Sentencing reform is long over due and the witnesses made compelling arguments in favor of moving forward.  All three of the bills discussed are worthy of support and should be passed immediately. If you have not watched the proceedings please do so.  The process of government is enlightening.

To those of you who follow Criminal Justice issues on this site may already know that I am a strong supporter of another bill, H.R. 1529 the "second Chance For Ex-Offenders Act of 2009" and felt that it should have been included in the discussion in this hearing.  I will tell you why in a minute but supporters of H.R. 1529 wrote letters to members of the committee and to certain of the witnesses in a attempt to have the bill included in the conversation.  If you have watched the proceedings you know that our efforts were not successful.

Of all of the comments in support of sentencing reform I think that those of Mr. T.J. Bonner speaking in support of H.R. 834, the "Ramos and Compean Justice Act of 2009" were the most surprising as you don't often hear anyone from law enforcement speak in favor of sentencing reform.

Mr. Bonner made a statement that cuts right to the heart of not only sentencing reform but reform of the justice system in general and no one else in the room had the presence of mind to pick up on the critical importance of his words.  He said, in speaking of the gross miscarriage of justice that resulted in the imprisonment of Border Patrolmen Ramos and Compean, and I quote from the written comments, “even though their sentences have been commuted, the system of unjust felony convictions continues to follow them around, severely diminishing their employment opportunities and curtailing other basic rights and freedoms enjoyed by most Americans.”  He went on to say that these men would be lucky to find minimum wage employment. He absolutely nailed it; he sees what practically no one else seems to understand.  A Federal Felon is condemned to serve a life sentence that no court of law imposed. It is simply the way the system works and in addition to the two agents that he spoke of there are hundreds of thousands more suffering the same fate.  Even a full Presidential Pardon will not remove the Felony from the record.

Now for the why that I mentioned earlier. Our position is that H.R. 1529 will be a tremendous enhancement to the sentencing reform efforts as well as other legislation like H.R. 1475, re-instatement of parole, etc. What we are trying to do is to make everyone understand that even if an offender receives a shorter sentence or an early release from prison, it is still "prison" if you can't rise above the "felon" scarlet letter or get a decent job.”  H.R. 1529 is the only bill pending before congress that will benefit those currently serving out their sentences but, more importantly, will allow an immediate means of relief to those hundreds of thousands who have completed their court ordered sentences but are still being punished.  When does the punishment stop?  We say that the time is now.  If you punish a child for breaking a "family rule" you don't come back later and punish them again and again for the same infraction.  This is what is happening to many.  It is not justice and it must stop now.

To make matters worse, it appears that the sponsor of H.R. 1529, Congressman Rangel, has completely abandoned all support of the bill. Our group of supporters has been trying to find a reason for this to no avail.  It is mystifying that, after more than eight years of supporting this legislation that Congressman Rangel would give up now when his party is in power and the winds of justice reform are beginning to blow.  It just makes no sense and what is even more infuriating is that while there are still hundreds of letters, e-mail, phone calls and other means of communication being initiated to Rep. Rangel and others in congress, no one will offer an answer to the thousands depending on this legislation for a chance of relief from their current situation.

 Join the fight for reform.

I agree with the speaker of FAMM. My husband is currently in the BOP and there is 1766 people at the prison he is at. As of yesterday there are 207,080 people in Federal Prisons. 170,800 are federal prisons, 22,111 private prisons, and 14,169 at CCMs. That is an entire town in some places. My husband did not receive the mandatory min (108 months); however, the sentencing judge did say, " Upon your release if you ever come back before this court the least I could sentence you to is 15 years, that would be the minimum."

My husband said that it is getting so crowded that some two man cells are being converted into 3 man cells. Now can you imagine 3 men in an 8 x 10 or 8 x 12, area? Lock down is at 9:40, so you are locked down until the next morning with 2 other men. And don't let a fight break out on the yard, the whole prison is locked down.

This past Christmas of 08, the prison was locked down because the Mexicans and the Muslims were arguing over a table in the chow hall. They were let out of their cells only to wash for 5 or 10 mins and make a 2 minute phone call. Now with this many people locked up at one prison (1766) can you run a prison effectively, and efficiently. I doubt it! Over worked prison guards, guards sneaking in cell phones, and cigarettes.  

Lets pray these two bills pass quickly and save the taxpayers money. Money that can be spent in other areas that truly need it.

I agree with you, the system needs to be reformed and changed. It is not good enough that our Justice System is aware of it they need to get into action and have it done. Now is the time to have courage in the Legislature, and have your State Representatives speak up for this unjustice system.

Mandatory minimum sentencing has been a weapon for too long for the police, prosecutors and lawyers to not have to do their jobs as a plea bargain is an easy alternate for a defendant looking at decades in prison. When faced with an actual trial for an innocent defendant they are unprepared since they seldom go to trial and win a case for an innocent person -- too much work. It's time this injustice is overhauled. Society has paid a terrible price and the taxpayers can no longer sustain a broken injustice system.

Thousands of innocent people are sitting in jails and prisons across America. Join us to bring awareness to the wrongfully convicted and to change legislation that has brought our nation to collapse.

www.FreedomMarchUSA.org

Help free our daughter, Courtney Bisbee, Maricopa County, AZ, sign her Petition.  www.justice4courtney.com

Thank you, 

Camille Tilley

camtil@aol.com

We must address all these issues, wrongful convictions,women and the aged in prison, parole, clemency, to reduce costs to taxpayers while no longer a threat to society.  

I, and probably most others interested in reform, agree completely with what you say.  You have to be aware that there are more than a few petitions on this site seeking the same things that you are. I am sure that those of us fighting for reform will join and support your effort.  The reality of things is that congress appears to be paying very little attention to our efforts.  Oh,they hold the occasional hearing, tell everyone what a good job they are doing on our behalf, tell us that if we will only continue to return them to office how much more they will be able to do and then they go right back to business as usual.  Doing very little if anything to solve the problem.  Many in congress seem to think that there is no problem. I urge you to take a close look at some of the reform legislation that is pending before congress right now.  Some of these bills have been around the block more than once.  What is the hold up?  What are they waiting on?  Why will they not respond to our petitions?  Why will they not respond to direct questions from supporters?  As you continue your efforts, should you find the answers to any of these questions please share them with the entire reform community. 

Good luck.

Thomas, Thank you for reiterating what we all have been facing in a quest for fair justice, criminal justice reform and overhauling the mass industrial prison complex. Those who wrote the laws that have cost us our Freedoms are reluctant to admit they made mistakes they have made. Society is paying a huge price and our future hangs in the balance. The reality in America is we are no longer "the land of the free". Who will be the real leaders who step up to right the wrongs?

Most people have no idea that we have more people imprisoned than in Russia or China, yet we call ourselves the land of the free ! MI has used MDOC as an employment agency with longer and harsher sentencing. No good time or truth in sentencing and no real justice due to lack of DNA or sufficient evidence ! This has caused us to spend money that would be better spent on our children's education. Because if we don't then they are more likely to be our next offenders. There are so many imprisoned, that in other countries would either not be or with shorter more human sentences. We need the legal system to look outside the box and realise it has not reduced crime by the present methods, just caused more misery to the good American people. As for corruption, well you only have to see it is an elitist situation.Those with money or like the judge that embezzled money getting not only their sentence reduced, but released because he was "declining in jail " ! He was supposed to set an example ! therefore should have HAD to serve his sentence. There are so many innocent people incarcerated, and you only have to read about Walter Swift and others like him to know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Apart from the tragedy of this it is draining the country financially. Think again people and change this archaic and corrupt legal system

We are grateful to Matt Kelley for his informative postings and the a comment blog that allows us to have serious dialog. Keep adding more of the travesties of justice by justice system designed to "protect" us. They haven't protected innocent people and the integrity of the courts is in question since they do not try to right the wrongs.