There's an important story that's not getting enough press, so I figured I'd blog it to try to raise the profile a bit. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy just accepted a report from the ABA on the dysfunction in the US penal system. The upshot is that we are pissing away huge amounts of taxpayer money incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders thanks to mandatory minimum sentences created by politicians trying to seem tough on crime. The same political dynamics lead to the idiocy of alcohol prohibition. The ABA commission website has the text of the report, summaries, and some other useful material on the subject.

The system is deeply flawed, even if you think drug laws are a good idea. It makes no sense whatsoever to sentence a street level dealer to twice the amount of time given to someone who commits assault, but that's the way things are right now. We desperately need reform of the whole penal system - perhaps this report can begin the process.

Yes most definently need something like that. Especially here in Texas people have gotten carried away with the whole lock them up and throw away the key mentality. People with mental disorders or substance abuse issues are being put into general populations of real hard core violent offenders. Then seemingly nice people learn how to become real hard core criminals.

At the state level, federal courts are finding prisons overcrowded and are ordering the states to cut the prison population. Because the drug offenders have mandatory minimums, they can't be released early. The folks being released are the people with sentences that can be cut by one means or another - frequently people with convictions of burglary, armed robbery or assault.

Drug users murder people with their cars; jailing them saves lives. Tobacco kills what 200,000 Americans a year? And we tolerate it because they grow it in swing states?