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Editorial/Columns
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Opinions expressed on editorial pages of this newspaper by Columnists or Guest Writers, do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of The Florida Sentinel Bulletin or the Publisher.
e extend praise and congratulations to Hills-
borough County State Attorney Andrew War- ren for implementing a new groundbreaking program, the Conviction Review Unit, in his office. The goal of the unit is to prevent, identify, and remedy wrongful convictions. Given the facts that Blacks are more likely to be wrongfully convicted and make up nearly 40 per- cent of the prison population in America, Blacks stand to gain as a result of establishing the unit.
Black people are only 13 percent of the population, but make up a majority of innocent defendants wrong- fully convicted. Of the 1,900 exonerations listed in the National Registry of Exonerations through October 2016, 40 percent of them were Black.
Moreover, Blacks constituted the majority of more than 1,800 additional innocent defendants who were framed and convicted of crimes in 15 large scale police scandals and later cleared in group exonerations. Crimes that produce the largest numbers of exonera- tions are murder, sexual assault, and drug crimes.
Prior to the establishment of the CRU Unit, people who claimed to be innocent of a crime had no recourse in the Justice System. Now, persons claiming inno- cence of a crime will be able to contact the CRU and have their cases reviewed.
Since 164 of the exonerations were for people on death row, we cannot err in mediating justice. Even one wrongfully convicted person is too many and should never spend time in jail. For this reason, we commend Attorney Warren for becoming one of the 35 jurisdictions nationally to focus on justice for the wrongfully convicted.
The Ugly Truth About Prison Reform
ell, it finally hap-
pened. The sub- stantial prison and sentencing reform, that peo- ple have been advocating to be implemented into the fed- eral criminal justice system, made it one step closer to be- coming a reality after being overwhelmingly approved by
the Senate.
Now, it's just a matter of
the legislation being finalized in the House of Representa- tives and signed into law by Donald Trump.
The bill, known as the First Step Act, is being touted as a major bipartisan victory that will have a huge impact on the federal prison land- scape.
Unfortunately, though, while the bill will make dras- tic changes to the current law and prevent future defen- dants from being overly pun- ished for the crimes they commit, it does very little to help those who are already serving sentences that have now been deemed too harsh.
Outside of the 3-4,000 people who are projected to benefit from the 2010 18-1 crack law, that can now be applied retroactively, a far greater number of individu- als will be left behind be- cause the minimum mandatory sentences on their cases will be left intact.
Needless to say, it makes for a cruel set of circum- stances for men and women who've been waiting for something like this to hap- pen for decades.
Of course, the optimist
will point out that there's al- ways a chance that some of these new provisions in the sentencing guidelines will eventually become retroac- tive at a later date. But, after the 30-year effort it took to get to this stage, try telling that to a person already in their 50s or 60s whose time on the clock is rapidly expir- ing.
The Senators, Congress- men, Police Chiefs and Pros- ecutors who went out of their way to make sure that the legislation wouldn't help those currently incarcerated claimed their decision was based on the level of risk to public safety they believed would be presented if too many people were released.
The blatant hypocrisy in their position becomes ap- parent when you take into consideration that there did- n't seem to be that level of concern a few weeks ago when a young, white, college student in Texas, who was convicted of raping a woman, was given an oppor- tunity to avoid prison and have his record expunged after three years so that his past wouldn't affect his fu- ture.
Are the streets really safer with someone like that roam- ing them rather than some guy who may have been sell- ing bundles of heroin or the first-time offender who stuck up a bank out of despera- tion? I could be a little bias in my thinking, but it's hard for me to conceive any of those latter being worse than the
former.
The fact of the matter is
that the real reason they did- n't want to make these laws retroactive is rooted solely in economics. Quite simply, empty institutions equate to empty pockets.
Those same senators, congressmen, police chiefs and judges who argued for limited reform all have one thing in common. They are all heavily invested in corpo- rations that profit off the prison industrial complex. A billion dollar industry that needs people locked up so that money can be generated from the use of $3 fifteen minute phone calls, emails, J-Pay (in the state), music for MP3s and commissary.
This doesn't even factor in the number of jobs these facilities provide and the stimulus that high employ- ment gives to the small com- munities where prisons are often built. If these fenced in buildings weren't filled to ca- pacity, where would some of the poorly educated correc- tion officers who operate them find work? I mean, how many Wal-Mart or McDon- ald's positions are actually available for applicants whose only job skills include counting, turning keys and spitting tobacco?
Due to all of these vari- ables, prison reform will al- ways come more in the form of a sprinkle than a down pour. For any currently in- carcerated person reading this, who was fortunate enough to be inside one of those drips that slid through the cracks, I say be thankful for the blessing and try not to come back because, once they re-seal the opening they've created, it will most definitely be waterproof.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. You can contact Mr. Barr at: cbar- ronice@gmail.com.
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Conviction Review Unit Seeks Justice
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