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GEOKARJO 
Google This!!!
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Posts: 7799
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Jan. 24 2004,12:37 pm |
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Minnesota taxpayers could save up to $30 million a year if nonviolent drug offenders now flooding state prisons in unprecedented proportions were sent to treatment instead, a new report to the Legislature suggests.
The report, by the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, is likely to spur another round of emotional debate over the fiscal and social effects of state policies that sent a record 938 drug offenders to prison in 2002, the last year for which figures have been compiled.
According to the report, Minnesota's drug-sentencing laws are more severe -- sometimes startlingly so -- than those of many other states, especially in the Upper Midwest.
As a result, drug offenders admitted to Minnesota prisons in 2002 outnumbered those incarcerated for violent or property crimes, the first time that has occurred.
Drug war prisoners: A growing forceFurther, the average prison term for drugs -- more than four years, twice what it was in 1988 -- was longer than that for nondrug crimes.
And among all 12,978 felons sentenced in Minnesota in 2002 -- 3,424 of them for drug crimes -- a higher percentage of drug offenders went to prison compared with nondrug criminals.
Combatting illegal drugs, mainly cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana, has begun to dominate criminal justice in Minnesota only in the last few years. As recently as 1990, drug offenders made up only 9 percent of the state prison population; now they are 23 percent.
Stiff drug penalties enacted as crack cocaine use spread in the 1980s, and a court ruling that required equal treatment of crack and powder cocaine crimes, produced "a combination of intended and unintended consequences" for drug enforcement, the report said.
"In addition, reductions in treatment resources at both the state and local levels have contributed to a growing number of drug offenders recycling through our criminal justice system," the report noted.
Some legislators say it's time to reexamine the situation.
"We've got to reserve our prison cells for the truly dangerous," said Rep. Keith Ellison, DFL-Minneapolis, chief sponsor of a bill to increase the amount of cocaine or methamphetamine an offender would have to be caught with to warrant Minnesota's longest prison sentences for drugs.
Now, possession of less than half an ounce of either drug with intent to sell carries a recommended sentence of seven years and two months for a first offender. Ellison's bill would raise that threshold to nearly 2 ounces. Other states require drug stashes in the pounds, not ounces, before the toughest prison sentences apply.
"We have to figure out what is the right level of deterrence and get in line with other states," said Rep. Eric Lipman, R-Lake Elmo, a cosponsor of the Ellison bill. "Why would we be way out front?"
Law enforcement view
Other legislators, however, have pointed in the opposite direction, urging increased penalties for methamphetamine, a stimulant whose manufacture and use is said to be rife in outstate Minnesota. Police and prosecutors have consistently opposed rolling back drug penalties.
But there are hints that law enforcement leaders may now support modest changes in a sentencing system that many agree has slipped seriously out of balance. The report notes that only a high rate of leniency by sentencing judges has kept drug offenders from consuming an even greater share of correctional resources.
Nearly two-thirds of the most serious drug offenders received penalties less than those called for by state guidelines, raising "questions as to the appropriateness of the presumptive sentences," the report said.
"If we're out of sync with other states, it's worth it to take a look at it," said Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar. "But we must keep a focus on drug dealers. We can't go too far the other way."
Major crime is down 25 percent in Hennepin County since 1998, Klobuchar said, thanks largely to aggressive police attacks on drug traffic that breeds violence and thievery. Poor inner-city neighborhoods would suffer a swift reversal of recent economic and livability gains if those efforts were blunted, she added.
In addition, if large numbers of drug offenders now going to prison were shifted to local jails, treatment facilities and probation caseloads, Klobuchar said, the costs could overwhelm county budgets, financed by property taxes.
Big savings in store
But the report demonstrates that the savings to state prisons could cover extra local expenses with room to spare. A sweeping drug-diversion policy could mean 576 fewer prison admissions and annual savings of $30.8 million, it added.
Under current policies, the report said, Minnesota would need an extra 2,667 prison beds for drug offenders by 2012 at an annual cost of $58.2 million.
Some authorities, however, say that burgeoning prison rolls are simply a reflection of levels of crime. Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom noted that Minnesota is tied with North Dakota for the lowest imprisonment rate in the nation. "We do not incarcerate too many offenders compared with national levels," he added.
But when it comes to drugs, Minnesota's laws are clearly more stringent than those of neighboring states, the report shows. In the rest of the Upper Midwest, amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine that trigger the most serious penalties range from 40 grams in Wisconsin to 5,000 grams (176 pounds) in Iowa, compared with 10 grams in Minnesota.
In Minnesota, those 10 grams carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. In Wisconsin, that amount brings a top penalty of 15 years. In South Dakota, no quantity of drugs can get you more than 10 years in prison.
Ellison, one of two blacks in the Legislature, said a recent surge in imprisonment of white methamphetamine offenders may push Minnesotans to reassess the current penalty structure. "I don't think the average Minnesota taxpayer wants this," he said. "Often the drug user is your kid, your cousin, your neighbor."
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minnow
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Posted on: Jan. 24 2004,12:49 pm |
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YOU Still don't see the light do ya brotha?
Everytime you non thinking, emotional drug warriors put a non violent drug user in prison... a hard core, violent criminal gets released.
That doesn't make us safer, on the contrary, it makes us less safe. That's just the tip of the iceberg, county jails are keeping the dam from exploding....for now...but that can't last. What are we going to do, spend another $40,000,000 to house 60 more pot heads?
Benjamin Franklen was right and so am I, Arnold, Jesse, and then list goes on and on...
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| Post Number: 3
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GEOKARJO
Google This!!!
Group: Members
Posts: 7799
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Jan. 24 2004,12:54 pm |
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Brother you are not right, you are addicted you need medical help.
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| Post Number: 4
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minnoe
Unregistered
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Posted on: Jan. 24 2004,12:56 pm |
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That's right! I'm addicted alright...addicted to justice.
Yer jus addicted to dick. 
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| Post Number: 5
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The usual suspect
Unregistered
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Posted on: Jan. 24 2004,1:01 pm |
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It's a stupid idea.
If they think shifting the burden to the counties is a good idea then maybe they should come down here and look at what happens when an incompetent county atty can't get someone sent to state prison. It eventually overwhelms the county jail and you have to build a new jail that has more beds than the local hospital
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Ellison, one of two blacks in the Legislature, said a recent surge in imprisonment of white methamphetamine offenders may push Minnesotans to reassess the current penalty structure. "I don't think the average Minnesota taxpayer wants this," he said. "Often the drug user is your kid, your cousin, your neighbor."
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Is this racist P.O.S. really trying to say that we are only reassessing the laws because whites are now becoming addicted to meth? How did this guy get elected to the legislature
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| Post Number: 6
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minnoe
Unregistered
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Posted on: Jan. 24 2004,1:06 pm |
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Hey, yer the P.O.S. who can't interpet what you read correctly...don't blame da niggas.
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| Post Number: 7
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T.U.S.
Unregistered
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Posted on: Jan. 24 2004,1:21 pm |
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I'm not blaming anyone and I didn't interpret anything wrong I'm just calling a spade a spade. Just because a person is black doesn't mean he can't be a racist.
If a white legislator would have said, "a recent surge in imprisonment of black crack cocaine offenders may push Minnesotans to reassess the current penalty structure." the NAACP would have screamed their fool heads off accusing him of being a racist.
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| Post Number: 8
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180
Unregistered
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Posted on: Jan. 24 2004,2:10 pm |
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LOL That's retarded logic...you're not even in the ballpark. LOL 
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| Post Number: 9
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T.U.S.
Unregistered
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Posted on: Jan. 24 2004,2:35 pm |
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You're a freakin retard if you can't see that what he said was racist.
This guy is insinuating that since more drug offenders are now white and they might be our friends or relatives we are going to reexamine sentencing so that we can keep them close to home and out of the prisons. Which implies that we are only doing it because they are white and if the meth users weren't predominantly white we wouldn't even be examining the current sentencing structure.
Also it's a racist statement because it doesn't matter what race a meth user is he still places the same burden on the system so it's retarded to say that anything is caused by white meth users just like it would be retarded to say that anything is caused by black cocaine users.
Why don't you explain why it's retarded logic? Or how it wasn't a racist statement.
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| Post Number: 10
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guest
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Posted on: Jan. 26 2004,9:39 am |
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just calling a spade a spade - I love it. Fuggin niggas!
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