#CLEMENCY & BARBER AMENDMENT~Federal Good Time Bill

#CLEMENCY & BARBER AMENDMENT~Federal Good Time Bill

Started
March 28, 2009
Signatures: 48,745Next Goal: 100,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by FedCURE

Dear FedCURE Members, Supporters and Friends:

Many thanks to the tens of thousands of American's who are supporting The BARBER AMENDMENT.  Safely reduce the Federal Inmate population by half.

Please continue to have your friends sign the petition and contact your Congresspersons urging them to sponsor The BARBER AMENDMENT in 117th Congress.    GO:  http://www.fedcure.org/documents/HR1475.shtml

BARBER AMENDMENT:  A bill to amend Title 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b)(1) as follows:  by striking the number "54" in the first sentence as it appears and inserting in lieu thereof the number "128"; and in the same sentence, by striking "prisoner's term of imprisonment"  and inserting in lieu thereof  "sentence imposed."   This Amendment is retroactive. [END].

SECOND LOOK: Introducing The Sentencing Reform Act ~ A Bill to establish a hybrid system of parole, increased good time allowances and reentry opportunities; repeal mandatory sentencing; and establish a 1 to 1 sentencing ratio for crack and powder cocaine for federal offenders.

Note:   The BARBER AMENDMENT  and The Sentencing Reform Act have not been introduced.  FedCURE is seeking bipartisan support for the bills in the 117th Congress.  

FedCURE NEWS Special Video Presentation: http://www.fedcure.org/SecondLook.shtml

You can help make that happen! Action Alert:  Do your part.  Contact your Congressperson(s) and urge them to support this bill. Contact Congress:  http://www.fedcure.org/documents/HR1475.shtml

Another thing you can do to help this cause is call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

You can call this number every day to voice your support for The BARBER AMENDMENT.

Here is a message you can give them:   

It was 50 years ago that our miss-guided political system attacked America and declared, what is now undoubtedly deemed, the failed "War on Drugs." The attack has gone on for 50 years, cost over $3 trillion dollars, tallied up over 67 million arrests and insurmountable collateral damages to society. America is not now and never will be drug free. It is time to declare a truce.

While our President and our politicians talk about how to end the "War on Drugs," most of the 8 million American's languishing in prisons or on some type of government supervision are non-violent drug offenders. The lost lives and collateral damages are no longer acceptable for political gain rather then for public good.

'Congressional Research Service' 2013 Report (Most Recent)

Recommends:

Increasing Good Time Credits and Reinstating Parole for Federal Offenders.

FedCURE Special Report: Alleluia! After more then twenty-five years of campaigning for federal criminal justice reforms, to reduce the federal prison population, comes an historic, ground-breaking 2013 report, from of all places the Congressional Research Service (CRS) * titled, "The Federal Prison Population Buildup: Overview, Policy Changes, Issues, and Options." The report documents the United States' "historically unprecedented increase in the federal prison population." It supports the long held view by many, including FedCURE, its members, partners, fellow advocate organizations, former and current members of Congress, high level government officials, the nations most respected, independent nonpartisan think tanks, prominent scholars, criminal justice professionals and an overwhelming majority of the public, that Congress cannot build its way out of the mass incarceration dilemma it now faces, because of a failed criminal justice policy; and recommends Congress "changing or reversing some of the policies that have been put into place over the years which contributed to the increasing number of federal prison inmates," inter alia, increasing good time and reinstating parole. The BARBER AMENDMENT, a simple two sentence undisruptive statutory amendment, genuinely accomplishes these ends, with out disrupting release or reentry processes and public safety, by restoring--rolling back--federal good time allowances to pre-1987 levels. Virtually, BARBER is a $1.2 billion dollar annual austerity sentencing bill.

 

While elaborating on "several options Congress could consider if policymakers wanted to expand early release options for federal inmates, including (1) reinstating parole, (2) expanding good time credits, and (3) expanding the conditions under which courts could reduce sentences pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §3582(c)(1)(A)," it is abundantly clear that the report concludes, inter alia, that the way out of the dilemma--to reduce the growth of the federal prison population--is for Congress to employ "Early Release Measures." These measures include "(1) modifying mandatory minimum penalties, (2) expanding the use of Residential Reentry Centers, (3) placing more offenders on probation, (4) reinstating parole for federal inmates, (5) expanding the amount of good time credit an inmate can earn, and (6) repealing federal criminal statutes for some offenses." BRAVO!

Moreover, according to the report and righteously so, "Congress might also consider changing or reversing some of the policies that have been put into place over the years which contributed to the increasing number of federal prison inmates. Some of these options include placing some inmates in alternatives to incarceration, such as probation, or expanding early release options by allowing inmates to earn more good time credit or allowing inmates to be placed on parole once again. Congress could consider reducing the amount of time inmates are incarcerated in federal prisons by limiting the number of crimes subject to mandatory minimum penalties or reducing the length of the mandatory minimum sentence. Finally, policymakers could consider allowing states to investigate and prosecute offenses that have become subject to federal jurisdiction over the past three decades" Id., at p. 57.  

Full Report, 60 pg. PDF (indexed to highlighted sections) available at: http://www.fedcure.org/documents/CRS_FederalPrisonPopulationBuildup_R42937-220113fc.pdf

* Note: Special thanks to Nathan James, Analyst in Crime Policy, CRS, njames@crs.loc.gov, for this report. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is an arm of the Library of Congress devoted to providing for Congress research and analysis on legislative issues. In addition to meeting with Congressional members and staffers, CRS releases reports and issue briefs for members of Congress. These reports and issue briefs are made available to Congress through a web site that is not available to the general public. The CRS strongly believes that its sole purpose is to directly serve Congress and not the public. https://opencrs.com/faq/

Sadly, the President's Budget or FY2023, once again submits an unrealistic proposal to address crowding with a miniscule budget offset of "$41 million for a proposed legislative initiative, which, if passed, would not allow additional Good Conduct Time credit for inmates." This is the same proposal to increase Good Conduct Time credit by a mere seven (7) days a year, that Congress turned down in the President's Budget's for FY2012 and FY2013, as "unrealistic," meaning that a seven day increase as a $41 million dollar offset, does little to safely reduce the growth of the federal prison population. Congress cannot build its way out of the mass incarceration dilemma it now faces, because of a failed criminal justice policy; and recommends Congress "changing or reversing some of the policies that have been put into place over the years which contributed to the increasing number of federal prison inmates," inter alia, increasing good time and reinstating parole. The BARBER AMENDMENT, a simple two sentence statutory amendment, genuinely accomplishes these ends, with out disrupting release or reentry processes and public safety, by restoring--rolling back--federal good time allowances to pre-1987 levels. Virtually, BARBER is a "Relief Valve" and $1.2 billion dollar annual austerity sentencing bill.

The President and Members of Congress must work across the isle, side-by-side, on bipartisan legislation to end the "War On Drugs." They must rely on the data mining findings of criminal justice records from the last three decades, conducted by the nation's top criminal justice professionals, reform advocates, NGO's, government and policy makers, that have established the very best evidence based practices the country has ever known; clearly defining what works and what does not work in criminal justice. They must act on the CRS report, supra. FedCURE is calling on the President and Members of Congress to enact the BARBER AMENDMENT ~ a proposed bill to increase federal good time allowances ~ to safely reduce the federal prison population by at least 10%, at a cost saving's of $1.2 billion dollars annually.

The "War on Drugs" was launched in 1970, by the 91st Congress, with Public Law 91-513, on which President Nixon successfully branded drug addicts as criminals. However, to his credit and not to be overlooked, a whopping two-thirds of Nixon's $100 million dollar crime budget went for treatment & rehabilitation. The budget for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, alone, is $7.3 billion dollars for FY 2023.

America is the World's Mass Incarcerator because of the "War on Drugs." No doubt about it. "The Growing Inmate Crowding [in the Federal Bureau of Prisons] Negatively Affects Inmates, Staff, and Infrastructure." The crowding is so severe and so dangerous that the GAO has sounded the alarms. In its recently released detailed report and recommendations on the state of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (GAO-12-743), inter alia, GAO says the matter is only to get worse and something has to be done; and now!. A copy of the report and its recommendations can be found here: http://www.fedcure.org/documents/GAO-12-743-BOP-Crowding.pdf.

A GAO/FedCURE live video chat on GAO-12-743 can be found here: See the video [19:04-19:52] here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/25878123.

Institution Crowding:

Testimony of Director, Charles E. Samuels, Jr., to House Appropriations, 17 April 2013: http://appropriations.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-113-ap19-wstate-samuelsc-20130417.pdf.

Film: 'Breaking The Taboo ~ What will it take to end the war on drugs?' Featuring prominent statesmen including Presidents Clinton and Carter. Narrated by Morgan Freeman (English version) & Gael Garcia Bernal (Spanish version). 58 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/user/breakingthetaboofilm

PBS: Should Drugs Be Legalized? YES. 86% for vs. 14% against. PBS Program: Intelligence Squared Debates:

Results:  http://www.fedcure.org/documents/LegalizeDrugs_IntelligenceSquaredDebatesPBS-070214.pdf.

TRANSCRIPT: http://www.fedcure.org/documents/LegalizeDrugs_IntelligenceSquaredDebatesPBS-TRANS-070214.pdf

PEW Report: A majority of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana. A national survey finds that 52% say that the use of marijuana should be made legal while 45% say it should not. http://www.people-press.org/2013/04/04/majority-now-supports-legalizing-marijuana/

We can and must do better. Vote for the BARBER AMENDMENT. | http://www.fedcure.org/documents/HR1475.shtml 

                                                  

                                                               ||| FedCURE Report |||

                           ~ State of Reduction In Sentence Initiatives For Federal Offenders ~ 

                Increased Good Conduct Time | Special Programming Credits | Elderly Release

                                                     Compassionate Release Program   

                                                           Report Issued: 14 May 2022

The current landscape of the state of reduction in sentence initiatives for federal offenders is set out in the report in five (5) pending legislative devices and or proposals seeking to reduce federal prison sentences, inter alia, to increase amount of good conduct time credits for federal inmates above the current credit of 47 days per year, awarded after serving each year of a term of imprisonment; credits for special programming; early release for elderly inmates; and reduction in sentence for extraordinary reasons.

Report: http://www.fedcure.org/documents/FedCURE-Report-TheState-of-ReductionInSentenceInitiativesForFederalOffenders.shtml 

If you have any particular item or issue on the FY 2023 Budget that you wish us to address, please let us know:   http://www.fedcure.org/contact.shtml

                                                                      Pass It On!  . . .  Pass It On!

Best Regards, 

Mark Mark A. Varca, J.D., Chairman,

FedCURE  

P. O. Box 15667  |  Plantation, Florida 33318-5667 |  USA

Website:  http://www.FedCURE.org  

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/fedcure

twitter:  http://twitter.com/FedCURE

YouTube:  http://youtube.com/FedCURE

For more discussions on The Barber Amendment goto:

CHANGE: http://www.change.org/ideas/view/increase_federal_good_time_allowances and POPVOX at: https://www.popvox.com/orgs/fedcure 

   
FedCURE NEWS Special Video Presentation SECOND*LOOK  |  The Sentencing Reform Act  http://www.fedcure.org/SecondLook.shtml          

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Signatures: 48,745Next Goal: 100,000
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