Conason: Bush dodges as addicts rot in jail

[kskiska]

Joe Conason wonders why the president is punishing drug users for offences he has also been linked to

(snip)

Prisons and jails across America are crowded with non-violent drug offenders whose lives have been ruined — and whose families have been damaged or destroyed — by the same punitive legal system that never touched young "Georgie," except to issue him a drunk-driving summons.

The poor and the black are incarcerated for using pot and coke, while the rich and the white lie to their kids (and occasionally to the voters) about those same transgressions.

Certainly that was how the justice system worked when Bush and Wead had their candid chats. The Texas politician couldn't reassure his friend that he hadn't used cocaine, let alone marijuana, but as governor he was imprisoning young people unlucky enough to be arrested in possession of those narcotics, often for draconian mandatory-minimum sentences. He always cherished his image as a tough, swaggering, law-and-order politician who didn't hesitate to imprison teenagers. But that isn't what happens to people from good families.

His niece Noelle Bush went through a drug-rehab program and was released two years ago. His friend Rush Limbaugh went through rehab and has returned to berating the less fortunate on the radio, without doing one day of time.

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[opihimoimoi]

1. Its a double standard for the rich and powerful.......

sad but true.

[Red_Viking]

2. They have it right in Europe

They treat drug addicts, not imprison them. Instead of spending money on more jails, they spend money on treatment programs and help people get back to being productive members of society without a stain on their "permanent record" from jail time. It's a success where our "war on drugs" is an abysmal failure.

I guess we need to spend the money on bombs instead.

Good article. I love Conason. Thanks for posting.

Peace--

RV

[struggle4progress]

3. kick for double standards

[Poppyseedman]

4. Joe Conason should know better.

Our national mandatory-minimum sentences policy is absolutely mind boggling stupid.

...but as governor he was imprisoning young people unlucky enough to be arrested in possession of those narcotics, often for draconian mandatory-minimum sentences.

Canason knows that bush or for that matter any Governor, has little to do with the sentencing of drug offenders. Almost all of the state courts follow federal mandated mandatory-minimum guidelines.

To lay the blame at bush's feet to score political points is not going to fix the WOD problems the FEDERAL government has mandated.

That's why Conason should know better. Call bush on it now, he's the president, not for something he had almost no control over when he was governor.

Conason could have had a real impact, instead he wrote a hit piece

[depakid]

5. Interesting criticism

and thoughtful enough-

It misses two key points, however. One is leadership and priorities. Bush certainly could- both as governor and especially as President, led efforts to repeal these draconian and VERY expensive mandatory minimum sentences.

The ssecond is that Bush could, whenever he wanted to- have exercized his executive clemency powers to ensure that justice was done- or perhaps that a much needed statement was made. To the extent that Bush would never even consider that (even though he himself used the very drugs he's imprisoning non-violent young people for- at GREAT expense to the taxpayers).

So, it's really not accurate to say that Bush has no control- or respomsiblity over the situation. He not only has the power, but the obligation, IMHO- to use the executive to rectify what's clearly a lose/lose proposition all around.