http://www.newsmax.com/US/Holder-BailReform/2011/06/01/id/398510 Holder: Petty Offenders Should Await Trial at Home Wednesday, 01 Jun 2011 06:19 PM WASHINGTON (AP) â Most non-violent offenders awaiting trial could be supervised at home instead of being placed in jail without endangering the community, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday. Holder, speaking at the National Symposium on Pretrial Justice, said many Americans accused of nonviolent or petty offenses remain in jail before trial simply because they cannot afford to post bail of even a few hundred dollars. Nearly two-thirds of inmates in county jails are awaiting trial, many for nonviolent crimes, at a huge cost to taxpayers, he said. And inmates who lose their jobs can also become ineligible for health benefits, relying on emergency rooms for routine treatment after their release. "Almost all of these individuals could be released and supervised in their communities â and allowed to pursue or maintain employment, and participate in educational opportunities and their normal family lives â without risk of endangering their fellow citizens or fleeing from justice," Holder said in his prepared remarks. Holder told an audience of prosecutors, police officials and lawyers that society needs to continue developing better alternatives to incarceration. He said the Department of Justice was providing guidance to local communities about how best to manage offenders awaiting trial and was also continuing to support programs aimed at helping inmates re-enter society after they serve their sentence and are released from custody. The two-day symposium comes nearly 50 years after a similar summit, the National Conference on Bail and Criminal Justice, that was organized in 1964 by then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy. That conference paved the way for the Federal Bail Reform Act of 1966, which Holder said created the first major restructuring of bail system since the early days of the country. A panel discussion on the criminal justice system earlier Wednesday included District of Columbia Police Chief Cathy Lanier and Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, among others. © Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. *** Typical liberal, moronic, douche bag thinking. Gee, I wonder if Obama will use that as one of his messages on the 2012 campaign trail???
a 18year old that used to wash my car disappeared for a few weeks and it turned out he didnt have $500 to post bail and ended up spending 45 days in county jail awaiting trial --- for unpaid speeding tickets!!! i almost cried when he told me.. really a simple guy from a trailer park family looked to be emotionally destroyed, said he didnt have anyone to call. %$%^$ Eric Holder and the Obama administration since they came out against the legalize marijuana proposition in California last year.. but this statement and hopefully -follow through is long overdue.. if bail is set at $5000, you need to put up 10-20% for a bondsman.. the police state and overcrowded prisons/jails is ridiculous.. the system works in a way the that county police departments have a quota each month to keep inmates locked up to receive state funding. FUCK the police
I'll bet your rap sheet is quite a read, isn't it??? LOL!!!!!!! I hope Oduma's A.G. keeps making idiotic remarks like this. I'm sure the general public would just love having non-violent offenders like burglar's and car thieves being allowed to remain at home while awaiting trial. And I'm sure these criminals would just sit at home like good little boys and not re-offend while awaiting trial. LOL!!!!!
And I'll bet your resume is a quick read. <img src="http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/images/imprisonment.gif">
Holder is right, first off, why the fuck are we sending half these people to jail, and secondly why would we even bother spending the money it costs to house an inmate while he awaits trial for possession of marijuana, or related offenses, or other petty crimes of such a nature. If it was up to me i would change the law so that the only way a person can be charged with a crime is if they somehow cause some kind of monetary/physical harm to someone else, and if they do that i would make the laws alot stricter. I simply see absolutetly no reason to charge someone with a crime if the only person they hurt is themselves. If i wanted to i could take a chain saw and cut my leg off, and no one is going to charge me with a crime, but if i smoke a little bit of marijuana I could end up in jail for 25 years- life if its my third strike in a state like california...... does thast make any sense? If people are out there not doing any harm to anyone but themselves, then i see absolutely no reason to charge them with a crime. And i definately see no reason to pay for the cost for them to stay in jail while they await trial.