Letter to the Editor or Editorial Submission – So Much Ink, So Much Blood – kra
Letter to the Editor or Editorial Submission – So Much Ink, So Much Blood – 9/10/18 kra
At least twice a month I see an article or an editorial calling for “the” way to end the crazy, deadly shootings on city streets. The latest piece called for the clergy to become more involved in high crime areas. Before that it was “revive the street crimes unit” of the police department. And before that it was calls for more “community policing” and for “zero tolerance” law enforcement … and the list goes on.
I shall repeat what I have been “shouting from the rooftops” for six years: none of these will solve the problem. There is only one way to greatly reduce crime, and the mayhem and the cost of the violence: end the “war on drugs”. At least one person has been listening to my “shouting”: Delaware’s likely next Attorney General, Kathleen Jennings, now agrees with this proposition.
It is long past time to undo all of the lies, the myths, the misinformation, and the outright propaganda put out by numerous government agencies – local, state, and federal – over the last 40 years in order to fuel the war on drugs. Public officials should learn and share (it’s called “leadership”) the FACTS, examine countries where ending this futile war has produced dramatic positive results, and thus really do something to reduce crime! We need less ink discussing ineffective suggestions, and a lot more ink to correct the tragically flawed record of the last 40 years. Then, and only then, will we see much less blood.
I urge you to publish this excellent chart, which states most of the facts, with this letter:
Ken Abraham, founder of Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE, Deputy Attorney General, 1974-1979, Dover, DE 302-423-4067
……………
I get lots of letters published, and ghost write for others. THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO REACH THOUSANDS OF READERS! The keys to getting your Letter published are:
1. Keep it to 250 words or fewer.
2. Do not make it about “poor little old me”. Describe the problem as one which not only affects the individual, but is a senseless or ineffective measure, policy, or law which also harms communities and society. For example, with reentry, the obstacles make it unnecessarily difficult for the individual, but also harm society by making it hard to become productive, spending money and paying taxes in the community, and they cause increased recidivism = increased crime.
3. Speak from your heart.
4. Google any facts you are not sure about.
5. Do not name-call.
Do what works: Write that Letter!
…………
Letter to Editor – sign name, town, state, and your phone number (they often call to verify that you sent it), and “Member of Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE” if you like – shows you are part of a large group.
Send the email to yourself, and put on the “bcc” bar the email addresses for Letters to the Editor for the top ten newspapers in your state and several national ones – The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, U S A Today (google the Letter to Editor email addresses). Any questions, CALL me at 302-423-4067!
GOOGLE THE EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR” FOR THE TOP TEN NEWSPAPERS IN YOUR STATE AND SAVE THAT INFORMATION FOR REPEATED USE – Some papers will print a letter from you every 2 weeks, some every 30 days, some every 90 days. They have varying policies. But if you really want to make a difference shoot them a new letter once a month! I send one out every 2 weeks.
Need a Letter on some criminal justice issue and not a great letter writer? NO EXCUSE! Email me a rough draft and call me and I’ll polish it up! kenabraham3138@gmail.com .
ANY QUESTIONS, CALL ME AT 302-423-4067.
Practical Tip – How to Succeed – kra
I have been fortunate to have been quite successful in all of my chosen professions… law, teaching, business broker, entrepreneur, and mentor to many. Learned a lot, made some mistakes … such is life.
I list here some suggestions which are not merely “feel good” slogans or platitudes, but which actually can help most people succeed … if they keep them in mind.
- Know what you are doing. Sounds obvious, but too many people do not! One needs to take the time to do your research, know the facts, know what is expected, set realistic goals, … and keep moving forward. Virtually any information is at your fingertips … on the internet.
- Be persistent. That old saying that failure is the key to success has a lot of truth to it. Thomas Edison tried more than 3,000 times, and failed, before creating what we call the light bulb. If others are involved – such as unresponsive government officials, be persistent without being a pain in the ass.
- Ask for help when you need it. Too many people are too stubborn, too proud, too embarrassed, or too vain to ask for help. Don’t be. Many people and organizations are willing to help. A little help from the right source can go a long way!
- Keep that critical balance in your life: allow plenty of time for family. I failed at this, as is apparent from my life story.
- Have faith, count your blessings, pray.
- Maintain a positive attitude. YOU are in control of your attitude, and a positive attitude affects not only yourself but those around you, and truly does make a difference.
- Assume nothing. If you want to assume something, assume you are wrong and find out the facts.
- Take time to prepare. I have had about 700 trials; did not keep count, but I know how many I lost … lost 2. That is not because I am a friggin’ genius; it is because I was prepared. I no doubt encountered many lawyers much brighter than I, but they were not prepared.
Last but not least, of course you need good judgement to “know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em”, but I leave you with my “theme song” by Tom Petty: I Won’t Back Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA
Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency Aides routinely stole documents off Trump’s desk. Military leaders ignored the president’s orders. And the backstabbing went both ways.
This is the clown we can count on for criminal justice reform? I think NOT. Hmmmm, believe Bob Woodard or believe tRump? LMAO
Excerpts from the Article:
John Dowd was convinced that President Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. So, on Jan. 27, the president’s then-personal attorney staged a practice session to try to make his point. In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the president eventually lost his cool.
The dramatic and previously untold scene is recounted in “Fear,” a forthcoming book by Bob Woodward that paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency, based on in-depth interviews with administration officials and other principals.
Woodward writes that his book is drawn from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses that were conducted on “deep background,” meaning the information could be used but he would not reveal who provided it. His account is also drawn from meeting notes, personal diaries and government documents.
Woodward depicts Trump’s anger and paranoia about the Russia inquiry as unrelenting, at times paralyzing the West Wing for entire days. Learning of the appointment of Mueller in May 2017, Trump groused, “Everybody’s trying to get me”— part of a venting period that shellshocked aides compared to Richard Nixon’s final days as president.
The 448-page book was obtained by The Washington Post. Woodward, an associate editor at The Post, sought an interview with Trump through several intermediaries to no avail. The president called Woodward in early August, after the manuscript had been completed, to say he wanted to participate. The president complained that it would be a “bad book,” according to an audio recording of the conversation. Woodward replied that his work would be “tough,” but factual and based on his reporting.
A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump’s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.
Again and again, Woodward recounts at length how Trump’s national security team was shaken by his lack of curiosity and knowledge about world affairs and his contempt for the mainstream perspectives of military and intelligence leaders.
At a National Security Council meeting on Jan. 19, Trump disregarded the significance of the massive U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula, including a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds vs. 15 minutes from Alaska, according to Woodward. Trump questioned why the government was spending resources in the region at all.“We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him.
After Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, “Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like — and had the understanding of — ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader.’ ” In Woodward’s telling, many top advisers were repeatedly unnerved by Trump’s actions and expressed dim views of him. “Secretaries of defense don’t always get to choose the president they work for,” Mattis told friends at one point, prompting laughter as he explained Trump’s tendency to go off on tangents about subjects such as immigration and the news media. Inside the White House, Woodward portrays an unsteady executive detached from the conventions of governing and prone to snapping at high-ranking staff members, whom he unsettled and belittled on a daily basis.
White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was “unhinged,” Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”
Reince Priebus, Kelly’s predecessor, fretted that he could do little to constrain Trump from sparking chaos. Woodward writes that Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, “the devil’s workshop,” and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were “the witching hour.” Trump apparently had little regard for Priebus. He once instructed then-staff secretary Rob Porter to ignore Priebus, even though Porter reported to the chief of staff, saying that Priebus was “‘like a little rat. He just scurries around.’”
A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a “traitor” for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions’s accent, Trump added, “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner. … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”
At a dinner with Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, Trump lashed out at a vocal critic, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He falsely suggested that the former Navy pilot had been a coward for taking early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his father’s military rank and leaving others behind. Mattis swiftly corrected his boss: “No, Mr. President, I think you’ve got it reversed.” The defense secretary explained that McCain, who died Aug. 25, had in fact turned down early release and was brutally tortured during his five years at the Hanoi Hilton.“Oh, okay,” Trump replied, according to Woodward’s account.
With Trump’s rage and defiance impossible to contain, Cabinet members and other senior officials learned to act discreetly. Woodward describes an alliance among Trump’s traditionalists — including Mattis and Gary Cohn, the president’s former top economic adviser — to stymie what they considered dangerous acts.
After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward. Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured.” The national security team developed options for the more conventional airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.
Then-White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn tried to temper Trump’s nationalistic trade views. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump’s strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn “stole a letter off Trump’s desk” that the president was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice that it was missing.
Cohn came to regard the president as “a professional liar” and threatened to resign in August 2017 over Trump’s handling of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Cohn, who is Jewish, was especially shaken when one of his daughters found a swastika on her college dorm room.
Trump was sharply criticized for initially saying that “both sides” were to blame. At the urging of advisers, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but almost immediately told aides, “That was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made” and the “worst speech I’ve ever given,” according to Woodward’s account.
When Cohn met with Trump to deliver his resignation letter after Charlottesville, the president told him, “This is treason,” and persuaded his economic adviser to stay on. Kelly then confided to Cohn that he shared Cohn’s horror at Trump’s handling of the tragedy — and shared Cohn’s fury with Trump. “I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times,” Kelly told Cohn, according to Woodward. Kelly himself has threatened to quit several times, but has not done so.
Woodward illustrates how the dread in Trump’s orbit became all-encompassing over the course of Trump’s first year in office, leaving some staff members and Cabinet members confounded by the president’s lack of understanding about how government functions and his inability and unwillingness to learn.
At one point, Porter, who departed in February amid domestic abuse allegations, is quoted as saying, “This was no longer a presidency. This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is.” Such moments of panic are a routine feature, but not the thrust of Woodward’s book, which mostly focuses on substantive decisions and internal disagreements, including tensions with North Korea as well as the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.
Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trump’s handling of the North Korean nuclear threat. One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a preemptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran.
In the fall of 2017, as Trump intensified a war of words with Kim Jong Un, nicknaming North Korea’s dictator “Little Rocket Man” in a speech at the United Nations, aides worried the president might be provoking Kim. But, Woodward writes, Trump told Porter that he saw the situation as a contest of wills: “This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim.”
The book also details Trump’s impatience with the war in Afghanistan, which had become America’s longest conflict. At a July 2017 National Security Council meeting, Trump dressed down his generals and other advisers for 25 minutes, complaining that the United States was losing, according to Woodward.
The president’s family members, while sometimes touted as his key advisers by other Trump chroniclers, are minor players in Woodward’s account, popping up occasionally in the West Wing and vexing adversaries.
Woodward recounts an expletive-laden altercation between Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and senior adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief White House strategist. “You’re a goddamn staffer!” Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. “You walk around this place and act like you’re in charge, and you’re not. You’re on staff!” Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: “I’m not a staffer! I’ll never be a staffer. I’m the first daughter.”
Such tensions boiled among many of Trump’s core advisers. Priebus is quoted as describing Trump officials not as rivals but as “natural predators.” “When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody,” Priebus says.
Hovering over the White House was Mueller’s inquiry, which deeply embarrassed the president. Woodward describes Trump calling his Egyptian counterpart to secure the release of an imprisoned charity worker and President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi saying: “Donald, I’m worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?” Trump relayed the conversation to Dowd and said it was “like a kick in the nuts,” according to Woodward.
The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his lawyers about whether the president would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller’s office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump’s January practice session.
Woodward’s book recounts the debate between Trump and his lawyers, including John Dowd, regarding whether the president will sit for an interview with special counsel Robert. S. Mueller III. (Richard Drew/AP)
Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: “I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?’ ”
“John, I understand,” Mueller replied, according to Woodward.
Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”
But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise.
“I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.
“You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.”
The next morning, Dowd resigned.
Cash crop: High hopes for industrial hemp – Sam Chick’s push for hemp – kra
My friend Sam Chick knows his business. He owns a first class store in Downtown Dover, DE, and it is anything but a typical “head shop”. First class service and first class products, with knowledgeable people behind the counter!
Sam has been pushing for legalization of hemp for quite some time, because he knows it has about a zillion uses! The big fly in the ointment remains the ludicrous federal criminalization of pot, but Sam is poised to become one of the biggest hemp growers and sellers in the state when he can.
When Sam Chick, owner of the smoke and vape shop “Puffster” in Dover, decided to stock hemp flowers, he had them shipped in from Colorado and Washington. If he had his way, he’d rather grow the plants himself or buy them from local farmers.
With the Aug. 28 signing of Senate Bill 266 — which clears the path toward the cultivation of industrial hemp — Mr. Chick may soon get his wish. “It’d be a great opportunity for local retailers and farmers,” said Mr. Chick. “Getting good flowers like the ones we just got in, even during the harvest, is actually pretty hard. Demand still outpaces supply right now.”
Although growing hemp for agricultural and academic research is currently permitted under federal law, new legislation is currently being negotiated that may lift restrictions and allow cultivation for a wider variety of uses. By passing SB 266, Delaware is positioned to immediately take advantage of federal deregulation, said Sen. Anthony Delcollo, R-Marshallton, the bill’s primary sponsor.
“In the federal farm bill, there is an authorization that permits hemp to be grown as a crop in the U.S., but that doesn’t automatically mean there is the necessary regulatory structure or designation for those crops within a given state’s laws so they can be ready to open the gates and let the race begin once the federal bill is passed,” said Sen. Delcollo.
“Right now, the federal farm bill has substantial bipartisan support and Congress is hammering out the final details in committee. I haven’t seen or heard anything to make me believe the passed bill won’t contain the authorizations we’re hoping for, but this measure we’ve passed at the state level postures us to immediately take advantage of the new changes.”
Hemp, not to be confused with marijuana, has a wide range of uses including as fibers, textiles, paper, construction and insulation materials, cosmetic products, animal feed, food and beverages.
Although hemp and marijuana are both varieties of cannabis sativa — one of the three main subtypes of the cannabis plant — hemp has a much lower amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound in marijuana that causes the intoxication.
Puffster, nearing its year anniversary, mostly sells hemp-derived Cannabidiol (CBD) products, says Mr. Chick. Embraced by users for its alleged medicinal value, CBD is thought to be effective in treating anxiety, seizures related to epilepsy, chronic pain and several other maladies.
Mr. Chick thinks that locally produced hemp might enable him to more easily obtain it and at lower costs for his customers.
Legislators clearly have high hopes for the deregulation as well. SB 266 received unanimous support in the state House with the exception of a single “no” vote in the House cast by Rep. Earl Jaques, a Glasgow Democrat. “I’m a big fan of jobs and improving Delaware’s commerce and supporting our homegrown — no pun intended — industries,” said Sen. Delcollo.
“Bills like this, that are just good ideas that can be clearly identified to be helpful to our state and its people, have a way of ending up with a lot of bipartisan support. There were also a fair amount of advocates, like Sam Chick, that stepped forward to get this done.”
For his part, Mr. Delcollo hopes to see significant uptake in a number of different industries in the state once federal restrictions are lifted on hemp cultivation.
“It’d be great to see hemp products that are locally grown and sort of put into the market directly here in Delaware, whether that be as cosmetics, building materials or CBD products.”
The RDAP Program Does Actually Work – Federal Drug Offenders Benefit – kra
The email I just received from a FB* friend of mine, R, truly “made my day” …. and it is only 12:45 A M so far! We shall call his son S, and he is the first person I have actually heard benefit from RDAP by getting an early release [he is not out yet but almost certainly will be released sooner thanks to RDAP]. That doesn’t surprise me because although I deal with inmates’ families every day, the federal prisoners are only 15% of America’s incarcerated ( 85% are in city, county, and state jails and prisons) and the eligibility for RDAP is quite limited. Most state prison treatment programs are a total joke (do not work).
*I have been banned from FB for NO reason, but I am active on MeWe and Linked in. R is one of the FB friends whose names I remembered when they banned me and whom I email periodically to ask them to spread the word on FB about my availability/credentials for others who need help.
I will add that tRump, who is such a disaster for criminal justice reform, did not enact this law; it preceded him.
Here is the email from my friend:
Hello Ken,
Good news with Sxxxxx. Thanks to the RDAP program, he’s getting a year off. Officially, he’s going to halfway house on June 15, 2019, and he was first incarcerated on August 23, 2016, so this is less than three years of his five-year sentence. And if he gets a job right away, he may be able to serve his six months of halfway house time under house arrest, which would be fabulous!
He’s already having me look up jobs for him, and with his talent – he’s a linux server specialist with a handsome resume – he shouldn’t have a problem.
He’s on lockdown at Beaumont Low, however, until next week, which means he is missing his first two days of class at Liberty University. He’s been trying to take college classes since he got there, and now he’s not able to attend it until they are off lockdown.
And so it goes.
Thanks again for all you do, my friend.
Rxxxxx
Let us pray that the program works for S!
NOTE: You do NOT need to hire a consultant to get into RDAP! There are many “prison consultants” who try to get huge, unnecessary fees to aid in RDAP placement, when any relatively bright person can do it him/her self!
Any federal prisoner who thinks he/she may qualify should ask the counselor for details about this and other treatment programs.
What is RDAP? An Overview of the Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program and other federal programs provided by the BOP:
What is The RDAP Program?
Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP)
RDAP is the Bureau’s most intensive treatment program. CBT is used in a modified therapeutic community model where offenders experience living in a pro-social community. Offenders live in a unit separate from general population; they participate in half-day programming and half-day work, school, or vocational activities. RDAP is typically nine months in duration.
The Bureau and National Institute on Drug Abuse combined funding and expertise to conduct a rigorous analysis of the Bureau’s RDAP. Research findings demonstrated that RDAP participants are significantly less likely to recidivate and less likely to relapse to drug use than non-participants. The studies also suggest that the Bureau’s RDAPs make a significant difference in the lives of offenders following their release from custody and return to the community.
Freedom in the 50 States Delaware – #43 – Interesting! kra
This is an interesting report on all states by The Cato Institute. Of most interest to me, of course, are the criminal justice issues. I am sending this to Kathleen Jennings, whom I expect to be our next A G, highlighting this part: “… the state’s civil asset forfeiture law is tied for worst in the country, with few protections for innocent owners. Eliminate or significantly limit civil asset forfeiture, consistent with reform trends across the country aimed at protecting the individual property rights of innocent people prior to conviction.”
I am sure she will have a plate full of work, but I suggest this asset forfeiture issue be near the top of the list. It is one of the worst consequences of our “war on drugs”!
Excerpts from the Article:
Since the early 2000s, Delaware has lost a lot of ground across the board relative to the rest of the country. It now ranks in the bottom third on all three dimensions of freedom, earning its 43rd place by overall poor performance. Part of the reason for this low ranking is that the state had one of the most free-market health insurance systems before the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), and so it suffered disproportionately because of the federal law. Moreover, its much-touted advantage on corporate law is significantly overstated.
On fiscal policy, Delaware is below average but improved from its relative trough several years ago. The overall tax burden, at about 9.8 percent of personal income, is worse than average, and the state is highly fiscally centralized with most of the tax burden at the state level. With 1.6 competing jurisdictions per 100 square miles, Delawareans would stand to benefit were the state to allow more tax space for local governments. Debt and public employment are about average.
Delaware has been getting worse on regulatory policy and is below average on most regulatory policy categories. Labor law is fairly anti-employment, with a minimum wage and no right-to-work. Occupational freedom is mediocre, with dental hygienists and nurse practitioners unable to practice independently. The state has certificate-of- need laws for hospitals. Land-use regulation ratcheted up significantly in the 2000–2010 period, as have renewable portfolio standards for utilities. The state’s insurance commissioner treats property and casualty insurance rates under “prior approval” contrary to stat- ute, according to the Insurance Information Institute. 118 The state remains one of a handful that have not joined the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Compact (IIPRC). Even the state’s vaunted liability system has actually deteriorated since 2000 to merely average, we find. The state has enacted no tort reforms, and the size of the legal sector has grown, whether measured in number of lawyers or share of GDP.
Delaware is below the national average in personal freedom. The state is mediocre on gun rights; the biggest problem area is the “may-issue” regime for concealed-carry licensing. Gambling freedom is higher than the national average, and the state was at the forefront of legal online gambling for its own residents. There are no private school choice programs, but homeschooling is easy. Smoking bans are comprehensive, and cigarette taxes were about average until 2017, when the rate was increased 60 cents to $2.10 per pack. The state’s medical cannabis law was expanded in 2011–12, and low-level possession was decriminalized in 2015. Alcohol taxes, already a bit lower than average, have eroded over time because of inflation. However, the state bans direct wine shipments. Delaware is roughly average on the overall incarceration and arrests category, but the state’s civil asset forfeiture law is tied for worst in the country, with few protections for innocent owners.
Policy Recommendations
•Fiscal: Reduce state-level taxes and education spending. Delaware is one of the freest-spending states in the country on education. Allow local governments to pick up more of the school spending out of their own fiscal resources.
•Regulatory: Liberalize insurance laws by moving to a “use and file” system for property and casualty rates and life insurance forms, and join the IIPRC.
•Personal: Eliminate or significantly limit civil asset forfeiture, consistent with reform trends across the country aimed at protecting the individual property rights of innocent people prior to conviction.
Fentanyl exposure caused RCI prison overdose, authorities confirm
I wish I had a dollar for every inmate death caused by prison and/or prison “health care” personnel, and for every item of contraband smuggled into prisons by prison staff! READ the articles on this website on all these topics!
Here we see another mother’s son needlessly DEAD. It seems unlikely that all who fell ill were addicts; perhaps an inmate put the substance into the vent system.
How is our asinine war on drugs going so far?!
Excerpts from the Article:
The investigation continues into exactly how the fentanyl-laced heroin that sickened more than 20 at Ross Correctional Institution on Wednesday made its way inside. However, a 2016 report shows RCI has long had an issue with drugs inside its fences.
Ross Correctional led the state for the Fiscal Year 2015 in positive random drug tests when 10.7 percent tested positive which was up from 2.3 percent the previous year, according to the most recent prison inspection report. About half of the positive tests were for marijuana and the other half for Suboxone which is used in the treatment of opiate addiction.
While the report noted RCI was working to improve efforts to keep drugs out, on Wednesday a crack in the system led to activation of the county’s disaster response plan and tall tales of what was happening spread quickly across social media.
“I do not know where exactly in the cell the substance was found,” Sellers said. “The corrections officers were responding to the inmate in distress when they were exposed.”
The impact at RCI continued on Thursday where they were operating under “modified movement and operating procedures,” said spokeswoman JoEllen Smith. Officials are planning additional training for staff, and the Office of Correctional Healthcare was working on Thursday with health and safety staff to get additional safety materials to prisons across the state, including protective equipment.
It’s unclear if additional doses of the overdose reversal drug naloxone are among those items. A pair of 911 calls released by the Ross County Sheriff’s Office indicated there was concern RCI was going to run out of the drug.
“We just called Portsmouth Ambulance for an inmate that was unresponsive, and the staff that were around the inmate passed out. We don’t know what they were exposed to, but something is going on down there … Whatever the inmate was affected by, it’s got the staff as well,” he said.
“As much as I can get,” he said. “We got numerous staff now, I know four for sure, that’s falling out. They’re evacuating the block, but it takes time.”
Ultimately, 29 people were potentially exposed to the heroin-fentanyl mixture including 23 correction officers, four nurses, and one inmate, according to the patrol. Of those, 24 were treated at Adena Medical Center. One inmate also was treated at RCI but not taken to Adena.
The inmate taken to Adena was admitted and later brought in stable condition to OSU’s Wexner Medical Center per standard procedure due to an agreement between the department of corrections and Wexner, according to Adena spokesman Jason Gilham.
A prison union representative said on Thursday morning, one female correction officer who was among the first to respond to the inmate’s cell also was kept overnight while the rest had been released. Gilham confirmed a second patient from RCI was admitted but was released sometime on Thursday.
The patrol continues to investigate while Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction will conduct a “detailed after action review of the Ross exposure incident to identify improvement opportunities that will enhance staff and public safety,” Smith said.
Marijuana industry wants to see ‘stoner’ stereotype go up in smoke – As it Should! kra
Hell, when I was a prosecutor in the ’70s and everyone – judges, cops, ministers, teachers, students and others – was smoking pot, I was too. Only after work and it never affected my work.
Today’s pot smokers and marijuana consumers are your neighbors, with many using it as the medicine it is.
Stoner stereotypes die hard. But with a multibillion-dollar industry beginning to flower — marijuana is now legal in some form in 30 states — cannabis advocates are pushing to dispel the idea that people who toke up still live on the couches in their parents’ basements and spend their waking hours eating Cheetos and playing video games.
Photos of 17 people — including a white-haired grandmother, a schoolteacher, a business executive, a former pro football player and a nurse — are being splashed across billboards, buses and the web by the company that has dispensaries in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York. Each photo has the word “stoner” crossed out and in its place a description of their job.
“What we’re saying is the very definition of a stereotype is defining a person by one bad mention,” says Daniel Yi, MedMen’s senior vice president of communications. “They’re also a grandmother. They’re also a father, a son, a brother.”
Judd Weiss, CEO and founder of cannabis company Lit.Club, believes the industry needs to do still more. He suggests marketing products in a way that makes them look more than just respectable, but as the herbal equivalent of a fine bourbon or scotch.
“Very much like the Tesla, we want to be seen as luxury quality but affordable,” he said.
To bring more people like Paul into the fold, branding expert Robert Miner says the marijuana industry needs to use movies and TV shows to change negative perceptions. Those lovable stoners Cheech and Chong were fine back in the day when it came to rebuffing the idea that anybody who smoked pot was headed for Reefer Madness. But the mainstreaming of marijuana, he said, demands a new message.
DNA samples of 1,600 Delaware convicts were not entered into national database for years
This is one reason why the percentage of solved rape cases has plummeted from 94% in the ’70s to less than 50% today! All of it is due to the war on drugs!
Mr. Coupe has told me himself that the medical examiner’s office is so inundated with testing for drug cases that it is way behind on work in more serious cases! He told me that over coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts right after being appointed secretary of Delaware’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security, and it still is true today.
Easy to spot the branch of the tree which applies to this situation!
Excerpts from the Article:
DNA samples from about 1,600 Delaware criminals were found in a box in the state Medical Examiner’s Office in 2014, having never been entered into a national database of sex offenders and others convicted of crimes, The News Journal has learned. One of those samples was taken from convicted sex offender Kili Mayfield in 2002. As it sat untested, police and prosecutors say the 39-year-old raped one woman. Then another. Then another.
Had the sample been entered into the national database, two of those attacks could have been prevented.
“What occurred here is unacceptable,” said Robert Coupe, secretary of Delaware’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security. “It’s very concerning and if it somehow put our community at risk, that’s very unfortunate.”
Mayfield targeted strangers he found around Wilmington’s West Center City neighborhood, according to court documents. In two of the incidents, he lured the women with offers of rides.
When the women turned down his advances, he turned violent, the documents show. After one woman told Mayfield she was not a prostitute, court documents said he punched her into unconsciousness. The woman awoke as he dragged her out of the car. When she tried to fight him off, he hit her in the face and choked her causing her to pass out several times, the documents state. When the woman again became conscious, her pants and shoes were off and Mayfield was no longer around, court documents show.
Coupe said an investigation is planned into why the DNA samples were never sent to the national database. Depending on those findings, he said the state Department of Justice could be brought in for further investigation.
John R. Evans, director of the Division of Forensic Science, said several procedures have been put into place to prevent a reoccurrence. That includes having three people (instead of one previously) able to upload DNA samples to the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, a national law enforcement database used to help identify criminals.
Agencies from across the country send DNA from crime scenes into the database and see if they get a match from those previously convicted of crimes. The evidence is cross-checked regularly. But the system only works if the data is put into the system.
State officials did not explain to The News Journal why the Medical Examiner’s Office did not upload the samples into CODIS. “No one employed in the DNA lab in 2002 remains in the unit today,” said Wendy Hudson, a spokeswoman with Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security. The 1,600 samples accounted for about 27 percent of the more than 5,800 samples entered into CODIS by the Delaware DNA lab from 2001 to 2012.
The box of un-entered samples — which were essentially punch cards with DNA specimens collected by the state Department of Correction — were found in the Wilmington building of the state Medical Examiner’s Office. Evans said “it took several weeks to months” to go through the 1,600 samples and enter them into the national database.
Don’tchajusthateit? Politicians. Just ANSWER the QUESTION! – KRA
Don’tchajusthateit?
Don’tchajusthateit, when they can’t say yes or no?
It makes me want to shout “answer the question, you Bozo!”
Yes, we have seen it thousands of times, politicians ducking the question,
And for that I have a very sensible, sound suggestion,
Let them know that you are completely fed up, disgusted, and pissed off,
Kick them out, kick them in the butt, hard enough to achieve liftoff!
Vote them out, out, out, get a straight shooter,
There is not one running? Get out there and become a recruiter,
These people must think we are fools, so let’s make them superfluous,
They just cannot remember, that it is they who work for US!
kra 8/22/18
The reporter asks: Are you in favor of more treatment, rather than prison, for nonviolent drug users? Answer: “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, double talk”
The reporter asks: Do you favor bail reform, so we don’t keep poor people in jail for months or years without a trial? Answer: “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, double talk”
The reporter asks: Do you think criminals deserve a second chance? Answer: “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, double talk”
The reporter asks: “Why can’t you answer with a yes or no and then explain your answer? Answer: “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, double talk”
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