john knock's story

 Please Visit this Web Site

john knock's story

Julie Stewart has a piece in the Huffingtonpost about Presidential Commutation.  The US Justice Department issued a report to the United States Sentencing Commission encouraging them to make recommendations that would decrease the inmate population in Federal Prisons.  Commutations could compliment this effort and also point the way to sentencing that would save money, speak to justice and mercy while not jeopradizing public safety.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-stewart/clemency-reform-president-obama_b_3618749.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications#postComment

A Not-So-Happy Fourth of July

From Reason Magazine - Worth Contemplation

A Not-So-Happy Fourth of July

Pot Lobby Softball Team Smokes White House, 5-2

 Great Group of Marijuana Reformers beat White House 

Soft Bell Team

Pot Lobby Softball Team Smokes White House, 5-2

 A Link to the ACLU Action Page for Information about Sesame Street Project

https://www.aclu.org/secure/tell-sesame-street-dont-take-baes-dirty-money?ms=fb_acluaction_061213_bae

 CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED PARENTS

This post is about Deputy Attorney General James Cole - Remarks from the Children of Incarcerated Parents Initiative "Champions of Change"

I find it very disturbing that one of the solutions to the problem of children whose parents are incarcerated would not be to end egregiously long sentences for non-violent offenders.  Hundreds of millions of dollars would be saved and children would need far less government support in the form of counseling, and could print and distribute far fewer booklets "Mommies and Daddies in Prison"

Rather than spending tax dollars for grants to "enhance parental and family relationships for incarcerated parents" children would actually be able to have an on going relationship with their parent.

These remarks about what the government will do to help children demonstrates an myopic view of of saving American families and saving American taxpayers.

By reudcing incarceration for non-violent offenders - we could start with non-violent marijuana offenders - we get a double bonus - Children with intact families - save money by not incarcerating their parents - save money by not needing to give services to children to help them adjust to having a parent incarcerated.

Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole Delivers Remarks at the Children of Incarcerated Parents Initiative “Champions of Change” Event

~ Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Thank you Tonya [Robinson] for that introduction and for your work on this issue and this event.  And congratulations again to all of the Champions of Change being honored today.  Your work is exemplary as you have dedicated your time and energy to speak up for a unique and vulnerable group: our nation’s children who are dealing with the consequences of a parent’s imprisonment.

It is estimated that more than 1.7 million children currently have a parent in prison, and many more have parents who are in local jails or lock-ups at any given time. As we’ve heard today, addressing these children’s needs requires a coordinated effort of multiple government agencies and social service entities to implement collaborative approaches.  This Administration is committed to providing support to children of incarcerated parents and their caregivers.  Through an interagency working group led by the White House, agencies across the Administration have been taking a hard look at the issues these children, their caregivers and their parents confront and how we can provide more support.  Today, we’ve announced a number of efforts to promote the well-being of these children -- from the time of their parents’ arrest to their parents’ reentry into our communities.      

 Great article by Nick Gillespie at Reason

NSA Scandal: Why We Get the Police State We Deserve. And What We Can Do to Fix That.

Nick Gillespie|Jun. 11, 2013 2:44 pm

I've got a new column up at The Daily Beast about how Democrats and Republicans can both love Big Brother if he's got the right party affiliation. Snippets:

In the first flush of stories about how the National Security Agency is surveilling American citizens, one stomach-turning revelation hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves: We get the surveillance state we deserve because rank political partisanship trumps bedrock principle every goddamn time on just about every goddamn issue....

OPA on "Denied or Closed Without Presidential Action"

This post by PS Ruckman on his great blog Pardon Power provides some insight on the operation of the the Office of the Pardon Attorney.  Many thanks to Professor Ruckman for his diligent work.

OPA on "Denied or Closed Without Presidential Action"

Students Suspended Over Using Nerf Gun Brought to School for Lesson on Probability

 Another case of Over Criminalization

Students Suspended Over Using Nerf Gun Brought to School for Lesson on Probability

Congressional Abdication

Great article on National Interest. org by Senator Jim Webb

We will miss him in the Senate

Congressional Abdication

The RP in Newsweek: Inside the Movement to Legalize Hemp

 By Jonathan Miller - The Recovering Politician.

The RP in Newsweek: Inside the Movement to Legalize Hemp

Marijuana Education/Legalization: 5 Senior Citizens Serving Life Without Parole for ...

 Another post about Five Senior, non-violent, marijuana only offenders serving sentences of Life without Parole for selling marijuana.  This is a travesty that should be corrected by a Presidential Commutation.

Marijuana Education/Legalization: 5 Senior Citizens Serving Life Without Parole for ...: 5 Senior Citizens Serving Life Without Parole for Pot Should five non-violent offenders die behind bars for a crime Americans incre...

Day 2 of the Hemp Parade Continues…

 Jonathan Miller - The Recovering Politician is in Washington lobbying for hemp legalization.  Thank you Jonathan. 

Day 2 of the Hemp Parade Continues…

 This is an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal about the Safety Valve Act of 2013 

Ending mandatory minimums is long overdue.  Families Against Mandatory Minimums  is the national activist group that has worked specifically to removing mandatory minimum sentencing.  They are supported by a long list of organizations fighting for civil liberties, ending the drug war, prison reform, and fiscal responsibility.  

It is heartening to see this thoughtful editorial by Douglas Berman and Harlan Protass in the Wall Street Journal.

We just lament that this is not the end of the road for those non-violent marijuana offenders who are serving sentences of Life without Parole in the federal system for selling marijuana. 

These inmates will get relief only from retroactive legislation or Presidential Commutation.  We hope this is a giant step forward.

 

Berman and Protass: A Saner Approach to Sentencing

'Mandatory minimum' laws need an overhaul. Congress is ready. Will the president make good on his promises?

By DOUGLAS A. BERMAN AND HARLAN PROTASS

There are few topics on which leading Democratic and Republican voices agree these days. But the recently introduced Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013—which would authorize federal judges to impose prison terms below statutory mandatory minimums in some cases—represents a new bipartisan effort at addressing America's overcrowded prisons and bloated budget. Passage of the act, though, will depend on President Obama and his Justice Department getting behind it.

Ron Paul: Boston Police Tactics 'should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself'

 I believe he's correct

Ron Paul: Boston Police Tactics 'should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself'

Subsidizing the Security of Wealthy Allies

Feds Move Against More California Marijuana Dispensaries

Feds Move Against More California Marijuana Dispensaries

Osler at Huffington Post

 PS Ruckman posts Mark Oslers article on Presidential Clemency from Huffington Post

Osler at Huffington Post

  This article from USA Today is a bit disturbing.  

While thousands of citizens are working businesses based on selling marijuana,  there are still inmates serving sentences of Life without Parole for selling the same product.

Pot entrepreneurs have high expectations for a future market in legalized marijuana.

(Photo: Thinkstock)

Story Highlights

• Investors scramble for stakes in billion-dollar market for legal marijuana
• The great green hope: 14 more states will legalize cannabis by 2017
• From stigma to federal wariness, many hurdles still remain

Brendan Kennedy and Michael Blue are nice boys. Really. They're bankers. Yale MBA classmates. Wearers of ties.
And, if luck and changing laws cooperate, they'll be drug barons of a certain kind.

Libertarianism goes mainstream - James Hohmann - POLITICO.com

Libertarianism goes mainstream - James Hohmann - POLITICO.com

Eric Holder: Some prison terms too long

Eric Holder: Some prison terms too long

PAUL: Minimizing authority of judges - Washington Times

 This piece in the Washington Times by Rand Paul should be welcomed by all who believe in civil bi-partisan cooperation.  Eliminating mandatory minimums is a step toward criminal justice reform.  It is fiscally responsible and speaks to civil liberties.

PAUL: Minimizing authority of judges - Washington Times

Hemp and the Legacy of The Last Free Man in America

 This is interesting and fun to read.  It gives hope and humor.  Thank you Johnathan Miller.  I'll be checking back.

Hemp and the Legacy of The Last Free Man in America

Cops vs. Burgers

Cops vs. Burgers

  Created By:

• 
  Kim Markou
  

  Director and Producer

The Murder of Mary Jane

This film will explore marijuana prohibition, the current legal battle to legalize it, and U.S. citizens serving life sentences for marijuana-related offenses.

Film – Tannersville, Pennsylvania, United States

Why I'm Making This Film

My name is Kim Markou.  I am a freelance writer and producer. Four years ago I battled breast cancer.  Refusing the chemotherapy and radiation, I decided to concentrate instead on diet, nutrition and natural THC, with great results.  I found that even though marijuana has PROVEN medicinal qualities (U.S. Patent # 6630507), our government, steeped in hypocrisy and driven by money, corporate greed and the back room deals of big Pharm, has continued to prosecute and imprison fellow U.S. citizens, many like myself, who desire to treat themselves with a natural plant that contains anti-inflammatory and healing properties. 

 Can the Feds hold back the tide to Legalize Marijuana?

http://blog.seattlepi.com/marijuana/2013/03/25/can-the-feds-hold-back-the-tide-of-legal-marijuana-even-if-they-want/

 This article in the NY Times talks about the use of marijuana by senior citizens.  It's a sign of the times

 

Shuffleboard? Oh, Maybe Let’s Get High Instead

Michael F. McElroy for The New York Times

Cher Neufer of Akron, Ohio, started smoking marijuana at 21 and still indulges with her friends. “It’s just a social thing,” she said.

By ALYSON KRUEGER

The Drug Warriors Cashing In on Pot Prohibition | The Fix

 This is a pretty good article about the revolving door between "Government Service" and private business opportunities for government contracts.  It is a good argument for smaller more fiscally responsible government.

The Drug Warriors Cashing In on Pot Prohibition | The Fix

HIGHTIMES.COM | Pardoning Pot Prisoners

A new petition asks
High Times has spotlighted the Group Petition for Pardon  for five non-violent marijuana offenders who received sentences of Life without Parole for selling marijuana.  In the interest to fiscal responsibility and civil liberties, President Obama should grant these pardons.  It's the right thing to do.

HIGHTIMES.COM | Pardoning Pot Prisoners

 This article by Vikrant P. Reddy and Marc A Levine from Right on Crime is worth the time it takes to read

The Conservative Case Against More Prisons

Higher incarceration rates aren't making us safer—and there are better, smaller-government alternatives.

By Vikrant P. Reddy and Marc A. Levin • March 6, 2013

• 
• 
• 

vgm8383 / Flickr

Since the 1980s, the United States has built prisons at a furious pace, and America now has the highest incarceration rate in the developed world. 716 out of every 100,000 Americans are behind bars. By comparison, in England and Wales, only 149 out of every 100,000 people are incarcerated. In Australia—famously founded as a prison colony—the number is 130. In Canada, the number is 114.

Sen. Leahy: Sequester should halt federal marijuana raids - Washington Times

 Could we actually be getting somewhere?  If we are fiscally conservative and care about civil liberties we should legalize marijuana.  Mass incarceration should not be our nations future.

Sen. Leahy: Sequester should halt federal marijuana raids - Washington Times

A 14-year Pardon Application Process?

 What happens to Clemency Applications?  Very little.  This is the sad story of the progress of a Clemency Application as it travels around the Justice Department.

A 14-year Pardon Application Process?

Former DEA Heads Urge Justice Department to Block Historic Marijuana Regulation Implementation in Colorado and Washington | Drug Policy Alliance

Former DEA Heads Urge Justice Department to Block Historic Marijuana Regulation Implementation in Colorado and Washington | Drug Policy Alliance

 This article from Mother Jones is just another story about government employee unions and their influence on mass incarceration.  

It may be more comfortable for progressives to place the blame on conservatives, but the financial incentives for mass incarceration clearly belong to those who depend on paychecks for prisoners. 

Big Labor's Lock 'Em Up Mentality

How otherwise progressive unions stand in the way of a more humane correctional system.

—By James Ridgeway and Jean Casella

| Fri Feb. 22, 2013 3:01 AM PST

Protesters rallied against a union campaign to save Illinois' notorious Tamms prison. Courtesty Tamms Year Ten

On January 4, the Tamms Correctional Center, a supermax prison in southern Illinois, officially closed its doors. Tamms, where some men had been kept in solitary confinement for more than a decade, was notorious for its brutal treatment of prisoners with mental illness—and for driving sane prisoners to madness and suicide.
The closure, by order of Gov. Pat Quinn, was celebrated by human rights and prison reform groups, and by the local activists who had fought for years to do away with what they saw as a torture chamber in their backyard. But it might have been accomplished sooner were it not for a competing progressive faction: Big Labor.

Justice Department can be smarter about sequester - The Hill's Congress Blog

 Good article in The Hill's Congress Blog - Worth a read.

Justice Department can be smarter about sequester - The Hill's Congress Blog

John Knock probably received the longest sentence received for a first time non-violent marijuana only offender.  This is his story.

John  is a non violent first time marijuana offender. 

He was convicted in a dry conspiracy only where no pot was found.

Barack the Unmerciful

 It doesn't hurt to revisit this piece from Reason about Obam's Clemency.  Seventeen more Pardons, still only one Commutation.  Let's hope they are coming.

Barack the Unmerciful

Anti-Marijuana Group Sucks at Messaging/Telling the Truth

 There is probably some way to follow the money for this organization. 

Anti-Marijuana Group Sucks at Messaging/Telling the Truth

Interesting article in the Guardian about US Prosecutors representing drug cartels. 

US drugs prosecutors switch sides to defend accused Colombian traffickers

After working to take down cartels, former officials say America's 'war on drugs' is misguided and the human cost too high

• 
• • Rory Carroll in Los Angeles
  • The Guardian, Wednesday 27 February 2013 11.46 EST

Today in the New York Times - Marc Mauer from the Sentencing Project talks about incarceration trends in the United States.  This is a significant fiscal issue as well as an issue that speaks to civil liberties and justice.

Incarceration Rates for Blacks Have Fallen Sharply, Report Shows

By ERICA GOODE

Published: February 27, 201

• 

Incarceration rates for black Americans dropped sharply from 2000 to 2009, especially for women, while the rate of imprisonment for whites and Hispanics rose over the same decade, according to a report released Wednesday by a prison research and advocacy group in Washington.

Justice Department can be smarter about sequester - The Hill's Congress Blog

 This piece in The Hill by Ethan Nadelmann from Drug Policy Alliance answers Attorney General Eric Holder's report to the Appropriations Comittee about the cost of justice.  Sometimes more cost equals less justice. 

Justice Department can be smarter about sequester - The Hill's Congress Blog

Is Your Local Police Department Using Pictures of Pregnant Women and Children for Target Practice?

 This article from Reason is shocking, but not surprising.  I often wonder about gun violence and how it is related to the militarization of our own law enforcement agencies.  I am offended when I see the snipers on the roof of the White House.  The intense preoccupation of our Public Servants with their own security coarsens our society.

Is Your Local Police Department Using Pictures of Pregnant Women and Children for Target Practice?

Doors swing open for advocates of marijuana legalization on Capitol Hill - The Hill

Doors swing open for advocates of marijuana legalization on Capitol Hill - The Hill

The Perils of Pushing Pot Prohibition

The Perils of Pushing Pot Prohibition

Rand Paul Mainstreams Non-Interventionism

 Good Analysis of Alliances in Reason

This is worth reading

Rand Paul Mainstreams Non-Interventionism

T. Roosevelt v. Modern Presidents

T. Roosevelt v. Modern Presidents

Loretta Lynch: 'Building More Jails is Not the Ultimate Solution'

 Take a look at The Crime Report

Loretta Lynch: 'Building More Jails is Not the Ultimate Solution'

Members of Congress To Introduce Federal Measures To Legalize Cannabis, Regulate Sales

 Bill to Legaleze and Regulate.  Marijuana

Members of Congress To Introduce Federal Measures To Legalize Cannabis, Regulate Sales

Good discussion of the next four states for marijuana legalization

These 4 States Will Reform Their Marijuana Laws in 2013

The pot reform movement picks up speed.

Mike Riggs | January 31, 2013

It's been only two months since Washington and Colorado voters legalized recreational marijuana, but the advocates who raised millions to pass Amendment 64 and Initiative 502 aren't wasting time celebrating. In addition to helping craft the rules and regulations in the Centennial and Evergreen states, they're also providing support to state legislators who will introduce marijuana bills—more than 20 altogether—in 2013.

RELATED ARTICLES

• A Great Year For Pot, Freedom, and Ending the Drug War

  Nick Gillespie| 12.15.12

• The War Over Weed

  Jacob Sullum| 12.14.12

"While not all of them will pass," says Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the debates around them will be different than in years past. "What I'm hearing is that a dam broke," says Jill Harris, managing director of strategic initiatives for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). "Before Colorado and Washington, the idea of legal marijuana existed in the realm of fantasy. But after Colorado and Washington, we can have a more serious conversation."

Watch List: Ryan Release, But No Pardon

 From the blog Pardon Power by P.S. Ruckman
Always good information
Watch List: Ryan Release, But No Pardon