Tough Guy Sessions: Shameful and Stupid on Street Crime, Soft on Corporate Crime
Robert Weissman, Contributor President of Public Citizen
Source: The Huffington Post
Tough Guy Attorney General Jeff Session has announced that federal prosecutors will charge low-level drug offenders and others with the most serious crimes possible, despite overwhelming evidence and a bipartisan agreement that this approach is racially discriminatory and counterproductive. The Sessions approach will throw thousands of people – especially Americans from communities of color or with low-incomes – into prison needlessly, sabotaging their life chances and increase post-release criminality.
It is shameful and stupid. Shameful because there is overwhelming empirical evidence that this approach unfairly targets and damages young people of color. And stupid because there is, equally, overwhelming empirical evidence that it will create a cycle of crime.
At the same time that Sessions is announcing a clampdown on nonviolent, low-level offenders, Session’s Department of Justice is expected to announce resolution of a longstanding major corporate crime case: Fill-in the blanks ______________________.
it appears Tough Guy Attorney General Sessions is only tough on the poor and vulnerable. (That conclusion comports with Sessions’ performance as Alabama attorney general, as we explained in a January report on Sessions’ tenure in that post.) When it comes to the rich, powerful and connected, it seems that Sessions is soft on crime.
This is a moral and policy disgrace. The moral element should be self-evident. . .
Read more: HuffPost
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