Senator Jim Webb does not allow the demands of the moment to dictate his agenda. The issues he terms "trajectory issues" are a strategic commitment to addressing long term issues challenging our country. Among these he includes national security issues and economic fairness. They're the reason we supported his candidacy.
As a constituent, beyond the breadth of Webb's social conscience evinced in his writing, where and how he influences policy is not always apparent. It is informative knowing that he sees the areas The Hamilton Project is engaged in are similar to his own concerns. There is something of a confluence, he told the audience, in terms of what he and his staff have been working on and what the project has undertaken. That he has, from the time he established his office routine, dedicated a fifth of his staff's time and effort to designing a strategic view is an assurance that all that lofty commiserating has a chance to become effective policy implementation.
The crowd warmed immediately to Senator Webb's message as he delivered the keynote address; a prelude to a panel discussion on prisoner reentry hosted by the Brookings Institution.There were three major aspects to the discussion. First, the penal system and the incarceration environment. Next, the population of the prisons in the United States both in numbers and whom we imprison. Finally, the reintegration of prisoners into society as potentially contributing members.
The seminal event for me came when I became one of the first American journalists allowed inside the Japanese prison system about 25 years ago. I was struck by the fact that in Japan, which had half of our population, there were only 40,000 sentenced prisoners. At that time we had 780,000 in ours. We now have 2.38 million and some 7 million involved in the criminal justice system one way or another; incarcerated, on probation, or on parole. That's a staggering statistic.
Since he's been in the Senate he's been focusing on these issues as best he can. He has chaired a meeting on the larger issue of incarceration and putting a price on running the prison system and the lost opportunity for those imprisoned. He has studied the parameters of illegal drug use in our society. To this end, he has cosponsored the Second Chance Act which was passed and signed into law. It is a proactive measure. It works to provide job training, drug treatment, and other reentry programs. He also cosponsored the Gang Abatement and Prevention Act which provides a billion dollars over five years and recognizes the implications of gang violence in Virginia.
I think if you look at the United States Marine Corps you see a pretty good model on how you can, on the one hand have a disciplined environment and on the other hand a fair environment.
What Webb points out we know:
? The United States locks up more people than any other country; has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the prison population.
? We are spending an enormous amount of money; state spending has risen 40 % over the past 20 years
? Minority communities are disproportionately represented in the nation's prisons; particularly African Americans.
? We are witnessing a very violent war on our border which is largely driven by the drug trade. The Washington Post , he pointed out, reports 700 killings along the Mexican border in the last month alone.
? Our prisons are housing the great portion of our nation's mentally ill.
I want to be very clear at the outset that I feel very strongly about the need to put the right people behind bars. We all want to see violent criminals put behind bars and recognize the danger of organized gangs in this county.
Another facet that Webb feels strongly about is that we are not locking up the right people. "We are locking up the wrong people too often all across the country." The number of people in custody on drug charges increased 13 times in the last 25 years. Despite the number of people we've arrested the illegal drug industry and the flow of drugs has remained undiminished. He believes there's something else going on when we lock up and mark so many at an early age.
Fear...political fear and ideology have too long driven policy in this area.
He pointed out that Araiana Huffington argued last year that if this did not become one of the major issues of the presidential campaign it will be a national tragedy. Well, said Webb, it didn't become an issue and we need to have this discussion. We need more analysis and to reexamine our options and we need to engage all Americans in this entire discussion.
What Webb does see is a glimmer of hope in this new administration, a new set of eyes on the problem. From his experience over the past couple of years he believes too that there are people on the other side of the aisle that understand the damage that this situation is doing to society. This is a chance, he told the group, for us to commit ourselves in working with the congress and the new administration.
Senator Webb's address is also grist for the mill of further discussion.
Cross posted at VBDems.org - Blogging our way to Democratic wins in Virginia Beach!
Cross posted at Blue Commonwealth
As for the War on Drugs, assaulting the narcolords in their Colombian lairs, using agent orange on poppy fields in Afghanistan (if we are) and imprisoning drug-carrying mules has simply not worked, we are worse off than ever---- at least two entire states in Mexico have been lost to violence and are under virtual control by the drug gangs. Thanks to free trade doctrine imposed by the World Bank, farmers in developing nations have lost their markets and can no longer afford to farm, so they either turn to drug cultivation or illegally emigrate into the US. There must be another way.
What would happen if we legalized drugs, and the government controlled distribution? This is a billiondollar industry; maybe we could finance our national debt?