Coalition for Public Safety

Unlikely Cause Unites the Left and the Right: Justice Reform

Usually bitter adversaries, Koch Industries and the Center for American Progress have found at least one thing they can agree on: The nation’s criminal justice system is broken.

Koch Industries, the conglomerate owned by the conservative Koch brothers, and the center, a Washington-based liberal issues group, are coming together to back a new organization called the Coalition for Public Safety. The coalition plans a multimillion-dollar campaign on behalf of emerging proposals to reduce prison populations, overhaul sentencing, reduce recidivism and take on similar initiatives. Other groups from both the left and right — the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Tax Reform, the Tea Party-oriented FreedomWorks — are also part of the coalition, reflecting its unusually bipartisan approach.

This is pretty huge. Getting such diverse players from all parts of the political spectrum, including groups that normally hate each other, all working together for criminal justice reform, that gives it a lot of weight.

In the past, reform efforts have often been hamstrung because of politicians afraid of being targeted for “soft on crime” ads, but with institutional political support on both sides of the aisle, that’s less likely to happen.

Here’s their website: The Coalition for Public Safety

It’s not going to do everything that needs to be done, but it sure could help get us moving in the right direction.

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18 Responses to Coalition for Public Safety

  1. claygooding says:

    I look for a much larger membership to this very shortly,,the recent minor adjustment in sentencing and seizure laws which everyone agreed was a step in the right direction but not enough,,is bringing the think tanks from both sides into the pool.

    I don’t see seizure laws standing up as a good judicial policy under any kind of investigation or debate. If it had been used as it was passed for drug traffickers it may have stood but when law enforcement started using it as budget funding source through theft of private property they blew it.

  2. claygooding says:

    29 legislative bills concerning marijuana,,,,in one state

    http://tinyurl.com/moyjjgh

    Has to be a record and if HA is a red state it may even be more prolific than vagina control legislation. So far

    There is a new health issue that causes you to lose half your intelligence,,I suggested “conservative flu”

  3. Irie says:

    Has anyone seen any thing on this? I only caught it on the ‘Norml’ news letter I receive through e-mail,…”Members of the Jamaica Senate have approved legislation depenalizing minor marijuana possession offenses nationwide.
    The legislation amends federal law so that the possession of up to two ounces of cannabis by an adult is reclassified as a non-criminal offense.”
    If anyone has another source of where to find this news could you post the web page, would like to do some more reading on this….Thanks in advance
    (was on the Daily Gleaner page, can’t find anything, did find some sources since I first wrote this, am editing it now, so still am looking for more sources for this news!)

  4. divadab says:

    The devil is in the details – we’ll see what the Koch brothers “koch” up.

  5. The largest step that this coalition could take to reform justice in the US would be to help get congressional support for the two bills introduced today by US Representatives Jared Polis (D-CO) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana for adults at the federal level. http://tinyurl.com/l7vpe3h

    It would be one helluva good beginning to cleaning up the criminal justice system.

  6. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Well let’s please not forget who we’re up against. This one is from the “baffled by bullshit” category:

    New study shows no link between marijuana use and car accidents
    2/17/2015

    /snip/
    While it’s tempting to deduce that marijuana is harmless to drivers, users should think twice before lighting up and hopping behind the wheel. Trowbridge emphasized a very important distinction highlighted by the study — just because the drug is negligible to accident rates does not mean it is negligible to driving safety.

  7. claygooding says:

    The first hammer blow has fallen and hit Gov Scott Walker between the eyes.

    http://tinyurl.com/khgw6ed

    “”KENOSHA (WITI) — A Kenosha casino was not in the cards for the Menominee Tribe. Now, they all say options are on the table — including growing marijuana.

    It is one of several money making options the tribe is now exploring. Tribal leaders say they are researching if marijuana could grow their economy.””

    I wonder if Walker realizes his conservative beliefs just lost his state millions in revenue and legal marijuana is coming anyway?

    It is already heating up.

    http://tinyurl.com/lbtllkr

  8. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    While I don’t know if anyone other than me cares about getting the MSM to cease and desist with the petrified stupid jokes about potheads for cryin’ out loud. But I do like to send a gold star and half a dozen non-ABT brownies to the publisher on the rare occasions that I see a headline and/or entire article that doesn’t contain any of them. Tip of the pin to the Chicago Tribune.
    Why you crave junk food after smoking marijuana

    But I gotta tell you, considering the content of the article I’m not sure how the heck they were able to contain themselves. Even myself felt a very brief, transient desire to tell a stupid joke about potheads after reading that headline. I suppose that it’s possible that the editor could have no sense of humor whatsoever. E.g. Sgt. Joe Friday would never have used a joke funny or not if he were the editor. Just the facts ma’am and all that rot.

    I never felt compelled to limit my munchies to only junk food. But oh my word I vividly recall the first time I chose to enjoy cannabis and the pizza some total stranger gave me, warning me that I was going to need it in an hour. Man that was one fun night. I haven’t thought about that pizza for at least a decade.

    Currently my favorite food is yogurt.

    Maybe some day I’ll tell you about the car that hypnotized me which almost got me killed by anti-social ruffians.

    • Frank W. says:

      You nailed it brother.Unfortunately my Yahoo home page parades all those stupid clickbait headlines like it’s fresh off Mt Sinai. Today’s prize: “Mom Accused Of Leaving Child Out In The Cold While She Smoked Pot’ Now tell us about the anti-social yogurt.

  9. N.T. Greene says:

    …b-but the drug war is soft on crime, well… soft enough to ensure that everyone involved still has a reason to get paid.

    • Cashing in on forfeitures

      Civil asset forfeitures are big business for police agencies in Michigan. Of the 635 law enforcement agencies in the state, 277 reported seizing citizens’ assets worth $24.3 million in 2013. The assets included homes, commercial property, cash, guns and other items.
      http://tinyurl.com/mbevkf5

      Don’t want to get soft on crime when things are looking soooo good. Yep, public safety.

      Just doing their jobs?

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