Sessions issues sweeping new criminal charging policy

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday that he has directed his federal prosecutors to pursue the most severe penalties possible, including mandatory minimum sentences, in his first step toward a return to the war on drugs of the 1980s and 1990s that resulted in long sentences for many minority defendants and packed U.S.

In this video, Republican Paul Ryan admits mandatory minimum sentences are a mistake and Criminal Justice reform is needed.

In the United States today we have more people in jail than any other country on earth. We are spending $80 billion a year to lock up 2.2 million Americans, disproportionately African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. The number of incarcerated drug offenders has increased twelvefold since 1980. This is expensive and it is a waste of human potential. We must end the over-incarceration of nonviolent Americans who do not pose a serious threat to our society.

The “Tough on Crime” and “War on Drugs” policies have been a disastrous failure yet Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Republicans want to continue and expand on this failure.

By directing his federal prosecutors to charge drug crime defendants with the most serious, provable crimes carrying the most severe penalties, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is moving us backwards as a society.

This is yet another horrible consequence of Trump being elected President and Republicans gaining control of the US government.

This is another example of how Republicans pursue stupid policies which don’t work and how they pursue policies which are contrary to the will of the American people.

In this video, former Salt Lake City Mayor and 2012 Justice Party presidential candidate Rocky Anderson decries the horrific social and financial consequences of mandatory minimum sentencing laws, sharing the outrageous case of Weldon Angelos, condemned to spend 55 years in federal prison for non-violent drug offenses. Even the Republican judge in the case regarded the sentence as excessive, and called upon President Obama to release Angelos.

Rocky also issues a call to arms for citizens to write to the president and their local congressional representatives, calling for the commutation of Angelos’ sentence and to overturn these counterproductive and costly mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

57 percent of Americans supported legalizing marijuana in 2016 compared to just 52 percent of the country in 2014. Support for legal cannabis has been steadily increasing among Americans since 2006 when it reached 35 percent.

Although support for legalizing medical and adult use of pot has differed over the years among political affiliations, in 2016, 63 percent of Democratic voters and 63 percent of independent voters said they “think marijuana should be legal.” Although just 40 percent of Republicans backed legalizing marijuana—up just one percent from 2014’s 39 percent—support for the plant has continued to increase among the party since its lowest number, 12 percent, in 1990.

Until and unless “Average Joe” Americans stop voting for Republicans, our Justice System will remain broken and Republicans will make sure more people are incarcerated than any other country on this planet.

http://dai.ly/k1JbrzEQmzEcIMo9v0A

Video title: Fight for Criminal Justice Reform

Weldon Angelos received a 55 year mandatory minimum sentence for selling marijuana, a sentence even his judge opposed. After serving 13 years, he was freed last year after bipartisan lawmakers, his judge, and his family worked together to reduce his sentence.

Now, Weldon is using his story to stop mandatory minimum sentences. Sign his petition here: http://www.change.org/jeffsessions