In the good news department, New York's draconian Rockefeller drug laws are expected to take a big blow this week as the legislature is poised to pass new laws granting judges more discretion in sentencing.

The Assembly is expected to pass legislation on Tuesday that would once again give judges the discretion to send those found guilty of having smaller amounts of illegal drugs to substance-abuse treatment instead of prison and allow thousands of inmates convicted of nonviolent drug offenses to apply to have their sentences reduced or commuted.

Meanwhile, the governor’s office is preparing legislation that it plans to present to Senate leaders on Monday that would also give judges discretion in sentencing, according to a senior administration official involved in drafting the bills. But for now, the governor is not taking a position on whether sentences should be reduced for some prisoners.

Mandatory minimums were a terrible and unjust solution to the problems that plagued New York in the '70's. I hope the legislators hold firm and make relief retroactive to those already serving these awful sentences. [More...]

President Obama's new budget includes $26.5 billion for DOJ, a 3.5% increase.

The budget includes $109 million for prisoner re-entry services, including $75 million under the Second Chance Act. It also includes money for drug courts. More details here (pdf).

But do we really need $1.2 billion in the effort to remove undocumented residents? From the Homeland Security Budget (pdf): [More...]

Here is the video of Attorney General Eric Holder's press conference yesterday. At 25 minutes in, he is asked whether DOJ will continue raids on medical marijuana dispensaries (in states that have legalized medical marijuana.)

Holder says "what the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law enforcement." He says Obama is "formally and technically and by law my boss now, and so what he said during campaign is now American policy." [More...]

Attorney General Eric Holder today announced the arrest of 52 people in a continuation of a Bush Administration drug investigation of the Mexican cartels. The operation began 21 months ago. The total number of arrests (a number of whom are low level traffickers) is 750.

The military may get involved in the effort:

The Homeland Security Department has developed a plan to send more agents and other resources, and possibly U.S. military support, to the U.S. side of the border if the drug violence continues to spill over and overwhelm the agents stationed there, a DHS official confirmed.

The Pentagon is looking into a larger role in bolstering counter-narcotics efforts. Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, told Congress Wednesday that the corruptive influence and increasing violence of the cartels has undermined Mexico City's ability to govern parts of its own country.

Another Holder plan that should be no surprise: He wants to bring back the assault weapons ban.

In a post about shifting attitudes about pot legalization, Mark Kleiman asserts that legalization will lead to a substantial increase in the prevalence of cannabis-related drug abuse disorder: I'd regard an increase of only 50% as a pleasant surprise, and if I had to guess I'd guess at something like a doubling."

Mark is fond of arguing that legalization would result in increasing drug use but he rarely provides any evidence to support his assertions. [More...]

[The report] is the latest to question the U.S.'s emphasis on punitive measures to deal with illegal drug use and the criminal violence that accompanies it. A recent Brookings Institution study concluded that despite interdiction and eradication efforts, the world's governments haven't been able to significantly decrease the supply of drugs, while punitive methods haven't succeeded in lowering drug use.

The panel recommends that governments consider measures including decriminalizing the use of marijuana.

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An editorial in the Greensboro News-Record makes a good point:

While using federal dollars to put more police officers on the street probably will lower crime rates, it's a stretch to think doing so stimulates the economy.

Actually, it's a stretch to think that more cops on the street will lower crime rates. As the editorial notes:

As proposed, the stimulus plan includes about $4 billion to revive grants dating back to the Clinton administration that funded drug task forces, after-school programs, prisoner rehabilitation and salaries for local police officers. In the 1990s, the money was used to hire more than 100,000 police officers nationwide. Yet critics say the federal cash infusion was mostly ineffective in reducing crime and seldom cost-effective.

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Here's how forfeiture works in Texas: The cops take your money and property. They make you sign a form that if you relinquish the property, they won't file criminal charges against you.

As one lawmaker says:

“The idea that people lose their property but are never charged and never get it back, that’s theft as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

One mayor, in an attempt to justify the policy, says the cities need the money -- they may get an extra police car out of it.

Via Grits for Breakfast:

You're a lot more likely to wind up in a federal prison if you're arrested on a drug charge, according to the US Sentencing Commission, than you are for engaging in larceny, fraud, or white collar crime. According to a new report by the USSC titled "Alternative Sentencing in the Federal Criminal Justice System" (pdf), a whopping 92% of drug convictions resulted in a prison sentence, compared to 39% of convictions for larceny, 60% of convictions for fraud, and just 57% of convictions for white collar crime.

There should be more alternative sentences for everyone, whether convicted of theft or drugs, since by themselves, both are non-violent crimes. (If violence is involved, jail is always available as an option.) The point is, as Law Prof Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy notes, there's hope in the Sentencing Commission's final paragraph:

The Congressional Research has also released its report on DOJ funding for 2008-2009 (pdf). Among the goodies handed out:

As part of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-252), Congress provided DEA with an additional $29.9 million to thwart narco-terrorism, as compared with the $8.5 million requested by the Administration.

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What a poor move by Kellogg in deciding to drop Michael Phelps.

Here's the Facebook Group where you can join the petition to boycott Kellogg Cereal:

Kellogg's has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Michael Phelps because he was photographed allegedly smoking marijuana out of a bong. More than 100 million Americans have admitted to using marijuana, and they shouldn't be treated like criminals!

But Kellogg's wants to treat Phelps like a criminal, so we're not going to purchase their products anymore!

Here's a list of Kellogg products so you know what not to buy. The cereal list is here.

Is it realistic to expect Eric Holder to be a force for change in the criminal justice system?

For decades, the face of the criminal justice system in this country has been black and male: hundreds of thousands locked behind bars, arrested in disproportionate numbers and facing execution at rates far greater than those for the general population.

The Washington Post reports that many see Holder "as the best chance in decades to right what they consider unchecked racial injustice and insensitivity by federal officials." That's asking a lot from a former prosecutor who advocated mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenders, including marijuana distributors. Still, according to the Post story, Holder's friends say he became increasingly "concerned about young black men caught up in the criminal justice system" after he left office.

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