December 24, 2015

The liberal role in America's prison disaster

Popular Resistance - Two terms of tough-on-crime Reagan and Bush Republicans added 72 new mandatory minimum statutes; Clinton’s two terms added 116.

Quoting Joe Biden in 1994, [Princeton professor Naomi Muraka] reminds us of the liberal Democrats’ approach:

“The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is now for 60 new death penalties… 100,000 cops. The liberal wing of the Democratic party is for 124,000 new state prison cells.”

This is the period, let’s remember, that saw black-white racial ratios among the imprisoned go from three to one to eight to one.

The number of mandatory minimum crimes tripled between 1985 and 2000, engorging the prison system, and locking up especially women, mostly women with kids.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Two terms of tough-on-crime Reagan and Bush Republicans added 72 new mandatory minimum statutes; "

Needs to be pointed out that the Democrats had solid control of Congress throughout the Reagan-Bush years. Controlled the House all 12 years and the Senate the last 6. So it was Democrats who passed those bills.

Anonymous said...

Obviously it is getting harder to keep the masses under control and the USA is not third world yet(This will happen when borrowing ends and the currency/economy collapses).... We haven't seen the real show yet, it is going to be ugly. Look to the middle east for ideas of what it may be like.