal prisoner writes of reforming the criminal justice system! Probably wants you to let him and the rest go free! Not exactly.

I think Michael Eric Dyson makes a great point in the following, while missing out on a premise of the system:

The life of poor black folk is caught between crime and punishment. Most critics argue that those of us who beg for rationality and clarity, and for consistency and fairness, in the criminal justice system are seeking amnesty for all black criminals, or an escape of responsibility for misbehavior. Neither is true. Criminal should be held accountable for their crimes. The practice of murder to resolve conflicts has ravaged too many poor communities and must be opposed with every bit of our strength.

Chapter 16; Poverty and Class; Can You Hear Me Now?

Lawyers distinguish between crimes that are evil in themselves (murder, rape) and those are wrong because some law makes them illegal (the selling of alcohol during Prohibition). Most of us at Ft. Dix Federal Correctional Institution come within the second category.

 There would far less black men in this prison if you would agree to reforming our drug laws.

The federal system conceived of "consistency and fairness" as meaning imprisoning everyone. The federal sentencing guidelines incorporated a mathematical solution for judges: calculate all the sentences given and compute an average range for a sentence. No one has questioned the concept as just or its efficacy. Imposing punishment ends all questions of its correctness.

Why should a non-violent offender see prison? Put them on probation with the goal of changing behavior without also imposing prison life, with its professionalization of criminal behavior. Yes, that would include me.

I think these questions need asked about our federal criminal justice system (they may also raise points about the criminal justice system in your state).

1. What good did Bernie Madoff's prison sentence do for his victims?
2. Why was it necessary for Wesley Snipes to spend 2 years in federal prison?
3. How does the public benefit from mandatory minimum prisons sentences?

[7/5/2025:

One thing missing from prison is information. No Google. I would have liked to see what others thought about the books I noted above. Well, I got that chance now, and you can decide if I am a moron or not. You may also want to follow the links provided in the text.

Federal Sentencing Guidelines (Roanoke Criminal Attorneys)

An Introduction to Federal Guideline Sentencing

An Apt Analogy?:  Rethinking the Role of Judicial Deference to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Post-Kisor (Fordham Law Review)

Proposed Simplification of Federal Sentencing Guidelines [2025

Daylight Between Sentencing Guidelines and Commentary? Third Circuit Says Yes, and 2B1.1 is Next (Welsh & Recker, P.C.)

How the public benefits from mandatory minimum prisons sentences, or not:

How Mandatory Minimums Perpetuate Mass Incarceration and What to Do About It (The Sentencing Project)

Sentencing Laws and How They Contribute to Mass Incarceration (Brennan Center for Justice)

FAMM Policy Briefing: Mandatory Minimum Sentences

Are Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences Cost-Effective? (RAND)

The DPRC researchers focused on cocaine, which many view as the most problematic drug in America today. They took two approaches to mathematically model the market for cocaine and arrived at the same basic conclusion: Mandatory minimum sentences are not justifiable on the basis of cost-effectiveness at reducing cocaine consumption or drug-related crime. Mandatory minimums reduce cocaine consumption less per million taxpayer dollars spent than spending the same amount on enforcement under the previous sentencing regime. And either enforcement approach reduces drug consumption less, per million dollars spent, than putting heavy users through treatment programs. Mandatory minimums are also less cost-effective than either alternative at reducing cocaine-related crime. A principal reason for these findings is the high cost of incarceration.

The Human Cost of Mandatory Minimums (American Civil Liberties Union)

Ah, but the profits for those building prisons and supplying prisoners with goods and services! And the employment possibilities for those lacking other talents - these are union jobs! I did not dig enough into the above reports to see if they pointed out these benefits to businesses, to politicians, to the unemployed.

There will be no change now with Trump - they want their opponents in jail.

And, no, my opinions have not changed. When I wrote the above entry, I was a little over two years at Fort Dix. I would leave around April of 2021. Nothing in the time I was incarcerated after writing this entry, nothing during the four years (almost five) of supervised release, has changed my thinking.

sch]