Hillary Clinton To Call For 'End To The Era Of Mass Incarceration' In Major Speech

[kpete]

Source: Huffington Post

Hillary Clinton To Call For 'End To The Era Of Mass Incarceration' In Major Speech
Posted: 04/29/2015 6:00 am EDT Updated: 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton will deliver a major speech on criminal justice reform Wednesday, calling for fundamental changes to how the United States punishes its citizens and an end to a system that disproportionately targets black men.

Clinton is scheduled to keynote the 18th Annual David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum at Columbia University Wednesday morning. It will be her most significant policy address since she launched her 2016 presidential bid this month.

Clinton will lay out her vision for criminal justice reform, centering around an "end to the era of mass incarceration," according to an aide who provided a preview of her remarks. Those changes include addressing probation and drug diversion programs, increasing support for mental health and drug treatment and pursuing alternative punishments for low-level offenders.


She also will call for body cameras for every police department in order to increase transparency and accountability in a way that benefits both officers and members of the public.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/29/hillary-clinton-mass-incarceration_n_7166970.html

---

i am trying to resist her, but........this is red meat for this liberal,
ooops, i need to remember i am a vegetarian,
kp

[Enthusiast]

1. I cannot disagree with this policy.

[billhicks76]

71. Stunning Reversal

A couple years ago she was against simple cannabis decriminalization. She also was against medical marijuana until more research was done which is frankly ridiculous. Lets hope the pressure makes her do more than make phony speeches or promises...hold her fair weather feet to the fire. She's a law and order centrist but hopefully she can't oppose the prevailing winds.

[leftofcool]

2. This is one of her best pieces of news yet!

[kpete]

6. leftofcool

this would be policy that would ACTUALLY change America


i am very pleased,
kp

[wordpix]

54. we all need to work to get Dems elected b/c this will take funding

The repuke majority will vote down any bill she works on to accomplish this worthy goal , and they won't appropriate what's needed. Of course, they'll give a blank check to the DOD and DHS.

[cantbeserious]

3. The For Profit Prison Industry Will Fight This Vigorously

eom

[derby378]

26. That's the detail I'm interested in

Hopefully, Hillary won't punt.

[DiverDave]

61. They have sooo much pull on the hill

I don't believe just the President can change it.

[brooklynite]

4. DETAILS: Hillary Clinton to call for mandatory police body cameras

Hillary Clinton will call for every police department in the country to use body cameras to "increase transparency and accountability," as she pushes for broad criminal justice reform during a speech in New York on Wednesday, an aide said.

Clinton will react publicly and in person for the first time (she reacted on Twitter on Monday) to the death of Freddie Gray and the Baltimore riots, unveiling some of her first policy proposals since launching her campaign two weeks ago, when she delivers the keynote address at the David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum at Columbia University later Wednesday morning.

"It is heartbreaking," Clinton said Tuesday night to donors at an off camera Manhattan fundraiser. "The tragic death of another young African-American man. The injuries to police officers. The burning of peoples' homes and small businesses. We have to restore order and security. But then we have to take a hard look as to what we need to do to reform our system."

Among Clinton's prescriptions: probation reform, bolstering treatment for mental health and drug addiction and looking at alternative sentences for lesser offenses, specifically those committed by young people.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/29/politics/hillary-clinton-police-body-cameras/index.html

[KingCharlemagne]

21. A somewhat hollow rhetorical gesture on her part, since constabulary forces and their regulation are

a matter of local and state jurisdiction (save for the FBI). So calling for 'mandatory police body cameras' for police forces that are not under federal jurisdiction means what exactly? Is Clinton proposing that the Feds take over local law enforcement? No. So exactly how would her proposal be implemented? By executive decree? Puh-leeze.

Now calling for a mandatory U.S. DoJ investigation anytime an unarmed citizen is killed by the police . . . now that would represent a policy proposal that has more substance, i.e., is less hollow and something more than pure rhetoric.

[Recursion]

60. The Pentagon can easily say "if you want our surplus gear you have to have body cameras"

King's Shilling, and all.

[Garion_55]

5. im not hearing 'END THE WAR ON DRUGS'

its sounds like she is going to ride the middle rail of 'we still need to criminalize drugs but we just need to ramp down the punishment for it'

sorry but thats not going to work with me. mostly because its all bullshit. congress is not going to make any meaningful changes without forcing them to do it. so if she's not going to do anything about it or champion it, its all talk

[Hekate]

33. That's because you have your fingers in your ears. Easy to fix that part. Nt

[Comrade Grumpy]

35. I'm sorry, but she's just talking about a kinder, gentler war on drugs.

More pre-trial diversion, more forced treatment. More people under carceral control. Supervised by the state.

How about we get the cops and the criminal justice system out of it, except to clean up the mess, like we do with alcohol?

[VanillaRhapsody]

52. OH is THAT what she said?

or what YOU heard???

[billhicks76]

72. It's What She Has Supported!!!

If we just listen to what politicians say then we are FOOLS. Know them by their deeds not their words. She should be pushing for an END to the war on drugs.

[doubtingtom]

7. Hillary Clinton To Call For 'End To The Era Of Mass Incarceration' In Major Speech

She knows Bernie got every progressive who wants a real progressive, so she's trying her best to mute him. Very strategical.

[Blue_Adept]

8. More stuff she doesn't mean

So fake.

[SamKnause]

9. Adult cannabis users

do not need drug rehabilitation or alternative punishments.

You are not serious about ending mass incarceration if you

don't support legalization of cannabis.

I support addressing prohibition issues and increased support for mental health.

[Suji to Seoul]

10. Say you'll end the drug war or else this is just empty lip service

[Evergreen Emerald]

17. eye roll

[Suji to Seoul]

19. you want to end mass incarerations. . .end the drug war.

[billhicks76]

73. Exactly

No more theater...no more empty suggestions...when she takes definitive action then I will believe her but she certainly hasn't earned our trust yet. She is against medical marijuana until more research is done which is absurd and she certainly was against cannabis decriminalization and especially legalization. But to end mass incarceration and injustice you have to end the drug war...period. You have to at least legalize cannabis. She knows there are forces...some involved with our own intelligence agencies and military contractors that profit from illegal drugs and keeping prices high to fund their off the books wars and bank accounts. Its an uncomfortable fact but its true. I understand its dangerous to oppose these people and even I wouldn't envy being in the spotlight doing so as reality can be an ugly thing. But to reform these crimes against humanity done in the name of the "Drug War' we have to legalize all drugs or at least decriminalize them and treat them like a health issue and not one forced upon people.

[ananda]

11. Good!

This really needs to happen.

[McKim]

12. This Had Better be Just the Beginning

So she is finally listening to us. The problem is one of trust. Can I trust her? I want to but, somehow, am afraid that she would just do
anything to get elected. I want to hear concrete plans. Just how would she get this done?

[L0oniX]

13. Most cops are repukes so course they should have cams & so what if a few turnkeys lose jobs...

prison guards are mostly thugs with s&m tendencies anyway.

[Independent Granny]

14. Where does the money come from

Just wondering how she proposes to pay for the "increased support" for treatment and the cameras. We are running a huge deficit as it is.

[cyberswede]

15. We spend way too much on the military budget, so reallocate some of that $

Oh...and:

Stop And Smell The Roses: Final 2014 Federal Deficit Fell...Big Time

...

The final numbers for 2014 announced yesterday by the U.S. Treasury show the federal deficit for the fiscal year that just ended did indeed fall as precipitously as I previously reported. As the report shows, the actual 2014 deficit was $483 billion, $3 billion less than what the Congressional Budget Office estimated a week ago.

For the record, $483 billion is $197 billion below the almost $680 billion deficit recorded in 2013. It’s also $930 billion, that is, close to $1 trillion, less than the largely recession-caused $1.4 trillion deficit in 2009. (Attention trolls: the Congressional Budget Office projected in early 2009, that is, before the start of the Obama administration, that, because of the recession, the deficit that year would be $1.2 trillion.)

In dollar terms, 2014 was the lowest federal deficit since 2008. And in the category most important to economists – the deficit as a percent of Gross Domestic Product – the 2014 deficit was 2.8 percent of GDP, the smallest since 2007.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stancollender/2014/10/16/stop-and-smell-the-roses-final-2014-federal-deficit-fell-big-time/

[sorefeet]

16. It comes from the 70

billion spent every year on a phony drug war. And it comes from the corporates paying their fair share of TAXES.

[99th_Monkey]

32. ^^THIS^^

Defund the bogus & racist War on Drugs & all the prison space taken up by its victims, whose only "crimes" were victimless.

Then use ^^THIS^^ money to fund rehab, recovery (including Moderation Management http://www.moderation.org) and public education programs to curb abuse of substances.

[Sunlei]

18. its good but the probation & diversion programs are private for profit as well. war on drugs?

What about decriminalize the damn plant? I ask President Obama to do this now, before he leaves.

If he doesn't and another person running for president pledges he/ she will totally decriminalize marijuana, I may vote for them.

[NewJeffCT]

20. Heard a bad argument against police cameras this morning

on the radio (not a right winger). Said that if a cop is wearing a camera, they'll be obligated to give you a ticket if you're pulled over for doing 35 in a 25mph zone instead of letting you go with a warning.

My response was, "umm, I'd suck it up and take the ticket if cameras on cops prevented just one more Eric Garner or Michael Brown."

[KingCharlemagne]

22. Um, all due respect, but you shouldn't be driving 35 in a 25 anyway. WTF? If you don't like the

25 mph zone, contact your city councilperson to get it changed. But it's probably 25 for a damned good reason (like kids in the vicinity or some other circumstance requiring slower traffic).

Puritan rant over. Now back to regular programming.

[sulphurdunn]

42. Yea, and if you get pulled over

for doing 35 in a 25 and get shot 50 times because you reached for your registration but the officer though it looked like you were going for a gun, it serves you right.

[sendero]

64. Typical idiot conservative..

.... as if someone is going to view all thousands of hours of these recordings. No one is going to look at these unless you are involved in an incident including a shooting or brutality complaint.

Not only that, but police have always had discretion in such matters and no one is proposing to take that away.

God I am sick of idiotic arguments made by idiots, they dumb down the entire country.

[closeupready]

23. Fine great, but HOW are you going to do that exactly?

But K&R for what it's worth.

[Turbineguy]

24. Shutting down the Gulags?

Serious economic distortion will ensue.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. Wait until her Republican opponent starts to say she intends to throw open the jails....

He'll show scenes from "Lockup" of hard core guys with tattoos on their faces and claim Hillary wants them to date your daughter.

[earthside]

27. 'Leading' from way, way behind.

Most other Democratic Senators, representatives, leaders have been talking about these issues for years.

I watched her speech ... I so wanted to take a nap for her.

[PatriceKelly]

31. Wanted To Take A Nap For Her

Awesome!!!!

[PatriceKelly]

28. Not One Word About Locking Up The Real Criminals

The Wall Street dirtbags, and banksters that steal billions from millions.

If she called for real justice and real accountability she would win all
50 states, and the Republican candidate would be left defending only
billionaires.

That isn't going to happen.

She will never stand for real justice, only lip service trying to distract
us while our families are being robbed and all $$ sucked out of the
economy and hoarded in offshore accounts.

We need a Roosevelt not another Clinton.

Sorry Bill.

No way she will talk about having the people that
have 50 trillion dollars in wealth begin to pay their
fair share, so we can rebuild Baltimore, and Ferguson.

I am trying to be fair Hillary, but I know what is coming.

Pretending having the .01% running everything is acceptable
and all we need to do is change incarceration policies is insane.

[Demeter]

38. Thank you, I forgot to add that spect to my rant, below.

[Beauregard]

43. +1.

This can't be said often enough.

[swilton]

50. Thanks - totally agree

[AlbertCat]

29. an end to a system that disproportionately targets black men.

How about an end to prisons for profit. That just creates a demand for prisoners.


Arrest people who ruined our economy, not someone smoking a joint.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

30. How is she going to do this? It's a local, not federal issue?

She needs to continue the work that Holder is doing to address the damage that her husband did: Get rid of minimum drug sentencing--THREE STRIKES RULE. Get rid of disparate treatment re: powder cocaine vs. crack cocaine. These are reforms that can be addressed at the federal level, as they are federal crimes.

[Hekate]

34. Thanks for this post, kpete.

"Red meat" -- fire up the BBQ, 'cause more is coming.

Nothing will ever satisfy those who suffer from CDS, but she is hitting all the notes one by one. I look forward to what the other candidates have to say as Hillary finds her own voice.

[Beauregard]

45. "As Hillary finds her own voice"?

Uh, she ran for President in 08, right? I think she knows where her "voice" is. The rest of us do.

[Hekate]

47. You have a problem with how campaigns progress each time?

[wordpix]

55. unfortunately,repukes won't rest until they tie her to some Clinton Found donorgate

I'm concerned that her $$$ and Clinton Foundation donations will be all we'll ever hear about in the MSM if she's the candidate.

[Hekate]

57. If dear sweet Elizabeth Waaren or Bernie Sanders should become a front-runner, you can be assured...

....that between the GOP and the MSM there will be plenty of slime to be smeared on them too, created out of twisted truth and whole cloth. It is not unique to the Clintons, though there is something really personal in the Clinton Derangement Sybdrome.

[joshcryer]

59. What will be charming...

...is how they'll credit Bernie for running for forcing Clinton to the left.

Not that these issues haven't been party planks forever in one form or another.

[billhicks76]

74. She's Been Disingenuous In The Past

She helped her husband lobby for his Omnibus Crime Bill which began the path towards private prisons and mass incarceration by ratcheting up the Drug War even more. The question I suppose becomes do we believe her? Will she say anything to get elected and then afterwards disavow her statements? I'm over the Smoke and Mirrors. We know Bernie is sincere. Hillary has only given us countless reasons countless times to question her veracity.

[Jack Rabbit]

36. Her comments are welcome

One thing that should be done is to rid the country of the curse of privatized prisons. We don't need a private industry with a vested interest in maintaining high rates of incarceration, which means that the industry will fight criminal justice reform as vigorously as the health insurance industry fought the Affordable Care Act. We can expect the private prison industry lobbyists to oppose liberalization of marijuana laws, for example.

To this end, the current swath of trade deals before Congress must be defeated. If not, Mrs. Clinton can say whatever she likes and Congress can pass whatever legislation its members think would reform the criminal justice system, but the Corrections Corporation of America would simply take the case to the ISDS and get a kangaroo court with corporate lawyers serving as judges to invalidate the reforms and and order US taxpayers to pay the industry for unrealized profits.

So, I, for one, am waiting for Mrs. Clinton's specific proposals concerning her criminal justice initiative.

[Demeter]

37. So, you let out of jail a sick, brutalized, uneducated generation or two or three

and then what? Do you have housing, food, work, study, health care for them?

Or do you just throw them into the community, and say your job is done?

Hillary, Hillary, Hillary....thy name is Clueless.

[Flatulo]

39. Hmmmm... after lobbying for Bill's omnibus crime bill?

... that more or less started the mass incarceration trend?

[rury]

44. Ho hum....leading from behind.

Others have already called for this.
Move along here Hillary. You're nothing to see.
I'm Ready for "Somebody Else" in 2016!!

[Cheese Sandwich]

40. I agree. Sign up here: http://stopmassincarceration.net/

http://stopmassincarceration.net/

[sulphurdunn]

41. She's becoming the same populist

candidate Obama was before he was actually elected. Imagine that.

[Beauregard]

46. There ya go.

Then she will run right back to the center in the General.

[swilton]

49. +++++

[F4lconF16]

48. Not ending the drug war?

Then it's not good enough. That combined with sweeping change in many other areas, and only that, is what is going to stop mass incarceration.

I call BS on this neoliberal propaganda.

[AuntPatsy]

51. There will be many opinions stated as facts before some listen to her speech, hate

Ensures one will not take the time to listen which could potentially unbalance that hate..

[Thinkingabout]

53. This one issue which needs to be addressed but there are more to come and then

she will start leaving some in the dust.

[joshcryer]

56. Link to speech:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017262521

[McCamy Taylor]

58. K&R

[woo me with science]

62. Seems legit.

[font size=3]The Clinton Dynasty's Horrific Legacy: More Drug War, More Prisons
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/clinton-dynasty-horrific-legacy-more-drug-war-more-prisons

[/font size]
[font size=3]

The Clinton Dynasty's Horrific Legacy: More Drug War, More Prisons
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/clinton-dynasty-horrific-legacy-more-drug-war-more-prisons

[/font size]

[Calista241]

63. Her comments seem just a it self serving to me.

Wasn't it her former advisor Rahm that said "never let a good crisis go to waste."

[RiverNoord]

65. Easy to call for, but the overwhelming majority of

prison inmates are convicted of state crimes. The primary component of federal government involvement in the state criminal justice process is the Supreme Court, which determines when practices violate various Constitutional provisions. The President of the United States has a pretty big soapbox, but that's about the only tool available to him/her to modify penal practices of the states...

[lovemydog]

66. We must end this era of mass incarceration.

We must mass protest to end it. We must work locally to end it. We must vote wisely, for state attorneys, city council persons, mayors, district attorneys who go on record in favor of ending it. This will occur most within our own communities. At the grass roots. From the bottom up.

I'm undecided in the presidential primaries and probably won't even make my decision until the day before I vote in them. I vote for the most progressive candidate in every election, and I want to see who I feel is most likely to create the changes necessary in this country. I'm leaning toward Bernie Sanders at this point because of his past experience as a person of great integrity. I'm also encouraged by what Hillary Clinton is saying, and I won't diss her in the least for saying it. I just feel that it's far more important that we in the democratic party stay positive toward others on the same side.

There are too many people who are willing to divide us. That discourages people from voting in local, city, state and congressional elections. No more division. We must become activist at local levels, we must vote in all elections, and vote wisely, in order to effectively change this country and give whoever is in office anywhere the moral and political and legal mandate for making the changes that we so desperately need.

[whereisjustice]

67. How about prisoner exchange? Wall Street crooks & war criminals for the countless destroyed lives

created by our predatory justice system.

[laserhaas]

68. Wall Street being her numero uno donors

Is too telltale to me.

Until she comes out hard against the war machines and Wall Street getting away with crimes...always

I'm for Warren, Bernie or any other.

Let's see her come out and say that "my husband made a mistake repealing Glass Steagall"

Otherwise, this seems like pandering, To me

[Carolina]

69. HRC pays mightily

for handlers and marketing personnel to package her and craft just the right message to depict her as the people’s champion, but it’s all smoke and mirrors because HRC is no friend of the common man... especially poor, marginalized, uneducated black men. She is Wall Street to her core and the mistress of triangulation. She is tone deaf and thin skinned (just revisit the nightmare of her 2008 primary campaign; yet here we are in 2015 being told she's finding her voice ). And she lacks the natural political skills, charisma and on-your-feet intelligence of Bill who could talk to anybody, anywhere, spontaneously and truly connect in a way HRC can only dream of.

I supported Bill big time in the 1990s (especially after the Reagan-Bush years), but recognize all too well the damage his policies left in their wake: that job sucking travesty NAFTA, the Gramm-Bliley-Leech Act which overturned Glass-Steagall, the Telecommunications Act which has produced the horrid consolidated infotainment media of today, Welfare Deform which has deepened the abyss of poverty...

Time for the Clintons to go away. We need a genuine progressive, not a lip service one. We need a proactive leader not a reactive, managed and packaged mouthpiece.

Go Bernie!

[yurbud]

70. did she call for a ban on privatized prisons?

As long as they can profit from locking people up, they will lobby for more people being locked up.

And in Washington, money talks loud e than justice or compassion.