If adopted, this amendment would lower by two levels the base Offense Levels associated with various drug one of these involved in drug craft thing in Drug Trafficking crimes. Reduceould modestly guideline penalties will keep in t. E guidelines consisten this straightforward adjustment to sentencing ranges, while measured in scope, would nonetheless send a strong message about the fairness of our criminal justice system. It would help to rein in federal prison spending while focusing limited resources on the most serious threats to public safety. Zoe want to talk about with you this morning as we go the washington journal. The numbers are on your screen. We set aside our fourth line this morning. If you have been jailed for a drug crime, we would like to hear your experience. If you cant get through on the phone lines, you can also get through on social media at cspan wj. Facebook. Com sees and there you can join the conversation there that has been going on. From the New York Times this morning. A little bit from the New York Times article. Post takes an different tack. Here is their lead on the front pages morning. He goes and tries to get a job. Where is he going to get a job at . Isnt that just perpetuating the . Roblem that is already there it does not make sense. We have to have alternative thinking toward people who do these things. When they get out, not to start them out in a bad position. I used to work for the California Department of forrester. Iranre a lot of guys flyer crews that were from prisons. They werent bad people, they just werent that bright and they did to him things and got in prison. Having programs like that, a lot of those guys ended up getting out and working for the force. So, charles, youre living in a state where marijuana is legal. What about for other drugs . What if somebody was caught and a lot of this is for trafficking and manufacturing do you think someone whose manufacturing methamphetamines or heroin, do you think the same principles apply . Not as much. If they are doing a cartel thing that is a different story. That is different than some guy out there is somebody using drugs and getting busted with a pound of marijuana and he goes to prison for five years. Yes, of course. Somebody out there manufacturing methamphetamine or orbuting harrowing, heroin. Do yourrowi really want to crowd presence with these kinds of people . There are alternatives. Supportarles, did you colorados legalization of caller a . Caller caller of course i did. It was evil that never came. It emptied our jail. Mr. Problem . No. Is there more anything . No. In my believe, if youre going to smoke marijuana i asked a kid once in high school if it is hard to get marijuana. Their statement was that you could buy marijuana on every Street Corner and math on every other Street Corner. Here,t know anybody out nobody has spoken to is smoking it now that it is legal. It just makes it easier for the people who are already smoking to get it. Host thank you for your time. This is from the sentencing project. The number of people in prisons 1980, and the yellow is 2011. You can see the increase in people in jail for drug offenses between 1980 and 2011. Arnold is calling from roxborough, North Carolina. You are on the washington journal. Caller you say this is bipartisan with the congress that once the mandatory sentence reduced. Guy to get out of. Ail if you get a guy going for a job and there are 2500 people for one job. Host we have such a bad connection, im going to have to and that call. Texas governor rick perry spoke about this issue. Back to thet to go president of the United States and attorney general. Both recognize that what we have done in texas and i notice admitor them to admit, to the minimum sentencing guidelines. They are notg and working. There is a place that has implemented some programs that are making a difference in peoples lives. Economically it is making sense. Recidivism rises. And is making sense. We want people to get their lives back. If we are really going to be honest citizens of this great country, being able to give people a Second Chance is really important. The texas prison system, again, we are not perfect. We are moving towards perfection every day. We hope someday to attain it, probably wont. The fact is, that should be our goal. The idea that we lock people up, throw them away, never give them a chance at redemption is not what america is about. More from the bit Washington Post article on this. Rb is on the republican line. All, i have aof the tandem ofing criminal obama and eric holder. I will say that from the jump. Most of these crimes are committed in neighborhoods that hold a lot of minority population. Look at the liquor store count compared to other populations in the city. I dont know how many times it has doubled. Item unnatural there is a nonViolent Crime when it comes to drugs. Know if anybody has noticed, but we have gotten a real problem. It is like kids dropping dead on abuse. Eet from heroin it is totally unprotected. Host when it comes to the mandatory minimum sentences, arbie, where do you come down . I dont think that the marijuana thing is really what were talking about. We are talking about other, harder drugs. In regardo such thing to the nonViolent Crime when it comes to drugs. Host you notice we have got it. Caller id enough minimum sentencing for people who are is logical. To put them in the. Ame cell people think marijuana is not a bad drug, you, but people who smoke where one like to get high. That high will get old and they will want to change to something else, something harder or with euphoria, things of that nature. Former new jersey governors son dead in apparent suicide. He killed himself in a mexico city hotel. Sources told New York Post on. Hursday, Jeffrey Corzine say he had been depressed recently. The cause of death was not released. Another piece of news is morning. Scott brown is set to run for senate for new hampshire. Joel brinkley, who was the son of journalist david brinkley, only 61 years old, died from undiagnosed leukemia here in washington. Next call is ishmael in maryland. Washingto there are more drugs being consumed and sold in innercity rather than in the suburbs. That really isnt true. A lot of studies have proven that out. On the issue at hand, i dont particularly believe in mandatory sentencing programs for small amounts of things such as marijuana. Cocaine, heroin and all those other things are different. I think there needs to be interference and Substance Abuse programs and things of that nature. For marijuana, small amounts, i think it is ridiculous to throw people in jail for 378 910 years just for that. Thank you very much. Host this is from the Congressional Research service. It goes on down. You can see that a lot of the maximums for drug kingpins, 20 years to life. George is calling from tacoma, washington. Tell us about your experience. Have had al, i couple different experiences. I have family that has been through the court system and everything because of drug with myself. Long i am not a medical marijuana patient. Is thati see it marijuana grows from the ground. It is just like a vegetable or whatnot. It is a natural plant. When he start adding chemicals in it, it is bad for your system. Heroin,s for meth, speed, any of that stuff. Along with even prescription medications. So, george, you are arrested for Marijuana Possession . Aller no, but i have family members who have. Do think using dealers should be treated differently at . Caller yes definitely. William is calling from memphis, tennessee. Caller i have a lot of different opinions about this. I am a former drug addict. I will be clean and 22 years this month. First of all, i think we jail too many people in america. Secondly, when you look at drug majorin most cities, the reason that most people are selling drugs in those cities is lack of opportunities. If we would improve our educational system, if we would , a lot ofe job market people would not be salinger arrived. Sellingerized. At the time i was doing it i was not a bad person. I used heroin and cocaine. I never committed a Violent Crime and i live in my life. System kept offering the opportunity to get into recovery instead of minimum sentencing or giving me more time in jail. I would never have been able to be covered. The reality is if we consider. Urselves a civilized country i visit the prison in memphis every month. I have done since 2006. The men that Prime Minister to are not people that belong in jail. They belong someplace getting help for the reason that they felt like using drugs. That is the reality of it. Host i apologize, were you arrested for use of drugs . Caller yes, i have been. I was caught three times. Host you said you are offered the chance for recovery act of caller yes, what they called in those days was drug diversion. Did was, they required you to go into treatment. I will admit to you that their time for that to actually stick, but it did eventually stick. My1992, i was able to begin out of sobriety which has been extended to today. It will be 22 years this month. Met hundreds if not thousands of other men and women that are in recovery. They are not bad people. I know there are millions of. Eople i am breaking some forms of anonymity. I want to say one more thing. I am from new jersey. Corzine, who was the governor of new jersey, he mentioned his son committed suicide . The other thing we need to understand is that it is disproportional in a manner that we jail people who use drugs. Forbid, i am, god sorry that what happened to him hepened to him because came from a family with money he did not have to go to jail. Not just is that blacks but people who are poor are the ones who are in prison. That needs to change as well. We need to get away from this backward thinking that we seem to be trying to find a way to reinvent again. Sayuld even go so far as to it would probably be better for us to not even have any of these drugs criminalized very we are already going to the method of legalizing marijuana. That is not going to make me smoke marijuana. I do not smoke marijuana. Dislike i dont drink or smoke cigarettes. Just because her illegal does not make me do it. If i were a person that wanted to do it, making it illegal is not good to keep me from doing it. The reason theres something wrong with me, and is not because i am a criminal or they are a criminal, we need to follow some of the advice that we are being given from eric holder and other businesses of this administration and try to become more civilized, and stop trying to be civilized ourselves. Host thank you very much, william in memphis, tennessee. Front page of the Washington Times is morning. This is their banner headline. That is the article, Washington Times. Com if you want to read the whole thing. Back to your calls on reducing prison time for drug crimes as called for by attorney general eric holder. As we saw, governor rick perry and other republicans as well. Arthur in caller corpus christi, texas on the republican line. Agree for once, i on something that some in the Obama Administration has said. Anybody that gets busted for a few joints should have to be given the same amount of time as somebody busted with a couple of pounds. Sentencings minimum has just been totally unfair for years. Texas, we have a program in the prison system i is the felony abuse program. You get busted, you get a chance to go through this program. It is a prison type of environment, but rather than just being imprisoned and doing through ahey take you and afterrogram certain amount of time, i dont know that much about it because ive never been through it, but after certain amount of time after you get out, eventually you have the opportunity to have the felony to be dropped from your record like it never existed. Host and arthur, you support that . Isler oh yeah, i think great that somebodys tried to help people that are having a hard time. Ive seen what crack can do to people. It is not pretty. You sir. Right, thank michael in lakewood, florida. Michael, what is been your experience with the criminal . Stice system and drugs caller i have a felony conviction for drug confession for drug possession. Now earned a few degrees. I want to make sure that i thank the gentleman from tennessee. He preached a lot of what i want to say about justice being about how much you can afford rather than just granting it to you as a citizen. I truly believe that a lot of our money could be used better on facilities doing with Substance Abuse rather than incarcerating these people. Michael, did you spend any time in jail . Caller one student of 29 days was as long as i spent. Felonyhat is the conviction mean to you tried to get a job . Caller i have spent the last six years hoping to be able to at least get an interview. Ive been applying for jobs for at least six years and nothing. Im hoping that at least if i get my masters degree and Mental Health counseling, then i will be called by to help and Substance Abuse. That will be my experience and education at the same time. It is been terrible trying to find a job. When you are using drugs to every burglary ring are robbing . Did you commit crimes of that nature . Birds of a feather do flock together. That is what kept me from getting to the point where i felt like i was part of society while i was in for use. You find yourself in a surrounding and then a lot of times an environment in which you are with people you shouldnt be with, but you are with them because they have so substance that youre looking for. Thank you for calling in, michael. Kerry says people who sell drugs make a lot of money. I doubt thered give that up for a minimumwage job. List is giveaway drugs to adults. Ie says here is richard. Maurice from maysville, kentucky. You are on the washington journal. We have watches political thing going on with everybody trying to help everybody. Doing what you have to do is great, try to get changed everything. It always comes down to the grassroots of it. It is not there, they wont go to jail. There is ban. Drug abuse is a medical problem not a criminal one. Silvio hampton says reducing prison time for drug crimes is a great idea. Make room for the wall street crooks. Chris says wall street corruption is not a crime. Says congress should play it slow head in shame. Is theinion democrats must be in big trouble and need every vote they can get. Call comes from texas. Please go ahead. Caller i saw you on tv. Line is definitely a between a substance user and a substance dealer. Another thing i want to say is that it will definitely reduce a prison sentence for these people but then they replace it with something else. There are already a lot of people who want to go to prison. Fromt to have those the go back to the house or be like,ood they can yeah. If you had me i would start with giving people via sector maze. Againstmotivate people having that. Jonathan is causing from mickelson, new jersey. High, jonathan. Imprisoned for only three days. This evidence could have been much longer for cannabis possession. When i was a kid, i was put on ritalin. Ages 814. I was misdiagnosed with add. Doctors are now finding it is a thehere always known that amphetamine was close to methamphetamine. It is very serious Mental Health usedquences, especially when people are young and their brains are developing. I think it is ironic and tragic are asese drugs dangerous as amphetamines and they are given to kids against their will. Growing adults are often not allowed to use substances on their own bodies that are at least as dangerous. As all or want to say. Clinton pages4000 to be released. A second batch of four thousand pages of records from former president clintons white house are slated to be released today. The records ranging from the 2000 president ial recount in florida to documents related to terrorism and the decade before 9 11. They will be Available Online at the clinton president ial library at 1 p. M. At 1 00 p. M. Lane calling from out doesnt, texas. Lane, you are on the washington journal. What a think about what attorney general holder had to say about reducing prison time for those convicted of drug crimes. Thatr i have been through puma system in texas twice. Host what were you jailed for . Possession of methamphetamine under 20 grams. I was locked up in a room with 64 other people and just left there, basically. The corporations that have taken over the prisons in texas need to be looked at. Guards are very unprofessional. Ripe. Ystem is im 58. The young generation is locked up up a lot of gang members. If you disrespect them, and the host y age host lane, what you think should happen to having been caught with methamphetamine . A violentm not person. I have never committed a Violent Crime. I know a lot of the young ones are in the for burglary and stuff. I never committed a burglary or fraud or anything like that. , i wassabled, retired d i didnt qualify for the the third time, i understand what they did. They wanted me to go down there and experience it. It was a waste of taxpayers money. Host have you gone back to using methamphetamine . Caller i am also a disabled veteran. No. If a person wants to get clean, theyre going to get clean. Program,sh the mentor theyid before, you want you to do things to get. Hrough that i just think that taxpayers money can be better spent. Host all right, lane. Tweets in. Washington post this morning has on their front page some comments. If you go to the Washington Post you can read that article in its entirety. New cia lawyer. Heres a picture. Her name is caroline cross. She is confirmed by the senate yesterday. She is the cias new general counsel. Governmentreer lawyer who has worked at the justice Departments Office of legal counsel. Carolyn crassest of name. From chicago on our republican line. Would you think general holder had to say what you think about what he had to say . Caller its ok. Offenders. Violent , should be looking at getting amnesty so they can go to work. They need to redeem their lives. You have