Bill Clinton: I Made Criminal Justice ‘Worse’

[DonViejo]

Source: TDB

Bill Clinton said at a NAACP meeting in Philadelphia on Wednesday that he made a mistake by signing the 1994 Violent Crime Control Act that lengthened federal sentences for many crimes. "I signed a bill that made the problem worse. And I want to admit it," he said. Clinton sounded a lot different when he signed the bill: "Gangs and drugs have taken over our streets and undermined our schools. Every day, we read about somebody else who has literally gotten away with murder." The act, co-written by Joe Biden, promised greater federal funding for states if they enacted stricter sentencing laws for violent offenses. In addition, it provided money for extra prisons, funding for 100,000 police, cut higher education assistance for inmates, and created 60 new death penalty offenses. Finally, the bill created the Violence Against Women Act and banned the sale of assault weapons.

Read it at Buzzfeed

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Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/07/15/clinton-i-made-criminal-justice-worse.html

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[Comrade Grumpy]

1. No kidding.

[roguevalley]

38. I remember when a man was on death row in Arkansas and there was a call for him to

halt the execution. At the same time everyone was watching to see if he was going to be 'weak' on crime. He allowed the execution. He let a man be killed by his state so he wouldn't look weak on crime. I have never really believed or trusted in him since that day.

[MannyGoldstein]

40. The man was severely brain damaged

It was during the presidential primaries, IIRC.

[roguevalley]

60. yeah. what a guy, Bill Clinton.

[virtualobserver]

2. he is immunizing Hillary, but it needed to be said n/t

[JI7]

23. maybe he is immunizing Sanders who voted for it

[virtualobserver]

26. yeah that's it, he's trying to protect Bernie What a guy! n/t

[pipoman]

3. This isn't what made it worse...it isn't keeping violent offenders

Locked up that is the problem. The problems are:

1. How do our current prison model make matters worse

2. How many nonviolent offenders are turned violent by our prisons.

3. How many victimless criminals do we need to have locked up?

[appal_jack]

10. I'm with ya pipoman. Also, apologies for NAFTA & the 1996 Telecommunications Act are overdue. nt

[uhnope]

19. & for Scientology becoming a protected "religion" with tax-exempt status on Clinton's watch. nt

[snagglepuss]

78. wow. I had no idea. I wonder what Hillary's position is on

this move. It's shocking.

[uhnope]

79. yeah good docu came out on it recently

[appalachiablue]

85. NAFTA and the 1996 Telecom Act that deregulated and basically privatized the Media. Since

ownership rules were lifted in 1996, the Media is dominated now by 6 major Media conglomerates that control 90% of everything we see, read and hear on TV, radio, in newspaper and magazines.

[Igel]

25. It is one thing that made it worse.

Longer prison sentences makes returning somebody to the community more difficult and increases the sheer number of people in federal prison at any time. Moreover, when the pressure was put on the states to increase penalties and sentence length, there were other changes made.

Non-violent offenders are a large portion of the inmate population. But a lot of low-grade violent offenders fall into the same category, and when you merge the violent and non-violent convictions under 3 strikes it gets really bad.

[appalachiablue]

39. True. And longer sentences mean more profit. Prison laborers work more time for pennies.

Slavery by another name, James Crow Jr.

[pipoman]

68. Allowing and encouraging prison rape and prison gangs

Has turned millions of nonviolent offenders who came in just wanting to do their time and be released into monsters and lifers.

Some people otoh should be in jail for life for the good of society.

[craigmatic]

4. Fuck an apology if you aren't going to fix the problem you started.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

66. He's not in the executive or legislative branch, so how could he change it?

[craigmatic]

80. The man is a former president he could lobby congress if he wanted to they'd at least have to take

his call out of courtesy. The truth is that he doesn't care and this is all just a talking point that he and Hillary have no intention of fixing.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

82. And the the repukes would listen to him, huh? Big leap of faith.

Plus, he would need to be invited in by congress.

[craigmatic]

83. None of the debate matters because he's not going to do anything least of all try. Words are cheap.

[wordpix]

89. Clinton Foundation should fund programs in this area

maybe they do already but this whole jail situation starts with poverty, teenage pregnancy, lack of jobs, violence in the home and neighborhood, truancy, the need for better schools and safe neighborhoods, etc. We need our own US "Marshall Plan" to fix these things, starting with infrastructure work that will create jobs.

[pipoman]

69. The only reason he mentioned it is so hillary can campaign against it...

[craigmatic]

81. Exactly. nt

[bonniebgood]

5. I wonder if the ones that got caught up in this trap is

accepting his apology mistake? how will they be make whole? it only took him 15 years to realize this and make an apology just for his wife to garner the black minority vote? I hate politics.

[Phlem]

6. What about NAFTA?

no apologies?

[TheNutcracker]

8. Hillary said she won't do trade deals like Bill's.

And she was not being sarcastic so no drip here!

[Phlem]

13. While that's all well and good.

I don't trust a word she says.

Been watching 3rd way antics for quite a while and even if they do win, it's still all just words. i.e. Fast tracking the TPP, thanks Obama.

Money for the rich none for the middle class and poor. That is how the third way is like Republicans.

I can go on but I'll save ya gory details.

[hifiguy]

14. Nor do I.

NOT ONE WORD.

[Phlem]

16. !

Now I'll drink to that

[hifiguy]

17. Back atcha!

[madokie]

24. Add me in there somewhere

so far Bernie hasn't said or done anything that I have a problem with that I know of. If he has I'm sure someone here will chime in with the sordid detail here shortly

[Phlem]

44. a toast for you too!

[arcane1]

77. You're not alone n/t

[Scootaloo]

53. Well, no, 'cause Bill already did those.

But she'll still pursue neoliberal trade policies that exploit workers, centered around other trade partnerships!

[Phlem]

75. I know right. She'll just do them just "not like Bill".

The end result will still be the same.

[joshcryer]

74. Still supports it.

Same as the repeal of Glass–Steagall.

[Phlem]

76. There in lies the rub.

[TheNutcracker]

7. Bill just dropped a bomb on Joe! Poll shows Joe takes a chunk of Hillary votes.

That's what I think. And it helps to take the blame for ending Glass Steagall Act too. So you may see this next.Insulate her as well. Look I just don't understand with all these problems that two families caused why any interest is drummed up at all. Hillary did have her turn as far as I'm concerned. It's all in the family still today with the Clinton's and the Bush's. So Joe is another problem for Bill, I mean Hillary.

[hifiguy]

9. Years late and millions of ruined lives later.

This sorry shit doesn't feed the bulldog. You were more than ready to pander when you thought there were votes in it, you miserable asshole.

[JI7]

21. Sanders voted for it . would you refer to sanders in the same way ?

[jeff47]

35. So Sanders supports gun control now?

You guys need to pick a story and stick with it.

[JI7]

36. i'm referring to this bill which the poster refers to clinton as an asshole over

the one mentioned in the OP .

[jeff47]

45. The bill included an assault rifle ban.

From the OP itself:

Finally, the bill created the Violence Against Women Act and banned the sale of assault weapons.

Didn't have to even follow the link to find it.

[JI7]

47. And other things also which is why it is considered bad

And that's what Clinton is referring to

[jeff47]

48. Did he sign the whole bill, or just parts of it?

The whole thing.

Just like Sanders voted for the whole thing.

So, if you want to claim Sanders thought the bill was great (the implications from "he voted for it&quot , then you're going to have to say he favors gun control.

Or we could just talk about Bill Clinton and what he's saying today.

[JI7]

49. you seem to be arguing something with someone else

I was responding to a post on here.

[Scootaloo]

55. it would be nice

I'm still waiting for a pro-Hillary person to actually say anything pro-Hillary beyond "she has more money."

She's only been in the race for, what now, five months? I guess I can give them time.

[Cha]

62. Is there a link to Bernie voting on Bill Clinton's tough crime bill? thanks

[Renew Deal]

11. Crime has gone down throughout the nation since 1994.

Last edited Wed Jul 15, 2015, 11:59 PM - Edit history (1)

So I wonder if he also thinks the law was effective.

[billhicks76]

12. What A Load Of Crap

It was about making money off the private prison industry that gained traction that very same year. Bill is a liar. He knew exactly what he was doing...ruining lives and families for non-violent crimes. Want to address violence??? Then prosecute violent crimes. Clintons are surrogates for the Bushes and not to be trusted.

[hifiguy]

15. +1

They are In The Club.

Our other candidates are assuredly not.

[cigsandcoffee]

18. Bernie Sanders voted for the bill. n/t

[JI7]

20. Sanders Voted for the Bill

[Cha]

61. They are studiously ignoring that. Thanks for the info, JI7

[billhicks76]

86. Bernie Should Be Asked Why He Voted For Clintons Bill

Just because it had a few good measures doesn't mean the draconian, evil parts of it should be ignored. I remember quite clearly knowing that Bill had all the punitive drug war atrocities in it that Bush Sr, Newt Gingrich and Phil Grahmm wanted a few years before beginning with H.R. 4079.

[hifiguy]

22. Doesn't mean he's in The Club.

Two separate issues.

[Igel]

32. It did.

That's why it was called the "1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Crime_Control_and_Law_Enforcement_Act is handy if you don't want to read all 350+ pages of the act.

It did some bad things. Reduced inmate education, for example. It did some good things--toughened hate crime laws and anti-women violence laws.

It did some very good things. It added a lot of police to the nation under "community policing." You may have heard something about it. Obama continued the funding for it, saying it was a good thing, and lately community policing's gotten a lot of press as how to avoid problems we saw in Ferguson and W. Baltimore. Obama wants to beef up and increase community policing. Obviously he's a surrogate for the Clintons, I guess.

Did I mention it included the infamous "assault weapon ban"?

Not everything that has bad effects was intended to be bad. And not everything that has some bad effects has only bad effects.

It's like some of the anti-drug laws from the mid-late '80s. They had a lot of support from (D), including the black caucus in Congress, in response to a serious problem that affected, everybody said, primarily the AA community. A decade later, there was some serious buyer's remorse because the laws also affected primarily the AA community. It was convenient to forget who supported it and why because for some blame and self-defense were more important than simply fixing the problem.

[billhicks76]

56. It a Was Is And Always Will Be About The Drug War

All the rest is a distraction. It's about MONEY. Even the War On Terror is fake as it really was just a rebranding of the failed and unpopular drug war. The other things you mention are just distractions and red herrings. I don't know if Bernie understands the effects of the drug war but I assume he did shortly after 1994. Joe Biden cheerleader mandatory minimums for drugs in 1986 and will never have my support. I've just seen too many lives ruined because of it. More than gun violence or violence of any kind really. Thousands more percent.

[appalachiablue]

41. Longer prison sentences = more proft $. Slavery by another name, James Crow Jr.

Outsource factories and jobs, then send the abandoned to the workhouse.

[noiretextatique]

52. +1000 choke on your dlc/new democrat triangulation

you did it knowingly, so own it.

[appalachiablue]

84. The modern US private, for profit prison system has grown enormously in the last 20+ years.

The New Jim Crow



~ Michelle Alexander's book, "THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS" (2010) is a widely acclaimed account of the rebirth of a caste-like system that prevailed in the South in the oppressive Jim Crow period from the Civil War to WWII. Alexander, a litigator and legal scholar, received the NAACP Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Non Fiction for her revealing research on mass incarceration. In the US, the majority imprisoned are black males, men of color and others in the growing modern, private, for profit prison system that has the highest incarceration rates in the world, including communist, authoritarian China with a vastly larger population.

~ VIDEO, THE NEW JIM CROW Book Trailer (1:34 mins.)

~ The New Jim Crow website, & VIDEO excerpt of author Michelle Alexander speaking about the book.
http://newjimcrow.com/


-----------
~ Journalist Douglass A. Blackmon's Pulitzer Prize winning book, "SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME: THE RE-ENSLAVEMENT OF BLACK AMERICANS FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO WWII" (2008).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_by_Another_Name






~VIDEO, PBS PREVIEW: SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME (3 mins.). Based on the book, 90 min. PBS Documentary (2012), online.

~PBS website, SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME documentary (2012) Includes interview with author Douglass A. Blackmon.
http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/home/

[BrotherIvan]

27. It was a "mistake"

"We need more police, we need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders. The three strikes and you’re out for violent offenders has to be part of the plan. We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to keep them off the streets." --Hillary Clinton, 1994

As First Lady, Clinton lobbied for her husband's crime bill, which (among other things) encouraged states to enact harsher sentencing statutes and expanded the list of crimes subject to the federal death penalty. In 2001, Clinton co-sponsored a bill to provide more funding and stricter sentencing for hate crimes. In her 2006 book It Takes a Village, Clinton praised stricter punishments for people charged with sex crimes.

In 2007, she voted to reinstate $1.15 billion in funding for the COPS Program, a police funding initiative launched by the crime bill. Clinton also co-sponsored the COPS Improvements Act of 2007, which amended existing grants for community policing programs to hire more officers on anti-terror and homeland security duties, hire more school-based police officers, and create "school-based partnerships between local law enforcement agencies and local school systems to combat crime, gangs, drug activities, and other problems facing elementary and secondary schools".

Not a momentary lapse, but a concerted effort.

[davidpdx]

50. Don't expect an apology from Hillary Clinton for supporting it

or the IRW, or supporting the bankruptcy bill.

[BrotherIvan]

59. I think Bill is trying to take the heat off

Bleh.

[RandySF]

28. When was last time a fmr. president owned up to something?

[redstateblues]

54. Anything a Clinton has done is evil

Amazing how the attack dogs are ready to bash anything Clinton. Funny how Bernie is OK for voting for it.

[Kalidurga]

29. He is apologizing for the wrong thing.

He should be apologizing for the drug war that puts non-violent people in jail. Not, putting away violent criminals especially ones who commit several violent crimes. The problem with three strikes is that it can be three strikes for a joint. Or two strikes for a joint and one for being in a brawl. Or it could be two strong armed robberies and a joint. Strikes should only be for the more violent crimes. I am not talking about a fist fight type of violence I am talking about the kind that can give a person crippling PTSD, leaves them maimed, disabled, or any combination of those things.

[heaven05]

30. too late Bill

the damage has been done and is irreversible for hundreds of thousands who face long prison terms that impacts the AA community especially hard. It has been proven that a black person who had crack was sentenced to MUCH harsher terms in prisons than whites criminals busted with cocaine. I will never trust a Clinton. EVER.

[appalachiablue]

42. +1

[CTBlueboy]

31. Not buying it

Does he know how many lives have been ruined

Why did it take up to now to fess up a bill he signed was a "mistake"


So he goes to NAACP and say its a mistake ,but what is he going to do about it?

[whereisjustice]

33. A start at contrition, now let's move on to NAFTA, welfare reform, Wall Street deregulation...

For such a smart man, he actually wants us to believe that he had no idea passing GOP inspired policies would backfire?

And, after the devastation is complete and unfixable, and an entire generation is lost to a prison culture with no meaningful education or employment, now is the time for contrition?

These policies created a human rights disaster suitable for a 3rd world despot government.

A fine fuck'n time to confess, isn't it?

Oh wait. I see. Bill is drawing fire for Hillary.

What a good guy.

Turning shit into shoe polish.

Never a political opportunity wasted.

[raindaddy]

34. You made a lot of things worse Bill.

Signing NAFTA helped shift more wealth from the middle class to the ultra rich. Signing the Telecommunications Act paved the way for a six corporations to gain control of the public airwaves.

[appalachiablue]

43. +1

[moondust]

51. Don't forget "welfare reform."

And the repeal of Glass-Steagall.

[jomin41]

37. Clinton could have changed the

trajectory of the drug war, easily. We knew then what we know now about the destructive effects and lack of effectiveness of anti-drug policies. No excuse of his will fly with me.

[wildbilln864]

46. day late, dollar short! n/t

[redstateblues]

57. It's all coming back. The eight years of Clinton's presidency were so awful

Who needs peace and prosperity? A politician admitting mistakes? Much better to have pols like W who never admit mistakes.

[marble falls]

58. In twelve or sixteen years I wonder what a former President Hillary Clinton will be applogizing for.

[djean111]

63. A preemptive Bill Clinton Apology Tour?

[the band leader]

64. and yet the crime rate dropped despite that terrible mistake.

[Sunlei]

65. who would have thought in 1994, there was a private for profit start-up industry. More in prison=

higher stock value. Even today few care at all about the USA prisons stuffed full, #1 in the entire world.

Hardly anyone likes to face the facts, admit they were wrong. Least of all presidents.

Bill Clinton: I Made Criminal Justice ‘Worse’

[ibegurpard]

67. Not the only mistake you made Bill

NAFTA, telecommunications deregulation, DOMA, welfare "reform"...you're a huge reason the Democrats have no moral authority to speak on many issues.

[sendero]

70. And the economy, the banking system....

.... the financial markets and who know what all else. Thanks Bill.

[Corey_Baker08]

71. I Admire His Honesty & Integrity For Publicly Admitting That...

So when President Hillary Rodham Clinton is Sworn in as the 45th President of these United States she can learn from past mistakes made by President William Jefferson Clinton & finally focus on not only reinstating the Assault Weapons Ban but additionally putting together a comprehensive gun control policy that actually works.

[duhneece]

73. AMen. He did then what he knew to do (among calls for action...

Among calls for action on the crack epidemic, Clinton did then what he knew to do; when he knew better, he admitted that policy failed.
Glad Hillary is surrounded by hard truth like this.

[candelista]

72. Bill and Hillary are like a couple of vacuum cleaner salesmen.

One of them dumps dirt on your carpet and the other one uses the vacuum to clean it up. "See how well it works?"

[Hekate]

87. Watching Bill Clinton in action is political pleasure. On the one hand, a gracious mea culpa....

On the other hand, a boost for the current Democratic president. On another side, his candidate-wife can safely repudiate his policies and put forward her own. Finally, whoever the next president is, if a Democrat, can use whatever Obama is able to accomplish as a springboard to major reforms.

The Big Dog is amazing.

[wordpix]

88. put your money where your mouth is & fund programs

that will help those in the school to jail pipeline. Whether they need medical, psychiatric, legal, educational or job training help, fund the programs.

The 1% just don't get it.