Around 90 percent of criminal cases are handled by county court systems, where inflexibility on disproportionately harsh sentencing outcomes is largely a local political choice. Prosecutors can reopen old cases to correct injustices with relative ease, and some do.
That isn’t usually possible in the federal system, where multiple layers of red tape ensure harsh prison sentences are not altered, even when they are morally wrong in hindsight. The US Department of Justice, stuffed to the gills with conservative federal prosecutors, controls the Office of the Pardon Attorney, the office tasked with giving clemency recommendations to the president.
Even the CARES Act, which was passed by Congress last year to curb the spread of COVID-19 and provides for a move to home confinement for around 4,500 low-risk prisoners, has been heavily influenced by the DOJ—an agency that has thoroughly resisted any efforts to reform prosecution and sentencing.
In the 11th hour of the Trump administration, then-Attorney General Bill Barr issued a memorandum that temporarily […]
The cartoon at the head of this article is quite misleading. It’s implication is that Republicans are the sole perpetrator of this process. An examination of the historical record will clearly indicate that this has been a bipartisan effort executed over many decades.
That’s right. It is people who make the money having the system operate as it does are who control the system. Not a party issue.
“Lady Justice” is not only blind, she is stupid, lame, and drunk on money from the wealthy.