Webb Sets His Sights On Prison Reform

[babsbunny]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/28/AR2008122801728.html?wprss=rss_politics

Webb Sets His Sights On Prison Reform

Senator Proposes National Panel

Sen. James Webb plans to introduce legislation to create a national panel to study the justice system.
Sen. James Webb plans to introduce legislation to create a national panel to study the justice system. (Jay Mallin - Bloomberg News)
By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 29, 2008; Page B01

Somewhere along the meandering career path that led James Webb to the U.S. Senate, he found himself in the frigid interior of a Japanese prison.

A journalist at the time, he was working on an article about Ed Arnett, an American who had spent two years in Fuchu Prison for possession of marijuana. In a January 1984 Parade magazine piece, Webb described the harsh conditions imposed on Arnett, who had frostbite and sometimes labored in solitary confinement making paper bags.

"But, surprisingly, Arnett, home in Omaha, Neb., says he prefers Japan's legal system to ours," Webb wrote. "Why? 'Because it's fair,' he said."

[polichick]

1. Great - somebody needs to do this!

[rockymountaindem]

2. Good

I mean, there's got to be some reason we've got more people in prison per capita (by far) than any other industrialized state.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. For those who don't know what this means:

"But Webb has never been one to rely on polls or political indicators to guide his way. He seems instead to charge ahead on projects that he has decided are worthy of his time, regardless of how they play -- or even whether they represent the priorities of the state he represents. "

That is something callede "character". There used to be a lot of it in this country. Damned if I know what the hell happened to it all.

[Fire1]

4. Fair? How much marijuana did he have?? Two years seems

excessive even by U.S. standards. But, indeed, our legal and prison system needs a drastic overhaul. The only thing prisoners learn is how to be a 'better' criminal and repeat offenders. That three strike law, is one main reason why prisons are overcrowded.
Something needs to change and soon.