Just Look Who Opposes Prop. 5
October 30th, 2008 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
You can learn a lot about the merits of a proposal by taking a good, hard look at who’s lobbying against it.
Take California’s Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, which would require the diversion of certain non-violent offenders to drug treatment and increase funding for state-sponsored rehabilitation programs. The measure seeks to expand upon the alternative sentencing programs initially enacted by Proposition 36, which is estimated to have saved taxpayers some $1.7 billion dollars and reduced the number of people incarcerated for simple drug possession by one-third. So who would oppose this proposal?
If you guessed: the folks who make their living arresting non-violent drug offenders, you’d be right! According to the ‘No on 5′ website, the California State Sheriff’s Association, the California Narcotics Officers Association, the California Peace Officers Association, the Police Chiefs of California, and the California District Attorneys Association all oppose Prop. 5.
However, even more disturbing is who’s bankrolling the ‘No on 5′ campaign. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, California’s powerful prison guards union has spent close to $2 million dollars to lobby against the passage of Prop. 5. After all, overcrowded prisons — In 2007, California declared a ’state of emergency’ in the prison system because of the lack of bed space — and more prison construction (in lieu of building additional public high schools and state colleges) are a financial windfall for prison guards, even if they spell disaster for everyone else.
In addition to expanding drug treatment in California, Prop. 5 would also reduce minor marijuana possession penalties from a misdemeanor (punishable by a $100 criminal fine with a criminal record) to a non-criminal infraction (punishable by a $100 civil fine with no criminal record). Now who would be against that?
If you answered: the folks who make their living by possessing a monopoly on the sale of legal intoxicants, you’d be correct! According to the DPA, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors have donated $100,000 to the ‘No on 5′ campaign. Could it be that the alcohol lobby is fearful of the day when they will have to legally compete with a natural product that is remarkably safe, non-toxic, and won’t leave you with a hangover? Do we even have to ask?
So now that you know who’s against Prop. 5, why not examine who is lobbying for it. That list would include the California Nurses Association, California Society of Addiction Medicine, the California League of Women Voters, and the California Academy of Family Physicians.
In short, those who have dedicated their lives to helping others in need are backing Prop. 5, while those who have dedicated their careers to destroying people’s lives (or who promote a product that does) vehemently oppose it. You do the math.
Here is a picture that sums up much that is wrong with American politics. Five governors of California, Democrats and Republicans, joining forces to oppose something that is indisputably in the public interest.
This is an image that could be repeated, with different faces, in region after region of our country, involving issue after issue. Public officials standing against the public good, with the disastrous results on display from Detroit to Wall Street. All suffering from the same destructive force: the power of entrenched special interests to cloud the vision of our leaders, causing them to thwart good sense, good legislation, and the will of the people.
In today's version, we have Jerry Brown, Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, George Deukmejian, and Arnold Schwarzenegger coming together to oppose Prop 5, a common sense ballot initiative that seeks to effectively and intelligently tackle the chronic problems facing California's deeply flawed criminal justice system.
California's prisons are a budget-busting debacle. There are currently more than 170,000 inmates crammed into prisons designed to hold 100,000 people. Around 70,000 of these prisoners are nonviolent offenders, with over half of them incarcerated for a drug offense. continued...
Race and Imprisonment in the Drug War
A new study released yesterday by the widely known human rights watchdog group Human Rights Watch promises to generate great interest among the mass media and other interested parties. "Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs" charges that the war on drugs has been waged overwhelmingly against black Americans, and includes the first state-by-state analysis of the role of race and drugs in prison admissions. All of the 37 states Human Rights Watch studied send black drug offenders to prison at far higher rates than whites.
excerpts from the book Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti
City Lights Books, 1997
Prisons: America's Newest Growth Industry
Private prison companies have some powerful allies in the fight for stiffer sentences and more prison spending. For example, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has grown from 4,000 to 23,000 in the last decade, gave more than $1 million to various California state politicians in 1996. The prison lobby is also supported by the National Rifle Association. Armed with an agenda of deflecting public fear away from guns and toward people, the NRA successfully lobbies for prison construction and three-strikes-and-you're-out laws.
The NRA strikes Back By Chris Bryson
An important and largely overlooked force driving the prison boom in the United States is the National Rifle Association. With a membership of some 3 million, an estimated war chest of $140 million, and paid lobbyists in ail 50 states, the NRA has thrown its weight behind so-called "get tough on crime" measures and prison-building initiatives.
Top Law Enforcers Call For 'No' Vote on Marijuana By Milton J. Valencia
CN Source: Boston Globe October 31, 2008 Boston, MA
Local law enforcement officials began a final assault yesterday on Tuesday's ballot question to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, saying a "yes" vote would only empower drug dealers who resort to guns and violence in their trade.
"Drug use, drug abuse, and drug sales are synonymous with other types of criminal activity," Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said yesterday, pointing to a table of guns and bags of marijuana that, he said, are found in tandem in Boston's street crime. continued...
U2b
__________________
Safe Sacramental Cannabis, Food, Fuel, Fiber, FARM-aceuticals
Hardrug, Booze & Petro-Chem Alternative
Eliminated by Legislation and Administrated Education Depravation! Welcome to Reality
President Bush’s Drug Czar and the powerful California prison guards’ union are coming together to turn their guns on the biggest U.S. drug policy reform since alcohol Prohibition was repealed 75 years ago. Don’t let them get away with it! Check out our TV ads and share them with everyone you know in California -- help get out the vote: YES on Prop. 5
Voter Rights Win in Alabama
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
The Ordinary People’s Society (TOPS), one of our partners in Alabama, fought back with a lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections and won! Our historic voter education effort is proceeding in Alabama prisons. Alabama joins only Vermont and Maine in allowing some people to vote while incarcerated -- but many of these eligible voters don’t know they can vote. Reverend Glasgow of TOPS has resumed his non-partisan work to inform eligible incarcerated voters of their rights. continued...
"The group includes former governors Gray Davis, Pete Wilson, George Deukmejian and Jerry Brown. Supporters of the drug initiative portray their foes as shills for the prison guards union".
-- Michael Rothfeld
Election 2008 Prison Guards Go "Boo!
Are you scared yet?
Well, the prison guards aren’t done with their scare tactics and the vote is still days away!
The prison guards are bankrolling the opposition to Proposition 5, like any special-interest, to hang on to their bloated pay checks -- and keep control of state politics. This video will help you remind others that we can't trust politicians who are in league with these guys.
The guards have put Dianne Feinstein (or is that Dianne Frankenstein?) up as their mouthpiece. Check out Dianne's Halloween costume. She may be thinking that aligning with the prison guards will be helpful when she makes a run for governor in 2010.
Incarceration isn't the solution the prison guards suggest but it sure has helped put a few gubernatorial candidates into office -- like Pete Wilson and Gray Davis, two other big backers of the prison guards.
Prop. 5 would finally bring real reform to the prison system and that's what's really worrying the prison guards and the politicians who depend on their big donations!
But we can’t afford to keep 170,000 people in prison at a cost of $10 billion each year just to enrich 31,000 prison guards. Prop. 5 will safely reduce prison overcrowding and provide a national model for prison and sentencing reform!
If you live in California vote YES on Prop. 5! No matter where you live, please forward this to all the Californians you know to expose the truth about politicians and mass incarceration!
Sincerely, Margaret Dooley-Sammuli
Deputy Campaign Manager, Yes on 5
Deputy State Director, Southern California
Drug Policy Alliance Network
P.S. Psst! The prison guards are helping elect politicians who support mass incarceration. Check out the truth here!
Paid for by NORA Campaign -- Yes on 5, sponsored by Campaign for New Drug Policies and Drug Policy Alliance Network. / Major funding by Bob Wilson and George Soros / ID# 1302707 / 555 Capitol Mall, Suite 1425, Sacramento, CA 95814.
NORA, Proposition Five, is a step toward a world that reduces addition to a manageable health threat – instead of an epidemic. It is the cost effective path. It is the science-based path. And it is the right path for a nation that values life.
Besides the presidential race, California voters face another choice between change and more of the same on November 4. Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, asks voters to decide between squandering billions of dollars each year on the same old criminal justice policies, or voting Yes on 5 to change that system, save money, save lives and reduce crime.
A poor interpretation of Proposition 5, promoted by some biased parties, has so taken hold that several large newspapers have come out against the measure based on this view. Alex Kreit, assistant professor and director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, will propose what, in his view, is an accurate reading of Proposition 5 and its likely effect on California's criminal justice system.
The prison guards' union is spending millions to defeat California's Proposition 5 and to make sure the number of people behind bars just keeps growing.
And they're lying to make that happen.
Here's your chance to fight back by helping us get this ad on the air. Donate now.
Every union has a mission to fight for better pay and working conditions.
But it's despicable when anyone sees their interests best served by locking up as many of their fellow citizens as possible.
The prison guards' union is lying to beat Prop. 5 -- the ballot initiative we drafted that would reduce prison overcrowding, expand treatment and rehabilitation for nonviolent drug offenders and cut billions of dollars in state spending.
Prop. 5 is in serious danger on Election Day because the prison guards' union has mounted an insidious campaign on TV that tells voters anything but the truth.
"The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who are convicted of nonviolent offenses, border on the unimaginable. Prison rape not only threatens the lives of those who fall prey to their aggressors, but it is potentially devastating to the human spirit. Shame, depression, and a shattering loss of self-esteem accompany the perpetual terror the victim thereafter must endure."
-- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Farmer v. Brennan
More than half of all federal inmates are now nonviolent drug inmates.
What's life like in our prisons for those nonviolent drug inmates? Let's steel our nerves and go visit the Web site Just Detention International, has posted the little plain-talking handbill it has prepared for young men entering our prison system, titled "For Prisoners: Advice on Avoiding HIV/AIDS."
The group's handout -- targeted primarily at heterosexual men who have no desire to ever be involved in homosexual activity -- advises:
"HIV/AIDS transmission during a sexual assault is a serious concern. The following are practical tips for reducing your risk. ...
"If you have a choice, try to avoid men who used needles for drugs in the past or are still doing so. ... The more often you are raped, the more exposed you will be, so especially try to avoid anal gang-bangs. The most dangerous situation of all is if your anus is bleeding, for that allows easy entry of the virus into your bloodstream. So try to use a lubricant or grease or cream if you can to minimize injury to your delicate internal body parts, avoid anal gang-bangs, and if you must endure forced anal penetration, try to relax your muscles as much as possible. These tactics are not 'cooperating' or consenting, they are just common-sense measures to try to save your life.
"In many situations you are better off agreeing to do something (masturbating, oral sex, sex with a condom) rather than just resisting until you are overwhelmed and forced to deal with unprotected anal sex from one or many guys. You may feel you should resist to the end, but that would put your life in danger. There is no shame in doing what you have to do to survive; nothing changes the fact that rape is involved and you are not morally or legally responsible for it; these compromises are just pathways to your survival. It may even be to your advantage to develop skills in oral sex so that guys you have to deal with will be satisfied with that alone. Don't feel guilty about it; you're just trying to save your life...."
Feeling pretty comfortable now with what the legal system is doing to these nonviolent pot-smokers in your name? (And those are just the ones who end up doing hard time, mind you. Remember, 872,721 marijuana arrests in 2007 Inhaling or Not
. Do you suppose most of them had a nice, restful night in jail? Do you realize, if their families spent a few thousand dollars apiece on legal fees, that adds up to more than a billion dollars, and taxpayer costs for lost police time are several times that?
"Human Rights Watch has documented abominable conditions for children in detention in countries around the world. In the United States (Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, and Maryland), Pakistan, Jamaica, among other countries, children are subjected to excessive force, inadequate medical and mental health care, and are provided with little or no education. Often, these children are placed in the facilities along side adults, exposing them to physical and sexual abuse."
-- Human Rights Watch
Just Detention International previously "Stop Prisoner Rape"
updated 11/2008
__________________
Safe Sacramental Cannabis, Food, Fuel, Fiber, FARM-aceuticals
Hardrug, Booze & Petro-Chem Alternative
Eliminated by Legislation and Administrated Education Depravation! Welcome to Reality
Linear Mode
