Reduce recidivism by providing ex-offender supports
Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Supports: Obama will work to ensure that ex-offenders have access to job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and employment op-portunities.
Obama will also create a prison-to-work incentive program and reduce barriers to employment.
Source: Campaign booklet, "Blueprint for Change", p. 42
Feb 2, 2008
Ban racial profiling & eliminate disparities in sentencing
AT A GLANCE
Promote Fairness in the Criminal Justice System: Obama will work to ban racial profiling, eliminate disparities in criminal sentencing,
THE PROBLEM
Disparities Continue to Plague Criminal Justice
System: African Americans and Hispanics are more than twice as likely as whites to be searched, arrested, or subdued with force when stopped by police.
OBAMA'S PLAN
Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Support:
Obama will provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society. Obama will also create a prison-to-work incentive program to improve ex-offender employment and job
retention rates.
Eliminate Sentencing Disparities: Obama believes the disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated.
Have a civil rights division enforce laws fairly and justly
If we know that in our criminal justice system, African-Americans and whites, for the same crime, receive--are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, receive very different sentences. That is something that we have to
talk about. But that's a substantive issue and it has to do with how do we pursue racial justice. If I am president, I will have a civil rights division that is working with local law enforcement so that they are enforcing laws fairly and justly. But I
would expect a white president or a woman president should want to do the same thing, because I believe the pursuit of racial equality, of the perfection of this union, is not just a particular special interest issue of the African-American community.
That is how all of us are going to move forward. And to the extent that we don't deal with those issues, those longstanding, deep-seated issues, we will continue to be hampered. We will be competing with the world with one hand tied behind our backs.
GovWatch: No, more young black men in college than in prison
"I don't want to wake up four years from now and discover that we still have more young black men in prison than in college." --Barack Obama, fund-raiser in Harlem, NY, Nov. 29, 2007.
Simply untrue, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. There may be a case for arguing, as some Obama supporters have done, that the total number of black prisoners is slightly higher than the total number of black students.
But I can only fact check the comparison the candidate actually made, which was between young black men in prison and in college.
Rather than acknowledge the error, the Obama campaign declined to provide statistical support.
Lack of enforcement sets tone for more hate crimes
OBAMA: [to Biden]: There is a consequence to the demagoguery [over immigration]--hate crimes against Latinos have gone way up over the last year. We've also seen over the last several months this epidemic of nooses being hung all across the country since
the events down in Jena, Louisiana. And it indicates the degree to which a president has to set a tone of bringing all people together as opposed to excluding people. And being willing to talk about racial issues when they arise and having a civil rights
division of the justice department that is aggressive about investigating. So, what can we do to strengthen the enforcement of hate crimes legislation? It is something that I will prioritize as president but I don't want to have to wait until I am.
BIDEN: We can and we should move [the pending Hate Crimes legislation] forward. The impediment right now is the president. We need someone in the civil rights division who is aggressive in going after these hate crimes. I would not wait.
Legislated protecting police detainees during interrogation
[Obama's] record as a state senator, especially on civil liberties, is strong. Obama sponsored successful legislation to combat racial profiling and to protect police detainees during interrogation.
He sponsored an unsuccessful bill banning discrimination against lesbians and gays.
Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p. 22
Nov 11, 2007
Pushed Illinois bill to videotape all capital interrogations
Obama had a 2002 bill to stop police abuse. Chicago had become infamous for use of torture by police to help frame innocent people. Thirteen innocent men on Death Row were exonerated and released, some of them victims of these tortured confessions.
Illinois desperately needed some action to restore confidence in the police. Obama's proposal was to require videotaping of interrogations of suspects in capital cases.
When Obama began, the idea of a bill was opposed by police, prosecutors, most of the senate and the governor. The governor was determined not to appear soft on crime, and had promised to veto any proposal for mandatory tapings. By the time
Obama finished his work, the police and prosecutors embraced the bill, it passed in the Illinois Senate by a vote of 58-0. The governor took the unusual step of reversing himself to sign it, and Illinois became the first state to require such tapings.
Most people like the idea of a politician who votes for individual rights, but the fact that Obama could do so and still maintain the respect of law enforcement shows his political skills. Obama voted against a proposal to criminalize contact with a gang
for any convicts on probation or out on bail. In 2001, Obama opposed making gang activity eligible for the death penalty. "There's a strong overlap between gang affiliation and young men of color....
I think it's problematic for them to be singled out as more likely to receive the death penalty for carrying out certain acts than are others who do the same thing." In 1999, Obama opposed mandatory adult prosecution for youth who discharge a firearm nea
a school, declaring, "There is really no proof or indication that automatic transfers and increased penalties and adult penalties for juvenile offenses have, in fact, proven to be more effective in reducing juvenile crime or cutting back on recidivism."
Works on ex-offender laws because it could have been him
Obama said, "In my book, I mention that I dabbled in drugs or that I was acting tough. I put that in there explicitly because what I wanted to communicate was the degree to which many young men, particularly young African-American men, engage in
self-destructive behavior because they don't have a clear sense of direction. But I also wanted to point out that there is way to pull out of that and refocus, and in my case, it was tying myself to something much larger than myself.
In my case, that was trying to promote a fair and just society. That is the reason I work on ex-offender legislation. I say to myself that if I had been growing up in low-income neighborhoods in Chicago, there is no reason to think that
I wouldn't be in jail today, that I could have easily taken that same wrong turn. That is something that I am very mindful of and it is something that motivates me."
Need justice that is not just us, but is everybody
Q: In the last decade, whites were 70% of persons arrested, but only 40% of inmates. Why?
A: The criminal justice system is not color blind. It does not work for all people equally, and that is why it's critical to have a president who sends a signal
that we are going to have a system of justice that is not just us, but is everybody. I passed racial profiling legislation at the state level. It requires some political courage, because oftentimes you are accused of being soft on crime.
Source: 2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University
Jun 28, 2007
Some heinous crimes justify the ultimate punishment
While the evidence tells me that the death penalty does little to deter crime, I believe there are some crimes--mass murder, the rape and murder of a child--so heinous that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by
meting out the ultimate punishment. On the other hand, the way capital cases were tried in Illinois at the time was so rife with error, questionable police tactics, racial bias, and shoddy lawyering, that 13 death row inmates had been exonerated
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 58
Oct 1, 2006
Videotape all capital punishment interrogations
In the Illinois Senate, I sponsored a bill to require videotaping of interrogations and confessions in capital cases [after the] governor had instituted a moratorium on al executions.
In negotiating the bill, I talked about the common value that
I believed everyone shared--that no innocent person should end up on death row, abd that no person guilty of a capital offense should go free. At the end of the process, the bill had the support of all the parties involved, and it passed unanimously.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 57-59
Oct 1, 2006
Passed 150 laws to toughen penalties for violent crime
OBAMA: The fact is I've passed 150 pieces of legislation that toughened penalties for violent criminals, everything from sex offenders to domestic abusers to gang bangers. So there's only one candidate who's ever dealt with hardened criminals on
this stage and that's me. The other guy only talks about it and I think that's something voters will be focused on in this election.
KEYES: When I was part of the effort to fight terrorists, I dealt with some of the most hardened
criminals on the face of the earth. What I learned to understand, that Senator Obama seems to forget when dealing with domestic crime and foreign relations is that you must go after the people who cause the problem and
you must get after them before than can do harm. You must deal with the individuals who pose a threat to the decency of our communities.
Source: Illinois Senate Debate #3: Barack Obama vs. Alan Keyes
Oct 21, 2004
Battles legislatively against the death penalty
Obama's most significant contribution has been his legislative battles against the death penalty, and against in the criminal justice system.
In Illinois, it's been a series of shocking exonerations of innocent people who are on death row.
He was involved very intimately in drafting and passing legislation that requires the video taping of police interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.
And he also was one of the co-sponsors of this very comprehensive reform or the death penalty system in Illinois, which many people say may trigger the retreat on the death penalty in many other states.
Source: Salim Muwakkil and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now
Jul 15, 2004
Supports alternative sentencing and rehabilitation
Principles that Obama supports to address crime:
Implement penalties other than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders.
Increase state funds for programs which rehabilitate and educate inmates during and after their prison sentences.
Provide funding for military-style "boot camps" for first-time juvenile felons.
Source: 1998 IL State Legislative National Political Awareness Test
Jul 2, 1998
Voted YES on reinstating $1.15 billion funding for the COPS Program.
Amendment would increase funding for the COPS Program to $1.15 billion for FY 2008 to provide state and local law enforcement with critical resources. The funding is offset by an unallocated reduction to non-defense discretionary spending.
Proponents recommend voting YES because:
This amendment reinstates the COPS Program. I remind everyone, when the COPS Program was functioning, violent crime in America reduced 8.5% a year for 7 years in a row. Throughout the 1990s, we funded the COPS Program at roughly $1.2 billion, and it drove down crime. Now crime is rising again. The COPS Program in the crime bill worked, and the Government Accounting Office found a statistical link between the COPS grants and a reduction in crime.
The Brookings Institution reported the COPS Program is one of the most cost-effective programs we have ever had in this country. Local officials urgently need this support.
Opponents recommend voting NO because:
The COPS Program has some history. It was started by President Clinton. He asked for 100,000 police officers. He said that when we got to 100,000, the program would stop. We got to 110,000 police officers and the program continues on and on and on.
This program should have ended 5 years ago or 6 years ago, but it continues. It is similar to so many Federal programs that get constituencies that go on well past what their original purpose was. It may be well intentioned, but we cannot afford it and we shouldn't continue it. It was never thought it would be continued this long.
Rated 75% by the NCJA, indicating a mixed record on criminal justice.
Obama scores 75% by the NCJA on crime issues
OnTheIssues.org interprets the 2005 NCJA scores as follows:
0%- 74%: "soft-on-crime" record (approx. 133 members)
75%- 84%: mixed record on criminal justice (approx. 114 members)
85%-100%: "tough-on-crime" record (approx. 216 members)
About the NCJA (from their website, www.ncja.org):
The National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) exists to promote the development of justice systems in states, tribal nations, and units of local government that enhance public safety; prevent and reduce the harmful effects of criminal and delinquent behavior on victims, individuals and communities; adjudicate defendants and sanction offenders fairly and justly; and that are effective and efficient.
Toward this end, the Association:
Maintains the focus of state, tribal, local and federal governments on the needs of the criminal and juvenile justice systems;
Represents state, tribal, and local criminal and juvenile justice system concerns to the federal government;
Provides support for the development of criminal and juvenile justice policy for the nation's governors and tribal leaders;
Supports the public and all levels of government in the achievement of public safety by the coordination of education, community and social service systems, in addition to law enforcement and criminal justice measures;
Serves as a catalyst for the careful consideration and promotion of effective and efficient criminal and juvenile justice policies and practices;
Advocates for the commitment of adequate resources to support all components of the criminal and juvenile justice systems; and
Coordinates between the different branches and levels of government and promotes broad philosophical agreement.
