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« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2018, 02:35:22 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 1-30-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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American prisons are overpopulated and the Land of the Free has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. There are millions of people23 in federal prison, many whom are behind bars for years as a result of mandatory minimum sentencing for committing non-violent crimes. Further, the recidivism rate among federal prisoners is also very high. In the past few years, some states — Texas and Kansas, for example — have implemented conservative policies to address prison reform with tremendous success.
Trump and his Justice Department are reportedly “fully on board24” with proposals for prison reform. Earlier this month, Trump held a meeting with Governors Matt Bevin of Kentucky and Sam Brownback of Kansas as well as Koch Industries General Counsel Mark Holden to discuss prison reform and reducing recidivism.
Holden, who’s worked on the issue for years, argues that policies like mandatory minimum sentencing are not working. He lamented, “I think our system has miserably failed us in the past 30 to 40 years.” He added, “More people have criminal records than college degrees. If you look at the federal system, they’re still in the 1980s. … They’re still using ‘lock 'em up and throw away the key.’ It’s failing, it’s inhumane, and it’s counterproductive.”
Holden pointed to the tremendous success with Texas prison reform between 2007 and 2015. During those years, Texas “expanded the number of specialty courts from nine to more than 160, expanded substance abuse programs, expanded the number of halfway houses, and challenged local probation departments, offering them additional state funds if they reduced the number of probationers returning to prison by 10 percent.” As result of these reforms, Texas was able to shut down three prisons and six juvenile facilities, save $2 billion from the state budget, and watch the crime rate drop to its lowest level since 1968.
Governor Brownback hailed the success of the mentoring programs within the state of Kansas. The mentoring program consists of person-to-person relationship building, which helps people who were in prison get back on their feet once released. As a result, the Kansas recidivism rate has been cut in half.
As seen above, there have been several successful state prison reform programs, and several conservative groups are hoping for President Trump to push for several proposals25 at the federal level.
Some conservative groups recommend that AG Jeff Sessions open up the Bureau of Prisons to outside service providers, which currently have limited access. Policies could include a mentoring program that starts when a person enters prison until several years after they leave, as well as ending or reducing mandatory minimum sentencing and allowing for lower courts to decide how much time fits the crime. And don’t get us started on civil asset forfeiture26. The goals should be to give people second chances, reduce recidivism, spend less on prisons and ultimately make our communities safer and our people freer.
Trump has an opportunity to bring both parties together on prison and criminal justice reform. Many good policies have been tried and proven to work in certain states and, as is the point of federalism, other states and the federal government can learn a thing or two.
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
Syria and Turkey: What the Arab Spring Wrought31 — The Trump administration has few good options when it comes to dealing with “allies” and foes.
A Welcome National Security Strategy32 — Updated for the first time in 10 years, the NDS marks the priorities of the Trump administration.
Cleveland Indians Scalped by Social Justice Warriors33 — If we keep going down this road, one wonders how long any sport will remain afloat.
Hypocrite Pelosi Moves to Allay Her Own Tax Increase34 — We all want lower their tax obligations. The problem comes down to egregious hypocrisy on the Left.
Conan Goes to Haiti … to Insult Trump35 — He ignores the fact that Haiti is one of the poorest and most corrupt nations in the Western hemisphere.
College Students Hate Trump’s SOTU … Before It Happens36 — Campus Reform took to the campus of NYU to ask their opinions on President Trump’s State of the Union.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Dennis Prager: Three Reasons the Left Wants Evermore Immigrants37
Stephen Moore: Make Trump Tax Cuts Permanent — Now38
Cal Thomas: A Message for My Evangelical Friends39
Tony Perkins: An Abortion Chief’s Legacy of Death and Taxes40
Bill Wagner: Facts, Leaks and the FISA Memo41
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion42.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Stephen Moore: “Last month the tax bill was favored by only about one in four voters, but it is growing more popular every day, as voters discover that liberals were lying all along about who really benefits from the bill. If these bonuses and pay raises are mere ‘crumbs,’ as millionaire Nancy Pelosi hisses, workers want more of them. As the old saying goes: Nothing succeeds like success. Republicans should seize the moment of this tax cut miracle cure and make sure that the cuts don’t expire anytime soon. Only about a third of the tax bill’s benefits are permanent. Most of the cuts for the middle class — including the lower income tax rates, the doubling of the standard deduction, and the additional $500 per child tax credit — will expire after 2024 because of arcane budget rules. But fixing that problem is easy: Vote to make the tax cuts permanent so no one faces a tax hike. … If Democrats vote thumbs down again, the party will appear all the more hopelessly out of touch with middle class workers. They will be voting to allow middle class taxes to go up. Bernie Sanders recently said on CNN: ‘We should’ve made the tax cuts for the middle class permanent.’ Well, Bernie, now’s your chance to do just that.”
SHORT CUTS
A blind squirrel finds a nut: “For years, the fundamental complaint of the right in the culture wars has been that the left is hypocritical, and the Nikki Haley episode perfectly confirms the point: A prominent Republican woman is smeared. The author who does the smearing is celebrated by all the A-listers, including the most prominent Democratic woman in the country, who herself has a history of giving a pass (or worse) to men accused of sexual assault and harassment. And yet the arbiters of American culture cheer the Democrat and, in the words of the actor Don Cheadle, tell the Republican who has the gall to defend herself: ‘Sit down, girl. You’re drunk.’” —New York Times’ Bari Weiss
The BIG Lie: “[Releasing the FISA memo] is a distraction from the fact that [Republicans] passed a tax bill that gives 83% of the benefits to the top 1%. They’d like to distract from that. And 86 million middle-class Americans will pay more in taxes. … They do give this gift to corporate America at the expense of our children’s future. They don’t want to talk about that.” —Nancy Pelosi
Self-righteous indignation: “Yes, I think from a moral perspective, [the shutdown] was the right thing to do, and that is to say to these 800,000 young people we are not going to allow them to be subjected to deportation.” —Bernie Sanders
Race bait: “I think a lot of President Trump’s rhetoric is racist. Let’s be very clear: When someone uses the phrase ‘chain migration’ … it is intentional in trying to demonize families — literally trying to demonize families and make it a racist slur.” —Kirsten Gillibrand
That’s not how a Republic operates: “Popular vote went to Hillary, and Democratic Senators represent 40 million more Americans than a [sic] Republican Senators do. Give democracy a chance rather than ignoring the popular majority.” —Sheldon Whitehouse
And last… “The growth rebound in 2017 shows that secular stagnation isn’t destiny; it was the result of policy choices by the previous Administration. The Obama Democrats put income redistribution ahead of growth and got more inequality and less growth. Mr. Trump and the GOP Congress have made growth a priority, and that’s where they need to keep their focus if they want to keep the expansion going.” —The Wall Street Journal
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. We also humbly ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the spirit of Liberty in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher |
