Our country is returning to past failed policies that ruined families and whole communities while financially enriching a small group of investors in misery—the prison industry. It does not have to be this way. Remember when Attorney General Eric Holder, during the Obama administration, acknowledged our country’s mass incarceration policy as the actual destructive problem that… Read More
A prison sentence of life without parole is the harshest sentence our courts impose short of death, so the crimes that merit sending a person to prison for the rest of his or her life should be some pretty serious crimes. But let me introduce you to Lee Carroll Brooker, a 76-year-old disabled, decorated army veteran… Read More
For our final post in our three-part series focused on the 2016 presidential election, we take a look at the candidates’ views on mass incarceration and prison reform. We touched on this briefly in the previous post centered on the Black Lives Matter movement, but today we’ll dive a little deeper into specific initiatives regarding… Read More
President Obama’s recent prison visit to Cellblock B of the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma inspires hope that maybe our country is finally ready to address its mass incarceration problem. The president’s prison tour, coupled with his acknowledgement that our country’s excessive prison sentences for nonviolent offenders exact an enormous moral and financial… Read More
Mandatory minimum sentences are prison sentences set by lawmakers rather than judges, where a statute requires an automatic, minimum prison terms for certain crimes, without permitting the judge to impose a more lenient sentence when the situation warrants. Without mandatory minimum sentences, the judge can consider factors like the defendant’s prior record, a history of… Read More
