Glenn Greenwald: The Incredible Courage Of Jim Webb's Prison Bill

[deminks]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/28/webb/index.html

There are few things rarer than a major politician doing something that is genuinely courageous and principled, but Jim Webb's impassioned commitment to fundamental prison reform is exactly that. Webb's interest in the issue was prompted by his work as a journalist in 1984, when he wrote about an American citizen who was locked away in a Japanese prison for two years under extremely harsh conditions for nothing more than marijuana possession. After decades of mindless "tough-on-crime" hysteria, an increasingly irrational "drug war," and a sprawling, privatized prison state as brutal as it is counter-productive, America has easily surpassed Japan -- and virtually every other country in the world -- to become what Brown University Professor Glenn Loury recently described as a "a nation of jailers" whose "prison system has grown into a leviathan unmatched in human history."

What's most notable about Webb's decision to champion this cause is how honest his advocacy is. He isn't just attempting to chip away at the safe edges of America's oppressive prison state. His critique of what we're doing is fundamental, not incremental. And, most important of all, Webb is addressing head-on one of the principal causes of our insane imprisonment fixation: our aberrational insistence on criminalizing and imprisoning non-violent drug offenders (when we're not doing worse to them). That is an issue most politicians are petrified to get anywhere near, as evidenced just this week by Barack Obama's adolescent, condescending snickering when asked about marijuana legalization, in response to which Obama gave a dismissive answer that Andrew Sullivan accurately deemed "pathetic." Here are just a few excerpts from Webb's Senate floor speech this week (.pdf) on his new bill to create a Commission to study all aspects of prison reform:

Let's start with a premise that I don't think a lot of Americans are aware of. We have 5% of the world's population; we have 25% of the world's known prison population. We have an incarceration rate in the United States, the world's greatest democracy, that is five times as high as the average incarceration rate of the rest of the world. There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice. . . .

The elephant in the bedroom in many discussions on the criminal justice system is the sharp increase in drug incarceration over the past three decades. In 1980, we had 41,000 drug offenders in prison; today we have more than 500,000, an increase of 1,200%. The blue disks represent the numbers in 1980; the red disks represent the numbers in 2007 and a significant percentage of those incarcerated are for possession or nonviolent offenses stemming from drug addiction and those sorts of related behavioral issues. . . .

(end snip)

:patriot:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. China= 1.5M prisoners. US= 2M prisoners.

Says it all.

[crikkett]

11. To be fair, China also has its mobile execution vans

and I'm guessing that your statistic doesn't consider executions but live prisoners.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

15. To state the obvious, China population= 1.33B US=303M

If we had China's population we would have over 8M prisoners.

[crikkett]

31. sigh

[Political Heretic]

32. ah I see. So therefore, U.S. prison system is ok.

[crikkett]

48. You're putting words in my mouth.

I was trying to point out the problems of accurately comparing the two systems.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

39. Duh.

Did they execute 6,000,000 people last year?

[crikkett]

49. I don't know.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

54. Close. Executions in China in 2008= 1718

Death Penalty: 2,390 executions in 2008 worldwide, 72 per cent in China
http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/death-penalty-2390-executions-2008-worldwide-72-cent-china-20090324

[BlooInBloo]

2. Good ol Greenwald.

[ensho]

3. more power to him and a thank you

nt

[CBR]

4. Yeah for Jim Webb,,,

I applaud him. :thumbsup:

[underpants]

5. Webb's article today in Parade magazine

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=437096&mesg_id=437096

[Supersedeas]

14. thanks for the link

[4_TN_TITANS]

16. The Parade article yesterday blew my socks off.

After Obama pissed away a serious question concerning legalization, Webb came out swinging an oak tree. If anybody has an ounce of credibility and is capable of drawing serious attention, it's Jim Webb.

Eventually, we won't be able to afford our prisons or drug policies, but it would be much better to confront it head-on instead of waiting for the disaster to peak.

[dickthegrouch]

6. Not the most evil, just the most undisciplined

A major factor of life everywhere else in the world in that people take responsibility for their own mistakes. The notion that someone else is responsible for most of my mistakes is paramount in the US. When I can sue the store whose floor I foolishly slip on, sue the bar that gave me too much to drink, sue the fast food restaurant which served me hot coffee that I spilled on myself, sue, sue, sue, sue, sue.... nothing will ever get better.

When a jar of laboratory sand has to carry a five page warning label about health hazards, we are not being served, we are being shafted.

I have heard many times that "it's not illegal unless you get caught". WRONG. It is illegal whether you get caught or not. The fact that you may have got away with it a few times is no excuse to continue doing it. I is incredibly difficult (probably impossible) to toe the legal lines all the time, however, many of us do our best to, and thoroughly resent those who allow themselves the latitude of not doing so. Just look at the outrage and invective poured on AIG execs. I'm sure each one of them just sees their part in the mess as a 'small' error. When we don't have the discipline to call out those small errors, they become HUGE in accumulation.

I am not normally a law-and-order idiot, but the lack of meaningful, consistent, swift consequences for wrongdoing in the US is a large part of its problem.

[alarimer]

24. This is utter bullshit.

Typical right-wing blowhard talking points.

[EOTE]

28. Seriously.

The reason we've got such a huge prison population has nothing to do with which lawsuits we allow. Perhaps it has something to do with the laws we enact? And how we selectively enforce those laws?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

29. If you knew the facts of the McDonald's hot coffee case, you wouldn't say that.

Where'd you get your talking points?

Right wing crapola.

It's called "FORESEEABILITY". Spilling hot coffee is perfectly foreseeable; negligence has very little to do with it.


There is a lot of hype about the McDonalds' scalding coffee case. No
one is in favor of frivolous cases of outlandish results; however, it is
important to understand some points that were not reported in most of
the stories about the case. McDonalds coffee was not only hot, it was
scalding -- capable of almost instantaneous destruction of skin, flesh
and muscle. Here's the whole story.

Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of
her grandson's car when she was severely burned by McDonalds' coffee in
February 1992. Liebeck, 79 at the time, ordered coffee that was served
in a styrofoam cup at the drivethrough window of a local McDonalds.

After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and
stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her
coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often
charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in
motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed
the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic lid from
the cup. As she removed the lid, the entire contents of the cup spilled
into her lap.


The sweatpants Liebeck was wearing absorbed the coffee and held it next to her skin. A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonalds refused.

During discovery, McDonalds produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebecks. This history documented McDonalds' knowledge about the extent and nature of this hazard. McDonalds also said during discovery that, based on a consultants advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees fahrenheit to maintain optimum taste.

He admitted that he had not evaluated the safety ramifications at this temperature. Other establishments sell coffee at substantially lower temperatures, and coffee served at home is generally 135 to 140 degrees.

Further, McDonalds' quality assurance manager testified that the company actively enforces a requirement that coffee be held in the pot at 185 degrees, plus or minus five degrees. He also testified that a burn hazard exists with any food substance served at 140 degrees or above, and that McDonalds coffee, at the temperature at which it was poured into styrofoam cups, was not fit for consumption because it would burn the mouth and throat. The quality assurance manager admitted that burns would occur, but testified that McDonalds had no intention of reducing the "holding temperature" of its coffee.

Plaintiffs' expert, a scholar in thermodynamics applied to human skin burns, testified that liquids, at 180 degrees, will cause a full thickness burn to human skin in two to seven seconds. Other testimony showed that as the temperature decreases toward 155 degrees, the extent of the burn relative to that temperature decreases exponentially. Thus, if Liebeck's spill had involved coffee at 155 degrees, the liquid would have cooled and given her time to avoid a serious burn. McDonalds asserted that customers buy coffee on their way to work or home, intending to consume it there. However, the companys own research showed that customers intend to consume the coffee immediately while driving.

McDonalds also argued that consumers know coffee is hot and that its customers want it that way. The company admitted its customers were unaware that they could suffer thirddegree burns from the coffee and that a statement on the side of the cup was not a "warning" but a "reminder" since the location of the writing would not warn customers of the hazard. The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages. This amount was reduced to $160,000 because the jury found Liebeck 20 percent at fault in the spill.

The jury also awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages, which equals about two days of McDonalds' coffee sales. Post-verdict investigation found that the temperature of coffee at the local Albuquerque McDonalds had dropped to 158 degrees fahrenheit.

The trial court subsequently reduced the punitive award to $480,000 -- or three times compensatory damages -- even though the judge called McDonalds' conduct reckless, callous and willful. No one will ever know the final ending to this case. The parties eventually entered into a secret settlement which has never been revealed to the public, despite the fact that this was a public case, litigated in public and subjected to extensive media reporting. Such secret settlements, after public trials, should not be condoned. -----

excerpted from ATLA fact sheet. © 1995, 1996 by Consumer Attorneys of California

[Political Heretic]

33. "I'm not normally a law-and-order idiot"

Just in this thread... :D

[WorseBeforeBetter]

34. Wow. Way to completely miss the big picture...

and regurgitate RW talking points to boot!

Commentary: Legalize drugs to stop violence
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/24/miron.legalization.drugs/index.html

I'll summarize, in case you decide to blow it off. This button-down Harvard economist proposes that prohibition:

--Creates violence because it drives the drug market underground.
--Corrupts politicians and law enforcement.
--Erodes protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
--Encourages police to engage in racial profiling.
--Has disastrous implications for national security.
--Harms the public health.
--Breeds disrespect for the law.
--Drains the public purse.

"...legalize drugs while using regulation and taxation to dampen irresponsible behavior related to drug use..."

"The U.S. repealed Prohibition of alcohol at the height of the Great Depression, in part because of increasing violence and in part because of diminishing tax revenues. Similar concerns apply today..."

Think big.

[ohheckyeah]

35. How much of the rest of the world have

you lived in and have intimate knowledge of their motivations and behavior?

[malaise]

7. Bravo Jim Webb

:yourock:

[gulfcoastliberal]

8. K&R... nt

[Faryn Balyncd]

9. Is Jim Webb something special, or what???? K&R

When I awoke about 5AM or the morning of November 8, 2006, went to the computer and found that since I went to sleep at 2AM that Jim Webb had come from behind, was 8000 votes ahead of Allen, and would change control of the Senate, I was overcome with tears of joy.

One week later, when I read his op-ed "Class Struggle" in the Wall Street Journal, speaking truth in the mouth of the beast, I knew this was not your ordinary Senator.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009246

Now this. Criminal justice reform. An American tragedy. No organized constituency. In a purple state he won by a mere 8000 votes. A state which executes more than any outside of Texas. And Webb takes on an issue nobody else will touch.

Jim Webb is not only a good person.

He has balls.

[No.23]

42. I don't know if he's special, but what he's doing sure is.

I tend to judge a man by what he does, more than what he says.

And THIS... is on the list of top 5 things that must be addresses, pronto, for me.

I give him high praise for doing this.

[depakid]

10. Anyone hazard a guess as to which of the cowardly DINO's runs away fom this first?

One of the Nelsons?

Mary Landeaux?

Evan Bayh?

[WillyT]

12. Big K & R !!!

:kick:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. Jim Webb has found the single most important "orphan" issue to champion

I am so proud that he is my Senator! Truly no one takes one the cause of the judicially downtrodden who are sold into a form of serfdom to the Private Prison Industries.

[cbc5g]

17. Me too, he's found a special place in my heart for championing reform like he has

I will do all I can to help reelect him in Virginia when hes up for reelection.

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. K&R

[bertman]

19. I'm thinking about moving to Virginny just so I can vote for Jim Webb. K & R

[kaygore]

30. I had the honor of volunteering for his campaign

It was such a positive experience. He would accept NO money from lobbyists, special interest groups, or people who could not afford to give to his campaign.

He is such an honorable person and does not disappoint as so many politicians do once they get into office (Can we say "Clinton"? Can we say, "Obama.")

I do not always agree with the way he votes, but I can rest easy because I know that his vote is based on careful weighing of the pros and cons and examining the LONG-TERM benefits for not just the Commonwealth of Virginia but for the whole country--without the influence of special interest groups or lobbyists!

And then there is Warner! Such a disappointment--Mr. I-listen-first-to-lobbyists and the citizens be damned!

[bertman]

43. Thanks, Kaygore, I'm glad to hear that the Senator is an honorable man. I did not know

that he REALLY did not take money from lobbyists and special interest groups. How did he get enough cash to run?

[kaygore]

46. Jim Webb

Small donations from supporters; house parties; big fund raisers; DNC; etc.--refused all money from lobbyists, railed against lobbyists and their undue influence; railed against the influence of big money; still does.

Webb had strong support from Northern Virginia and a lot of his money came from people there. He was Secretary of the Navy under Reagan and I think a lot of military people supported him financially. He had also written the script for a successful motion picture and had ties in Hollywood where there was at least one large fund raiser.

Webb won in 2006 when the tide was turning against the Republicans. He was running against George Allen who had heavy ties to Bush. The defining moment, though, was when Allen was caught on film ridiculing the Webb American-born but of East Indian decent volunteer filming an Allen rally in the more red-neck southwestern part of the state. Allen called the young man a "macaca"--a derogatory term in North Africa for a person of color (Allen's mother was from that region), then Allen kept changing his story about what he meant by "macaca" when it was obvious to everyone that it was a racial slur:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081400589.html

Webb's supporters/volunteers pulled kids' red wagons with his posters and campaign literature wherever people were gathered in the state and talked about Webb, who he is, his accomplishments, his position on issues, his qualifications.

We canvassed our little hearts out.

But Webb is not a very good campaigner. He doesn't like small talk. He doesn't like to pander. He doesn't like all the false-face stuff that goes with politics. That's why, when people would mention Webb as a potential VP for Obama, we shook our heads and said that that would not be a very good idea.

Webb is willing to address the difficult issues. He is very thoughtful with an incisive mind. He is also very concerned about the eroding of the middle class and the poor. In fact, this is one of the major issues that motivated him to run for office.

Webb also ran because of his strong belief that the intrusion into Iraq was wrong and would end badly. He was one of the few voices that spoke out against our going into Iraq.

[bertman]

50. Thank you, Kaygore. That is what we need more of. Now, if we could only find the

candidates who won't turn into corporate stooges when they get to Washington.

[Oldenuff]

53. You are lucky to have him then..

I'll bet he doesn't snicker either.

[Patiod]

20. Only Nixon could go to China

Debatable about the history involved with whole Nixon thing, but you get the analogy.

Only a straight-arrow, tough-guy like Webb could take this on. Tough to characterize him as a wimpy liberal, or "soft on crime".

[Echo In Light]

21. K&R

[disndat]

22. The U.S.Prison Industrial Complex

Politics and corruption. N.Y.S. Gov. David Paterson is closing 3 upstate prisons one of his budget cuts. These prisons were built in areas where there were high unemployment problems. Then they had to populated these prisons to justify the costs, not the other way around, i.e, building prisons to accommodate a need to house more criminals.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. Prison reform is essential to the reconstruction of a democratic society in the United States

The punishment junkies on DU love the prison industry, especially where it satisfies their twisted rape-punishment fantasies. But the prison industry we have built over the last 30 years is sign and symptom of a barbaric society, and it is built first of all by the sickening enthusiasm of the punishment fetishists. If you have ever snickered about 'Bubba' getting his hands on some offender, or joked that some person will "get theirs in gen pop," you are part of the fucking problem. And a despicable person to boot.

[Faryn Balyncd]

25. Great report.

[Dinger]

26. K & R

[kaygore]

27. I may not always agree with Jim Webb but I sleep easy because I

know that he has weighed the pros and cons WITHOUT the influence of special interest groups and has voted what his research, commonsense, and intellect tell him is best not only for the Commonwealth of Virginia (we are not a state but a commonwealth) but for U.S. citizens and the country long term.

How many other constituents can say that of those whom they have elected to office?

I am so proud of his veterans GI Bill and now his work against the corrections industry (and it is an industry that looks out for profits and lobbies for laws that will keep the inmates coming) in favor or just penalties.

And I thank the Lord every night for Jim Webb and only wish there were more Jim Webbs in the Congress, Senate, and Administration.

[hay rick]

36. Incarceration rates.

Greenwald points out that that our incarceration rate is 5 times that of the rest of the world. A little further along he throws out another set of statistics: "African-Americans are about 12% of our population; contrary to a lot of thought and rhetoric, their drug use rate in terms of frequent drug use rate is about the same as all other elements of our society, about 14%. But they end up being 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of those sentenced to prison."

What that means: blacks are 16 times more likely to be incarcerated on drug charges than other members of society.

This is an issue that the media resolutely ignores. They are much, much happier repeating the story of Americans electing a black man as president- as if that was the real measure of our "progress" in defeating racial prejudice and discrimination.

[Vattel]

37. I don't like Webb

but damn, my hats off to him on this one.

[riverdeep]

38. But then what are we going to do with all the Black people?

You mean we'll have to educate them?
:sarcasm:

[Jackpine Radical]

41. And let them vote??!

As long as they're in prison or on paper, they're not a political force.

[Mermaid7]

40. Obama Please!

I really want to continue to support Obama, as I did w donations, and w my time knocking on door to door for him. And I want him to succeed and give him the time neccessary to do it....

BUT, I am really concerned about how he laughed off making pot a non-criminal crime, how Geither wants to bail out the banks w the taxpayer paying for toxic assets that encourage banks to buy them for more than they are worth, and for not going after the Bush/Cheney war crimes.

I mean I'm not rich, and almost every month I dug into our household acct, for mostly $100. donations, sometimes only $50. in hope he would deliver.

I rode my bicycle in a mostly republican neighborhood and knocked on doors for him.

And while I live in U.S., you may all laugh at this, I'm not even an American, although I feel like on as a Canadian, living here since the age of only 15 to my present day age of 53.

I want Obama to succeed, but we, just like Jim Web, have to keep pushing him.

I know he is trying to be bipartisan, but what he needs to be is strength.

[riverdeep]

44. Pfff. At least you can go back to Canada easily when this really implodes.

Some of us are going down with the ship. BTW, welcome to DU.

[roody]

52. Thanks for doing all you did. He will make lots of

mistakes, but he is turning the ship of state around though not quickly enough for most of us.

[riderinthestorm]

45. Jim Webb was on Diane Rehm of NPR this am. I highly recommend the program. nt

[yellowwood]

47. Links to NPR Discussion and Webb's Page

I really like Jim Webb. I could see him as President someday (after Barack, of course.)

http://webb.senate.gov/email/criminaljusticereform.html

Archived discussion
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/03/30.php#23794

[kaygore]

51. Problem is that he is a terrible campaigner!

When his name was being tossed about the blogsphere as a potential VP candidate with Obama, we cringed because we know that, although Webb would make probably the best president this country ever had, he hates all the false-face stuff that politicians need to use to get elected.

Jim Webb is so ethical, intelligent, accomplished, competent...I could go on and on...but what he is not is a lying, two-faced, power-hungry, panderer. And that, my dears, is what gets elected. Jim Webb got elected by and large because Allen is a walking idiot of the Bush kind. Allen got where he got because his dad was a popular and winning football coach. OK, may be Allen is not as incompetent, sociopathic, and just plain dumb as W, but close.