by TChris

Gov. Jeb Bush has no problem spending the money of Florida's taxpayers to incarcerate sex offenders for a mandatory minimum term of 25 years. Nor did he mind spending money to intervene in the Schiavo case, or in his failed effort to prevent a girl from exercising her right to have an abortion.

But when it comes to doing something helpful, something that is likely to prevent crime while serving a public need, Jeb doesn't want to cough up the bucks.

Gov. Jeb Bush is said to be considering vetoing the $2.8 million for Orange County's Central Receiving Center. That's a terrible idea.

The CRC takes in mentally ill adults who are going through a life-threatening crisis and gives them a few days' inpatient treatment to get them stable and medicated. It gets so little state funding that many who need the center instead languish in jail cells or hospital corridors, sometimes for days.

Leaving people who are desperate for mental health treatment to wander the street is inexcusable.

by TChris

TalkLeft wrote here and here about an AP investigation of Ohio's inconsistent administration of the death penalty. An editorial in today's Fort Wayne Journal Gazette concludes that Gov. George Taft, like former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, should call a halt to state-sanctioned death.

Avoiding the issue would be politically easy. But evading the truth would be morally bankrupt.

The editorial notes that Indiana's experience with the death penalty has been similar to Ohio's.

A 2001 study uncovered the capricious nature of how the death penalty is applied in Indiana. Life or death factors included the competence of defense attorneys and prosecutors, the defendant’s socio-economic status, as well as the political and economic climate among Indiana’s counties.

The question is one of political courage.

The specter of appearing soft on crime is an accusation many governors face in this situation. But a moratorium on the death penalty doesn’t mitigate the severity of the crime. Taft’s actions would signal that he believes a truly remarkable system of punishing criminals must at all times be fair and applicable to all defendants.

by TChris

An Army mechanic who was scheduled to begin a court martial trial this week on charges of desertion won a reprieve after a judge ruled that the investigating officer compromised her impartiality. The judge ordered a new Article 32 hearing. TalkLeft's take on Sgt. Kevin Benderman's case can be found here and here.

Benderman, a Fort Stewart armored-vehicle mechanic, skipped his 3rd Infantry Division unit's deployment flight Jan. 8, just 10 days after giving his commanders notice that he was seeking a discharge as a conscientious objector.

Benderman's lawyers argued that the investigator sent an email to the prosecutor, before conducting the Article 32 hearing, that appeared to presume Benderman's guilt. The judge agreed that the email could be read as "an expression of opinion about the accused's culpability."

Say hello to The DeLay Rankings. It's a group that is tracking connections between DeLay and other Congresspersons.

Campaign finance watchdog group Public Campaign Action Fund launched The Delay Rankings at a new Web site today that allows constituents to see how close their representative is to the scandal-plagued House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). Topping the list are Reps. Tom Feeney of Florida, Bob Beauprez of Colorado, Jim Ryun of Kansas, Dave Weldon of Florida, and Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania.

The rankings are based on six categories, including how much money members have received from DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority PAC (ARMPAC), how much they have given to DeLay's legal defense fund, and how frequently they have voted with DeLay.

Human Rights Watch has issued a new report, The Black Hole, finding that "scores" of alleged Islamic militants have been sent to Egypt for interrogation since 1994,

.... where they have faced torture and serious mistreatment. The Egyptian government has held many of the suspects in prolonged incommunicado detention. In some cases, Egypt has refused to acknowledge the whereabouts of those persons.

Col. Thomas Pappas received a reprimand and was ordered to repay $8,000. in wages as a result of his failure to adequately train and supervise Abu Ghraib prison guards. No criminal charges will be brought. He has accepted the sanctions. The investigators didn't buy his defense that higher-ups ordered or encouraged the abuse:

Pappas alleged last year, for example, that the use of dogs to intimidate Iraqi prisoners was approved by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who was dispatched by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in August and September 2003 to improve intelligence-gathering at Abu Ghraib. Miller, who at the time commanded the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied ever approving of the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners at either site.

Pappas, according to a transcript of an interview by Army investigators, also accused a military intelligence superior in Iraq, Col. Steven Boltz, of approving the CIA's use of Abu Ghraib prison as a place to store "ghost detainees," a term referring to prisoners whose correct names were not registered in prison rolls.

Provided by Drug Policy Alliance:

H.R. 1528, Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005, is one of the worse drug war bills that Congress has ever considered.

Among other things, HR 1528:

--Virtually eliminates the ability of federal judges to give sentences below the minimum sentence recommended by federal sentencing guidelines, essentially creating a mandatory minimum sentence for every federal offense (including both drug and non-drug offenses).

--Expands the federal “three strikes and you’re out” law to include new offenses, including mandating life imprisonment (with no possibility of parole) for anyone convicted a third time under the RAVE Act.

--Mandates a 10-year minimum sentence for anyone 21 or older that gives marijuana or others drugs to someone under 18 (i.e. a 21 year old college students gives a joint to his 17-year old brother). A second offense would be life in prison.

--Expands what is considered to be a “drug-free” school zone to include almost any place in an urban area, and increases penalties for selling or distributing drugs in that area. (The result will be enhanced penalties for people in inner cities, while people in rural and suburban areas get less time for the same offense).

--Mandates a 5-year minimum sentence for any person that commits a drug trafficking offense near the presence of a person under 18 or in a place where such person resides for any period of time. The sentence is 10 years if they are parent. (I.e. a mother that sells her neighbor a joint will get a 10-year minimum sentence, even if her kids were at school at the time).

--Creates a new offense for persons who witness or learn about certain drug offenses that fail to report the drug offender to the police within 24 hours or fail to provide full assistance to the police in tracking and prosecuting the offender. Offenses that would get someone a 2-year minimum sentence, including failing to report a neighbor that is storing or selling drugs when that neighbor has kids, failing to report anyone that gives a joint to someone under the age of 21, and failing to report a college student that is selling marijuana on a college campus.

--Mandates a 5-year minimum sentence for any person that offers, solicits, encourages, or induces a person enrolled in drug treatment, or previously enrolled in drug treatment, to purchase, possess or receive drugs.

The full text of H.R. 1528 can be viewed by going here , entering “HR1528” in the search box.

This is the most inane thing I've read all day. In Blair County, PA, inmates are charged $50.00 for a visit with their children. The AP reports:

The fee covers the cost of transporting prisoners two blocks from the Blair County Jail to the county courthouse, where the visits take place, and the cost of paying two sheriff's deputies attend the visits, Sheriff Larry Field said. The fee, which Field instituted last month, also cuts down on frivolous visits, he said.

Frivolous visits? What kind of visit between an incarcerated parent and her child is "frivolous?" Another question is why are the inmates being forced to visit their children at a courthouse? Is there a playground there? The jail should have to provide a suitable place on site for inmates to visit with their children.

Recidivism has declined in New Jersey. What's different? The state has abandoned its "lock 'em up" mentality and is granting more parole. As a result, fewer inmates are returning to prison.

Bucking a national trend, the state prison population in New Jersey has shrunk 14 percent since it reached an all-time high of 31,300 in July 1999. The decline is largely due to a sharp drop in parole violators sent back to prison and a substantial increase in paroles, state records show.

After years of hard-line policies on lawbreakers, New Jersey is following a more measured, reasonable course, state officials say. "In most of the late '80s and the '90s, it was a law-and-order approach of 'lock 'em up and throw away the key,' " said John D'Amico Jr., chairman of the New Jersey State Parole Board and a retired Superior Court judge. Those policies "were not effective and not fiscally responsible," he said.

[hat tip Jim Capozzola at Rittenhouse Review.]

The German newspaper, Spiegel, has been running a series on the last days of WWII this week. Check out this article on Hitler drugging his soldiers with meth.

The Nazis preached abstinence in the name of promoting national health. But when it came to fighting their Blitzkrieg, they had no qualms about pumping their soldiers full of drugs and alcohol. Speed was the drug of choice, but many others became addicted to morphine and alcohol....Pervitin, a stimulant commonly known as speed today, was the German army's -- the Wehrmacht's -- wonder drug.

It was delivered to the soldiers at the front.

The Real ID Act is now law. President Bush signed the $82 billion Iraq spending bill today. In addition to the military spending, and $656 million in aid to Indian Ocean countries hurt by the earthquake and tsunamis.

It also prevents states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, stiffens asylum laws and provides money to finish a long-stalled fence on the border between California and Mexico.

The ACLU has issued this statement, praising the anti-torture amendment but sharply critical of the immigration provisions.

Update: At the press conference, De Kalb police chief Louis Graham said he will reopen the six murder cases occurring in that county attributed to Wayne Williams during the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979 to 1981. Williams was convicted of two murders in another county, and De Kalb County then closed its files on the six cases, believing Williams to have committed them. Williams has maintained his innocence, and Graham says he never believed Williams was the killer. Now that he's police chief, he says he can finally reopen the investigations.

CNN has more, including a link to TChris' earlier post, in their "What people are saying" box.

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Original Post:

There will be a press conference today in Atlanta on whether the police will reopen the Wayne Williams case.