Lewes drug investigation nets 651 bags of heroin, 5 arrests – So What?! kra
Ken’s Comments:
This is the kind of “run of the mill” headline we see in papers every day, all across America.
End the war on drugs! READ How the War on Drugs has Destroyed Justice
Is this going to stem the flow of drugs into our communities? Hell no!
What will this accomplish, besides wasting more police, court, prison and other resources, and costing YOU more money!?
Alcohol did not create Al Capone; prohibition created Al Capone!
Excerpts from the Article:
Delaware State Police has concluded a month-long drug investigation that led to multiple suspects being charged with several drug and other related offenses. During June, Troop 7 patrol units and detectives from the Rehoboth Beach Police Department developed information regarding drug sales occurring in the 17000 block of Callaway Drive, Fairway Village, state police said in a release.
Investigators were able to determine that the residence was occupied by 34-year-old Chelsea Coffin and 41-year-old Aaron Jones.
The property was frequented by Talim Muhammad-Hunt, 17, of Philadelphia, and Demetrius Greene, 50, of Lewes.
On Thursday at approximately 2:20 p.m., troopers observed Hunt and Green exiting the residence and walking to the Midway Movie Theater where they made contact with Felicia N. League, 26, of Rehoboth Beach, by telephone, police said. A traffic stop was conducted and contact was made with the driver, a 47-year-old male from Salisbury, who was not named by Delaware State Police, and League.A search was conducted and revealed a gray lock box, over $300 in cash and drug paraphernalia. The driver was also found to be in possession of 9.5 pills containing approximately 7.5 milligrams of Hydrocodone. Both the driver and League were taken into custody without incident.
As Muhammad-Hunt exited the movie theater, he was contacted by police and found to be in possession of over $2,400 in cash, police said. Greene, who was located hiding in the bathroom of the movie theater, was found to be in possession of 20 small plastic vials containing crack cocaine and a quantity of marijuana.
All subjects were transported back to Troop 7. A search warrant was obtained for the residence as well as the gray lock box. When the search warrant was executed, the lock box was found to contain 651 bags of heroin, or approximately 4.557 grams, 3.01 grams of powder cocaine, 159 plastic vials containing 11.58 grams of crack cocaine and a small quantity of marijuana.
The search warrant was then executed at the Fairview Village residence, where Coffin and Jones were contacted and taken into custody, police said, with numerous items of drug paraphernalia located throughout the residence. As a result of the investigation, the following items were seized:
651 bags of heroin (approx. 4.557 grams)
3.01 grams of powder cocaine
12.88 grams of crack cocaine
1.34 grams of marijuana
9.5 Hydrocodone pills (7.5milligrams)
Over $2,700.00 in cash
Both Coffin and Jones were charged with maintaining a drug property and possession of drug paraphernalia. Both were arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 2 and released on $3,000 unsecured bond.
Muhammad-Hunt was charged with possession with intent to deliver Tier 4 quantity of heroin, possession of Tier 4 quantity of heroin, possession with intent to deliver Tier 2 quantity of crack cocaine, possession with intent to deliver cocaine, possession of Tier 2 quantity of cocaine, second-degree conspiracy, possession of marijuana under 18-years-old and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 2 and released on $34,000 unsecured bond.
Greene was charged with possession with intent to deliver Tier 4 quantity of heroin, possession of Tier 4 quantity of heroin, possession with intent to deliver Tier 2 quantity of crack cocaine, possession with intent to deliver cocaine, possession of Tier 2 quantity of cocaine, second-degree conspiracy, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Greene was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 2 and committed to the Sussex Correctional Institution on $34,400 secured bond.
League was charged with possession with intent to deliver Tier 3 quantity of heroin, possession of Tier 4 quantity of heroin, possession with intent to deliver Tier 2 quantity of crack cocaine, possession with intent to deliver cocaine, possession of Tier 2 quantity of cocaine, second-degree conspiracy and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 2 and released on $34,200 unsecured bond. The 47-year-old driver from Salisbury was charged with possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor. He was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 2 and released on $200 unsecured bond.
If you are an otter, you might be gobbled up by an alligator. kra
If you are an otter, you might be gobbled up by an alligator.
If you are a gazelle, you might be gobbled up by lions.
If you are a monkey, you might be gobbled up by a python.
If you are a human, you might be gobbled up by our criminal justice system!
If you don’t think so, you might be very sadly mistaken. There are at least 10,000 INNOCENT people rotting away in our prisons today!
To understand the problems and the solutions, spend an hour on our website. Here is a good place to start:
How the War on Drugs has Destroyed Justice = http://www.citizensforcriminaljustice.net/how-the-war-on-drugs-has-destroyed-justice/
Governor Wolf Signs Clean Slate Bill, Calls for More Criminal Justice Reform
Ken’s Comments:
It took us 45 years of wrong laws, simplistic thinking, and corruption (the lobbying and campaign donations – “legal bribery” – for MORE prisons and more wrong laws by police unions, prison workers’ unions, all the private contractors making a fortune from injustice – private prisons* and “health care” providers* chief among them ) to make a royal mess of the system which I remember working quite well.
The courts have become plea bargaining sideshows – READ Rush to Sentence – A Major, Awful Consequence of our “War on Drugs”! – , the police agencies run out of control., and our prisons have become warehouses for addicts and the mentally ill!
This article discusses recent and proposed changes in Pennsylvania, all good ideas, but far too little compared to what needs to be done.
Rush to Sentence – A Major, Awful Consequence of our “War on Drugs”!
* These are now multi-billion $$$ companies, and a powerful force preventing needed changes. It’s called “job preservation”! 🙁
But the system is now soooo bad that changes are coming. this article
Excerpts from the Article:
Today, Governor Tom Wolf was joined by Representative Sheryl Delozier, Senator Anthony Williams, Representative Jordan Harris and many stakeholder and advocacy groups for the signing of House Bill 1419, the “Clean Slate” bill. The first of its kind in the nation, the bill was co-sponsored by Reps. Delozier and Harris, Sen. Williams sponsored the Senate version of the bill.
“I am proud to sign this legislation, which will make it easier for those who have interacted with the justice system to reduce the stigma they face when looking for employment and housing,” Gov. Wolf said. “Clean Slate passed in an overwhelmingly bi-partisan manner and I want to thank the General Assembly and the many advocates and stakeholders who made this possible.”
“I’m honored to have authored this law, which had almost unanimous support of both Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of the General Assembly,” Delozier said. “People who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to minor misdemeanors many years ago deserve a second chance. They have shown that they have reformed their lives, and this barrier to employment and housing needs to be removed.”
“Clean slate is another example of how we as a commonwealth can chart a new course that effectively addresses the reintegration of our neighbors into society after they have found themselves on the wrong side of the law,” Rep. Jordan Harris said. “Clean Slate will remove one of the many barriers to employment that our citizens face and hopefully assist thousands of Pennsylvanians to reenter the workforce.”
This Clean Slate legislation allows for individuals to petition the courts for their records to be sealed if a person has been free from conviction for 10 years for an offense that resulted in a year or more in prison and has paid all court-ordered financial debts.
Additionally, it allows automatic sealing of records for second or third-degree misdemeanor offenses that included a less than two-year prison sentence if a person has been free from convictions for 10 years, as well as sealing of criminal history records related to charges that resulted in non-convictions.
The legislation does not allow for records-sealing in more serious crimes, such as firearms charges, sexual offenses, murder, kidnapping, child endangerment, and endangering the welfare of children, among other serious offenses.
“This bill is the latest step in my administration’s efforts to make our commonwealth and our society safer by helping those who have offended put their lives back together,” Gov. Wolf said. “Last year, we ‘banned the box,’ removing the criminal conviction question for job applications covered by the Office of Administration, which ensured that all candidates for employment are being evaluated on their merit, and on their willingness and ability to contribute to our commonwealth.
“While Clean Slate and Ban the Box are great steps to removing the stigma of low-level convictions, we also know that we need to do more to reform our criminal justice system,” Gov. Wolf said.
The governor also called for passage of additional criminal justice reforms legislation to include:
Justice Reinvestment Initiatives (JRI2), which seek to provide for fair sentencing, increase parole supervision and use of community-based programs, among other reforms.
Bail and Pre-Trial Reforms to ensure that everyone has a right to a fair trial and that risk-assessment tools are consistent across the commonwealth.
Post-Conviction Relief Act Expansion to reduce time sensitivity by increasing awareness of when rights expire so defendants can make an informed plea decision. Currently if a defendant pleads guilty, they are foreclosed from post-conviction relief; this needs to change so all defendants, regardless of plea, may attempt to prove their innocence.
Probation/Parole Revocation and Resentencing to create uniformity in probation revocation procedures and ensure a correlation between risk and probation lengths, resulting in better supervision.
Indigent Defense is a critical part of the system that can have a large impact on volume, cost, and human effects and is needed in Pennsylvania to ensure the independence and quality of counsel under the Sixth Amendment.
Stepping Up Initiative, which was launched statewide in April 2017 and via summit in December 2017 along with a data-driven project by Dauphin County to examine its criminal justice system, with the goal of reducing the number of people who have serious mental illnesses in the county prison.
Governor Wolf Signs Clean Slate Bill, Calls for More Criminal Justice Reform
Letter to the Editor – Behind the Eight Ball – PUBLISHED 6/29/18 kra – Marijuana Legalization
PUBLISHED in The Delaware State News of 6/29/18, p A6
Behind the eight ball
If only our legislators could learn (or admit!) the facts! I see again that in voting down legalization of marijuana in Delaware, our legislators are woefully uninformed about the issue. Comments by some who oppose legalization evidence this truth. They are behind the eight ball, not only because more than 60 percent of Delawareans favor legalization, but because, any way you consider the benefits and the drawbacks, legalization makes sense.
Ken Abraham
Dover
……………
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.
Trudeau: Canada to legalize marijuana on Oct. 17 – With Letter to the Editor – kra
Ken’s Comments:
Sure, because it makes sense! I repeat my prediction that within 5 years more than half of the states in America will have legalized pot, tRump and Sessions notwithstanding (they will be long gone). “Any way you slice it”, the harm of prohibition outweighs any harm caused by legalization.
Excerpts:
Marijuana will be legal nationwide in Canada starting Oct. 17 in a move that should take market share away from organized crime and protect the country’s youth, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday. The Senate gave final passage to the bill to legalize cannabis on Tuesday, legislation that will make Canada only the second country in the world to make pot legal across the country.
Trudeau said provincial and territorial governments need the time to prepare for retail sales. “It is our hope as of October 17 there will be a smooth operation of retail cannabis outlets operated by the provinces with an online mail delivery system operated by the provinces that will ensure that this happens in an orderly fashion,” Trudeau said.
The prime minister said at a news conference that the goal is to take a significant part of the market share away from organized crime. “Over the following months and indeed years we will completely replace or almost completely replace the organized crime market on that,” he said.
Canada is following the lead of Uruguay in allowing a nationwide, legal marijuana market, although each Canadian province is working up its own rules for pot sales. The federal government and the provinces also still need to publish regulations that will govern the cannabis trade.
“The legislation is transformative,” said Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, adding it “marks a wholesale shift in how our country approaches cannabis, leaving behind a failed model of prohibition.”
She urged Canadians to follow the existing law until the Cannabis Act comes into force. “The law still remains the law,” Wilson-Raybould said.
Many questions remain unanswered, including how police will test motorists suspected of driving under the influence, what to do about those with prior marijuana convictions and just how the rules governing home cultivation will work.
The Canadian provinces of Quebec and Manitoba have already decided to ban home-grown pot, even though the federal bill specifies that individuals can grow up to four plants per dwelling.
“Provinces can set their own laws. If individuals are challenging that law, they can challenge it,” Wilson-Raybould said.
Trudeau said the government won’t discuss pardons of past convictions until legalization is in effect. “There’s no point looking at pardons while the old law is in the books,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said they are going to treat it like wine and tobacco, noting that few people will cultivate it at home, but it’s necessary to fight organized crime.
In the neighboring U.S., nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana. California, home to one in eight Americans, launched the United States’ biggest legal marijuana marketplace on Jan. 1.
………
Letter to the Editor – Canada sees the light – 6/21/18
Trudeau: Canada to legalize marijuana on Oct. 17. Sure, because it makes sense! I repeat my prediction that within 5 years more than half of the states in America will have legalized pot, Trump and Sessions notwithstanding (they will be long gone). “Any way you slice it”, the harm of prohibition outweighs any harm caused by legalization.
Once the new law kicks in, Trudeau should pardon many who sit in prison on marijuana charges.
Ken Abraham, founder of Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE, former Deputy Attorney General, 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 ekke, 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 .
This Vermont Prosecutor Is Pushing Back Against the DOJ’s Drug Warriors – supervised injection facility (SIF)
Ken’s Comments:
Too few prosecutors see that drugs are bad but the war on drugs is worse. Many who do are my colleagues in LEAP. Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George sees that many of our drug policies make no sense, and she favors supervised injection facilities for addicts. They have been proven to lower mortality and reduce the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B.
Excerpts from the Article:
Last we reported on Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, she was locked in a staredown with the U.S. attorney for Vermont over supervised injection facilities. George, whose district includes Burlington and the University of Vermont’s flagship campus, is among a group of county leaders who support opening a supervised injection facility (SIF), where opioid users would be able to get a fix and talk to health workers without fear of judgement, arrest, or a fatal overdose. In countries where they are legal, SIFs have been shown to lower mortality and reduce the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B.
Yet when folks in Chittenden County began talking in earnest about establishing a SIF back in 2017, U.S. Attorney Christina E. Nolan released a statement suggesting her office would prosecute anyone who tried to open a SIF and seize the property. Nolan’s thinly veiled threat seems to have put the plan on ice. Vermont’s legislature declined to take up a bill that would have legalized such facilities.
But George has not given up on the opioid users in her district. In a memo she sent this week to Chittenden County police chiefs, George announced her office would no longer prosecute “any citations or arrests for Misdemeanor Possession of Buprenorphine and related compounds such as suboxone,” adding that “these drugs are intended to be life-saving.”
Like methadone, buprenorphine and Suboxone (which combines buprenorphine with the opioid antagonist and overdose remedy naloxone) act on the opioid receptors in the brain to satisfy cravings without endangering or incapacitating users. Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb supports the use of these therapies, as do most medically trained officials in the federal health bureaucracy.
Yet law enforcement agencies tend to take for granted that these drugs, as controlled substances, should be kept off the black market. Users who possess, share, buy, and sell drugs proven to fight heroin and opioid addiction are breaking the law if they don’t have a prescription. Law enforcement agencies view bottom-up addiction treatment as so offensive that Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services recently tried to restrict shipments of books to inmates because they can be used to smuggle Suboxone strips into prisons.
George has demonstrated compassion and courage by stepping up for these life-saving interventions, particularly in the face of Nolan’s interference. Back in March, George attended a meeting where her fellow harm reduction advocates in county government suggested they not do anything more to provoke Nolan. That led to the following exchange, as reported by Seven Days: Burlington Police Chief Brand n del Pozo counseled that the benefits of an injection site to the community may not be as widespread as they seem. “To go to war with the U.S. Attorney [to reduce about] 2.3 percent of the fatal risk—I think that’s a conscious decision we’d have to make in comparison to other interventions,” he said.
In response, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George asked nine audience members—an estimate of how many lives a safe injection site may save in a year—to stand up. “Is there anyone here willing to say how much one of their lives is worth?” she queried, surveying the audience. “Ten thousand dollars?”
George encouraged the community to not let the cost of the proposal drive their decision. “Frankly, if I knew the amount [it cost], I’d go out and fundraise it for it,” she said.
George may be a typical prosecutor in other ways. But on this issue, she is displaying the kind of leadership that could save lives if so many other people in government were not so hell-bent on stopping her.
https://reason.com/blog/2018/06/15/this-vermont-county-prosecutor-is-pushin
Ninth Circuit Reverses Drug Smuggling Conviction for Improper Exclusion of Evidence of Third-Party Culpability – “He did it, not me!” kra
Ken’s Comments:
This is nowhere as bad as all the cases I see about prosecutor misconduct – failing to disclose exculpatory evidence – but it is similar. Here, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a defendant’s conviction for importation of methamphetamine because the district court improperly excluded relevant evidence that someone else committed the crime.
While this case turns on some confusion about which legal standard should govern. the purpose of a trial is to get at the TRUTH, and there should be more transparency. Jurors should see ALL the relevant evidence.
Excerpts from the Article:
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a defendant’s conviction for importation of methamphetamine because the district court improperly excluded relevant evidence that someone else committed the crime.
Angelica Urias Espinoza, a citizen of Mexico, ran a business in which she imported clothing from the United States for sale in Mexico. Because the business required regular border crossings, Urias Espinoza obtained a border crossing card that allowed her to legally enter the United States. She made 14 such border crossings between February 27, 2015 and late April, 2015.
On April 22, 2015, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents detained Urias Espinoza as she attempted to legally enter the United States. Agents Tan and Wallis suspected that the car contained hidden drugs. A brief search revealed a suspicious bulge in the back seat of the car. When the back seat was opened, the agents discovered 12 kilograms of methamphetamine.
Urias Espinoza was arrested and charged with importing methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 and 960. At trial, she presented the “some other dude did it” defense. Specifically, Urias Espinoza attempted to introduce evidence that she did not know the drugs were in the vehicle because her next-door neighbor in Mexico had packed her car with meth without her knowledge, using her as a “blind mule.” To support her defense, Urias Espinoza sought to present evidence from which a jury could conclude that the next-door neighbor knew that she frequently traveled to the U.S., knew that her car was parked on the street, knew how to obtain meth, was unable to cross the border himself, set her up as a “blind mule,” and fled his home immediately upon learning of her arrest.
The actual evidence to support Urias Espinoza’s theory consisted of a screenshot of a Facebook page with her neighbor’s picture and a statement that “he’s been a drug dealer on the streets of L.A.,” the neighbor’s prior convictions for distribution of marijuana and meth, the neighbor’s prior deportation, and photographs of the neighbor. The district court excluded all of this evidence because it determined that Urias Espinoza’s theory was too speculative. As a result, she was convicted and sentenced to 90 months in prison.
On appeal, the Court of Appeals reviewed the district court’s exclusion of evidence for abuse of discretion. Because the district court identified and applied an incorrect legal standard, the Court found an abuse of discretion that required reversal.
The lower court erred when it applied the wrong rule for admissibility of third-party culpability evidence. In the Ninth Circuit, United States v. Armstrong, 621 F.2d 951 (9th Cir. 1980) set forth the proper standard: “[U]nder the Federal Rules of Evidence, ‘[f]undamental standards of relevancy, subject to the discretion of the court to exclude cumulative evidence and to insure orderly presentation of a case, require the admission of testimony which tends to prove that a person other than the defendant committed the crime that is charged.’”
The district court erroneously relied on Perry v. Rushen, 713 F.2d 1447 (9th Cir. 1983) and Territory of Guam v. Ignacio, 10 F.3d 608 (9th Cir. 1993), which the lower court believed to stand for the proposition that “[e]vidence of third-party culpability is not admissible ‘if it simply affords a possible ground of suspicion against such person; rather, it must be coupled with substantial evidence tending to directly connect that person with the commission of the offense.’”
The Ninth Circuit ruled that the lower court was mistaken; Perry and Ignacio did not establish the rule for admission of evidence of third party culpability. Rather, Armstrong governs the issue.
The district court erred in relying on Perry because that case involved interpretation of California’s evidentiary standards, not federal standards. Reliance on Ignacio was incorrect because, while the analysis in Ignacio was “less than clear,” it did not change the law as established in Armstrong.
Turning to the case at hand, the Court found that the excluded evidence was “undoubtedly relevant” and, as such, admissible. The government’s case required proof of Urias Espinoza’s knowledge, which was contested; the excluded evidence was relevant to this element of the crime charged.
Specifically, the neighbor’s prior convictions were relevant because they “demonstrated [that] Urias Espinoza’s neighbor had the ‘ability and motive’ to find and transport methamphetamine.” The neighbor’s deportation was relevant because it demonstrated that he needed a “blind mule” since he could not legally enter the U.S. And the Facebook page and photographs were relevant because they identified the neighbor and linked him to the conviction documents.
The Court acknowledged that Urias Espinoza’s theory was somewhat speculative but instructed that, under Armstrong, is no reason to exclude evidence of third-party culpability. Accordingly, the Court reversed her conviction and remanded for retrial. See: United States v. Urias Espinoza, 880 F.3d 506 (9th Cir. 2018).
Incarceration Decrease? Drop in Prison Numbers Called ‘Anemic’ – Because we have built a largely useless prison industrial MACHINE! KRA
Ken’s Comments:
Over 45 years we have built this system of mass incarceration, totally screwing up our criminal justice system. READ “How the war on Drugs has Destroyed Justice! Now we have millions of people with their jobs at stake (for every 1 person arrested 29 people benefit financially), doing virtually nothing which helps anybody, opposing the changes needed. THAT is why we must raise hell to get needed changes accomplished!
Excerpts from the Article:
Although the US prison population has declined over six years, after increasing for nearly four decades, a new analysis by researcher Malcolm C. Young, published by the Center for Community Alternatives, concludes that the nation is not reducing prison populations at a pace that would end mass incarceration in the foreseeable future.
A report issued in January by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of data through 2016 found that prison populations decreased in 33 states that year—more states than had experienced decreases in any recent year. The average decrease was three percent.
In 42 states, prison populations were lower than they had been recently. Just eight states increased their prison populations to record high numbers.
If the numbers of inmates continue to decrease only at the rate they did between 2014 and2016, there will still be more than a million people incarcerated in prison in 2042. The nation wouldn’t reach the goal of groups like #Cut50.org to reduce prison populations to half of what they are today for another 50 years, until 2068.
Only 13 states have significantly reduced their prison populations below the levels they were at the end of 2000. Seven of those 13 states accounted for most of the national inmate population drop.
California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York reduced their collective prison populations by 73,328 between 2000 and 2016, accounting for about two-thirds of the total by which all states reduced prison numbers.
The federal prison system, the nation’s largest, contributed to the national decrease. Its population at the end of 2016 was 13 percent under its highest point, in 2011.
In New York State, further decreases are likely if officials can encourage fewer prison commitments from areas outside of New York City.
On the other hand, California, which decreased its prison population by 40,926 in six years to comply with a US Supreme Court ruling, increased its prison population in 2016 by 0.9 percent. California corrections officials predict an annual 0.8 percent increase in coming years.
In Illinois, Gov. Bruce Rauner cut the prison population, incurring little opposition from the same Republicans who savaged his Democratic predecessor’s more modest efforts. Were he to lose his bid for reelection, it is not a given that a Democratic administration would carry his plan forward.
Since 2010, Texas decreased its prison population by 6,749 (4.1 percent). Prospects that the trend will continue are iffy because state legislators have been considering new sentencing enhancements.
In the federal system, prospects for continued decreases are fading. A bipartisan reform bill that would have reduced some federal sentences seems stalled, while prosecutorial and sentencing policies announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions will soon add to the prison population.
Young’s report identifies a third group of 23 states that have yet to demonstrate a capacity to reduce prison populations. At the end of 2016, their combined prison populations were 86,866, or 31 percent higher than at the end of 2000.
Similarly, reforms in policing should reduce the use of jails and, indirectly, the number of people who are sentenced to prison.
“[Hopes to] to end mass incarceration can’t be grounded in a fiction that an annual one percent reduction in prisoners will get us anywhere, or that limited successes in a few jurisdictions will end mass incarceration in the country as whole.”
His report contends that national, state and local officials should turn for guidance to states that have achieved significant, lasting reductions in prison incarceration and steer clear of approaches that have failed to produce results.
Incarceration Decrease? Drop in Prison Numbers Called ‘Anemic’
Letter to the Editor or Op Ed Submission – Why aren’t these “pushers” in prison?! – 6/17/18 kra
Updated and sent out again, as I had not yet seen it in print:
Letter to the Editor or Op Ed Submission – Who gave them a “get out of jail free” card? – 7/12/18 kra
Did you see the recent broadcast about the DEA whistle blowers trying to hold major drug distributors accountable?! (major corporations; the three largest of which are distributors Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen, which control probably 85 or 90 percent of the drugs going downstream. ) You’ve heard the expression “Money Talks”? Apparently the executives of these large corporations said “we have so much money you cannot touch us”!
Why are the executives of these corporations not in prison? Is it because they spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying (I call it legal bribery) Congress and other elected officials? More than 200,000 mothers’ sons and daughters, your neighbor’s brothers, sisters … died as a result of opioids in recent years, and these “executives” are largely responsible. Learn the FACTS; See https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/ Watch the video and read the article!
Raise a ruckus, folks; call on the U S Department of Justice, the U S Attorney in your area, and your state’s Attorney General to investigate and prosecute these criminals in ties and suits! Is this the kind of America you want? Where money talks and killers walk?
Ken Abraham, Deputy Attorney General of Delaware 1974-1979, founder of Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE, Dover, DE, 302-423-4067
………..
Letter to the Editor or Op Ed Submission – Why aren’t these “pushers” in prison?! – 6/26/18 kra
Did you see the recent broadcast about the DEA whistle blowers trying to hold major drug distributors accountable?! (major corporations; the three largest of which are distributors Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen, which control probably 85 or 90 percent of the drugs going downstream. ) You’ve heard the expression “Money Talks”? Apparently the executives of these large corporations said “we have so much money you cannot touch us”!
Why are the executives of these corporations not in prison? Is it because they spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying (I call it legal bribery) Congress. and other elected officials? More than 200,000 mothers’ sons and daughters, your neighbor’s brothers, sisters … died as a result of opioids in recent years, and these “executives” are largely responsible. Learn the FACTS; See https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/ Watch the video and read the article!
Raise a ruckus, folks; call on the U S Department of Justice, the U S Attorney in your area, and your state’s Attorney General to investigate and prosecute these criminals in ties and suits! Is this the kind of America you want? Where money talks and killers walk?
Ken Abraham, Deputy Attorney General of Delaware 1974-1979, founder of Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE, Dover, DE, 302-423-4067
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I get lots of letters published, and ghost write for others. 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!
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Excerpts from the story:
In the midst of the worst drug epidemic in American history, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to keep addictive opioids off U.S. streets was derailed — that according to Joe Rannazzisi, one of the most important whistleblowers ever interviewed by 60 Minutes. Rannazzisi ran the DEA’s Office of Diversion Control, the division that regulates and investigates the pharmaceutical industry. Now in a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and The Washington Post, Rannazzisi tells the inside story of how, he says, the opioid crisis was allowed to spread — aided by Congress, lobbyists, and a drug distribution industry that shipped, almost unchecked, hundreds of millions of pills to rogue pharmacies and pain clinics providing the rocket fuel for a crisis that, over the last two decades, has claimed 200,000 lives.
JOE RANNAZZISI: This is an industry that’s out of control. What they wanna do, is do what they wanna do, and not worry about what the law is. And if they don’t follow the law in drug supply, people die. That’s just it. People die.
“This is an industry that allowed millions and millions of drugs to go into bad pharmacies and doctors’ offices, that distributed them out to people who had no legitimate need for those drugs.”
Joe Rannazzisi is a tough, blunt former DEA deputy assistant administrator with a law degree, a pharmacy degree and a smoldering rage at the unrelenting death toll from opioids. His greatest ire is reserved for the distributors — some of them multibillion dollar, Fortune 500 companies. They are the middlemen that ship the pain pills from manufacturers, like Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson to drug stores all over the country. Rannazzisi accuses the distributors of fueling the opioid epidemic by turning a blind eye to pain pills being diverted to illicit use.
JOE RANNAZZISI: This is an industry that allowed millions and millions of drugs to go into bad pharmacies and doctors’ offices, that distributed them out to people who had no legitimate need for those drugs.
BILL WHITAKER: Who are these distributors?
JOE RANNAZZISI: The three largest distributors are Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. They control probably 85 or 90 percent of the drugs going downstream.
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BILL WHITAKER: You know the implication of what you’re saying, that these big companies knew that they were pumping drugs into American communities that were killing people.
JOE RANNAZZISI: That’s not an implication, that’s a fact. That’s exactly what they did.
In the late 1990s, opioids like oxycodone and hydrocodone became a routine medical treatment for chronic pain. Drug companies assured doctors and congressional investigators — as in this 2001 hearing — that the pain medications were effective and safe. Purdue Executive to Congress in 2001: Addiction is not common, addiction is rare in the pain patient who is properly managed. With many doctors convinced the drugs posed few risks, prescriptions skyrocketed and so did addiction.
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Many people who’d become addicted to painkillers turned to shady pill mills — pain clinics with rogue doctors to write fraudulent prescriptions and complicit pharmacists to fill them — one-stop shopping for controlled narcotics.
JOE RANNAZZISI: Pain clinics overnight popping-up – off an entrance ramp, or an exit ramp on an interstate. And all of a sudden there’s a pain clinic there.
BILL WHITAKER: Had you ever seen anything like that before?
JOE RANNAZZISI: Never. In fact– it was my opinion that this made the whole crack epidemic look like nothing.
JOE RANNAZZISI These weren’t kids slinging crack on the corner. These were professionals who were doing it. They were just drug dealers in lab coats.
BILL WHITAKER: You know what a chilling picture that paints?
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JOE RANNAZZISI: I do, ’cause I watched them get arrested, and I was the one who approved the cases.
Despite arrests of unscrupulous purveyors, opioids kept flooding the black market. The death toll kept rising. This map shows the U.S. death rate from drug overdose in 1999. By 2015, the map looked like this. Most of these deaths were opioid related. Joe Rannazzisi told us prosecuting crooked doctors and pharmacists wasn’t stemming the epidemic, so he decided to move up the food chain.
JOE RANNAZZISI: There had to be a choke point. And the choke point was the distributors.
BILL WHITAKER: What took you so long to go to that choke point of the distributors?
JOE RANNAZZISI: This was all new to us. We weren’t seeing just some security violations, and a few bad orders. We were seeing hundreds of bad orders that involved millions and millions of tablets. That’s when we started going after the distributors.
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A distributor’s representative told us the problem is not distributors but doctors who overprescribe pain medication, but the distributors know exactly how many pills go to every drug store they supply. And they are required under the Controlled Substances Act to report and stop what the DEA calls “suspicious orders” — such as unusually large or frequent shipments of opioids. But DEA investigators say many distributors ignored that requirement.
JIM GELDHOF: They had a business plan. Their plan was to sell a lotta pills and make a lot of money. And they did both of those very well.
“All we were looking for is a good-faith effort by these companies to do the right thing. And there was no good-faith effort. Greed always trumped compliance. It did every time.”
Jim Geldhof, a 40-year DEA veteran, ran pharmaceutical investigations from dea’s detroit field office. Frank Younker supervised the agency’s operations in Cincinnati. Joe Rannazzisi was their supervisor. They saw distributors shipping thousands of suspicious orders. One example: a pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, a town of just 392 people, ordered nine million hydrocodone pills over two years.
JIM GELDHOF: All we were looking for is a good-faith effort by these companies to do the right thing. And there was no good-faith effort. Greed always trumped compliance. It did every time. But don’t sit here and tell me that, “Well, we’re not sure what a suspicious order is.” Really? I mean this– this co– this pharmacy just bought 50 times an amount that a normal pharmacy purchases and they are in a town of 5,000 people. You don’t know that that’s suspicious? I mean at some point you’re just turning a blind eye to it.
BILL WHITAKER: These companies are a big reason for this epidemic?
JIM GELDHOF: Yeah, absolutely they are.
JIM GELDHOF: And I can tell you with 100 percent accuracy that we were in there on multiple occasions trying to get them to change their behavior. And they just flat out ignored us.
In 2008, the DEA slapped McKesson, the country’s largest drug distributor, with a $13.2 million dollar fine. That same year, Cardinal Health paid a $34 million fine. Both companies were penalized by the DEA for filling hundreds of suspicious orders — millions of pills.
Over the last seven years, distributors’ fines have totaled more than $341 million. The companies cried foul and complained to Congress that DEA regulations were vague and the agency was treating them like a foreign drug cartel. In a letter, the healthcare distribution alliance, which represents distributors, told us they wanted to work with the DEA. Effective enforcement, they wrote, “must be a two-way street.”
BILL WHITAKER: Frank, you said you were tough but fair. The industry says you guys were unfair. That you were taking unfair hits at them.
FRANK YOUNKER: Tell that to the people who lost their sons and daughters. See how fair they think it is.
In 2011, more than 17,000 Americans died from opioid prescription overdoses. That same year Cardinal Health, the second largest distributor, started pushing back at Joe Rannazzisi. The companies’ attorneys went over his head and called his bosses at the Justice Department, who called in Rannazzisi to have him explain his tactics.
Rannazzisi says the drug industry used that money and influence to pressure top lawyers at the DEA to take a softer approach. Former DEA attorney Jonathan Novak said it divided the litigation office. He said in 2013, he noticed a sea change in the way prosecutions of big distributors were handled. Cases his supervisors once would have easily approved, now weren’t good enough.
JONATHAN NOVAK: We had been achieving incredible success in an almost unstoppable wave, and then suddenly it stopped.
Novak prosecuted cases brought to him by Joe Rannazzisi’s investigators. He said his caseload started to slow down dramatically.
JONATHAN NOVAK: These were not cases where it was black — where it was grey… These were cases where the evidence was crystal clear that there was wrongdoing going on.
He said his bosses started to bog down the system, demanding ever more evidence.
JONATHAN NOVAK: But now, three undercovers by four officers over three months, that wouldn’t be enough. Maybe we need an expert to explain how recording equipment works. Maybe we need an expert to explain– the system for prescribing. What’s a prescription? It felt honestly confusing and almost insane. Where was this coming from?
Jim Geldhof says his investigations were getting bogged down too. He was looking into one mid-sized distributor that had shipped more than 28 million pain pills to pharmacies in West Virginia over five years. About 11 million of those pills wound up in Mingo County, population 25,000. Suddenly, he said, he ran into roadblocks from one of attorney Jonathan Novak’s bosses.
JIM GELDHOF: “I spent a year working on this case. I sent it down there and it’s never good enough. Every time I talked to this guy he wants something else. And I get it for ’em and that’s still not good enough.” You know? And this goes on and on and on. When this– these roadblocks keep– get thrown up in your face, at that point you know they just don’t want the case.
BILL WHITAKER: But this is the DEA. That’s what you’re supposed to do.
FRANK YOUNKER: Yeah.
JIM GELDHOF: You would think.
The DEA’s toughest sanction is to freeze distributors shipments of narcotics — a step they haven’t taken in almost two years.
JONATHAN NOVAK: I mean there’s no denying the numbers. At the height of the opioid epidemic, inexplicably, they slowed down.
He said one big reason for the slowdown: DC’s notorious revolving door. Novak said he saw a parade of DEA lawyers switch sides and jump to high-paying jobs defending the drug industry. Once they’d made the leap, they lobbied their former colleagues, novak’s bosses, and argued the dea’s cases were weak and ultimately would lose in court. It had a chilling effect on dea litigators.
As cases nearly ground to a halt at DEA, the drug industry began lobbying Congress for legislation that would destroy DEA’s enforcement powers.
The bill, introduced in the House by Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino and Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, was promoted as a way to ensure that patients had access to the pain medication they needed. Jonathan Novak, who worked in the DEA’s legal office, says what the bill really did was strip the agency of its ability to immediately freeze suspicious shipments of prescription narcotics to keep drugs off U.S. streets — what the DEA calls diversion.
MATT MURPHY: Yeah, pressure was put on for him to be moved out. I’m pretty confident of that. There was no reason to take the guy who was the most qualified person in DEA to run the Office of Diversion Control out of the Office of Diversion Control.
The investigation requested by Congressman Marino against Rannazzisi went nowhere, but soon after, Rannazzisi was stripped of his responsibilities. He says he went from supervising 600 people to supervising none — so he resigned.
When Joe Rannazzisi looks back he has one regret.
Joe Rannazzisi: You know all these people that died happened under my watch. The one thing I wanted to do, the one thing that I just thought would have the most impact, is to lock up, arrest one of these corporate officers. You arrest a corporate officer. You arrest somebody that’s involved in the decision process, knowing what the law is. If you make that arrest, then everybody sits up and takes notice because three-piece-suit guys just don’t do well in prison. They don’t.
Joe Rannazzissi now consults with state attorneys general who have filed suit against distributors for their role in the opioid crisis. Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn is running for the Senate. As for Congressman Marino, he was just nominated to be President Donald Trump’s new drug czar.
Trump is going to reform our criminal justice system?! Short essay – kra
Trump is going to reform our criminal justice system?! The guy is a disaster for criminal justice! He incarcerates children. Children who have done no wrong!
Witness the tent cities – prisons – now popping up in our deserts to house nearly 2,000 kids separated by their parents, not by any law “forced upon us by Democrats”, as the Liar in Chief says, but by deliberate Trump administration policy. Sessions and Kelly have even said that this is their policy! They could end it tomorrow!
The fool does not even know what a sentence is! He tweeted that his criminal buddy, Manifort, had received an unfair sentence, when he hasn’t even been sentenced yet! Yes, that’s how bad it is: we have a president so inept, so full of self-promoting lies and BS, so clueless about the facts, the problems and how to fix them, that he does not even know what a criminal sentence is. It’s not “criminal law 101”; it’s “Do you have a brain at all 101?!”
The perfect BS artist that he is, tRump talks about criminal justice reform and prison reform. Nonsense. He is incapable or doing either because (1) he lacks empathy, and (2) he has NO understanding of the issues and has no interest in learning about them. Indeed, these two factors are largely why (in addition to his lying to the point of it being a mental illness) he is such a terrible president!
Like most of what he says.. it is not true, he says what he thinks the current audience wants to hear, he says what makes him look good, he says things that “sorta sound true” – like saying that Paul Manifort worked for him for 49 days, when, in fact, Manifort was the head of the Trump Campaign for 144 days! Trump is going to improve our criminal justice system! Balderdash! The great danger is that so many uninformed people swallow his poison: his lies and half truths, and they become full of hatred spouting the same nonsense. Thank God for Robert Mueller!
Even George F. Will, arch conservative, with whom I disagree about most of what he says, blasts tRump for the fool that he is. READ for example: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/331882-george-will-trump-disabled-by-inability-to-think-speak-clearly
Hey, this picture just happens to be perfect! I couldn’t make this stuff up. The tRumpster makes it up for us.
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