From the Editor
From the Editor
By Paul Wright
One of the realities of covering and reporting on prison systems is that, not surprisingly, the bigger systems with more prisoners tend to generate more news, especially the bad news. Generally speaking, the dearth of news by and about smaller prison systems does not mean they are better run, less deadly, or less corrupt than their larger counterparts. Rather it tends to reflect the reality of a dearth of resources in terms of plaintiff lawyers, advocacy groups and critical media who can serve to investigate, document, report or litigate on those conditions.
This month’s cover story on Alaska’s prison system does just that. Over the decades we have reported on various issues in Alaska ranging from corruption with their private prison systems, sending prisoners out of state to private prisons in Arizona, abysmal prison conditions and much more. Paradoxically, the state court system in Alaska is one of the better ones nationally when it comes to prisoner rights.
Another issue of concern for us is that for the past two years now the Alaska DOC has banned books from PLN and ignored our demand letters on the matter. An issue we are in the process of resolving.
In last month’s editorial I noted that former president and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had been convicted of falsifying business records related to payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Since then, on June 11, 2024, President Joseph Biden’s son Hunter Biden was convicted in federal court for being a drug addict who lied on federal firearms forms about his drug use when he purchased a hand gun. Hunter is probably America’s best-known drug addict at this point whose many selfies showing his crack cocaine use, often with sex workers, have graced the pages of news media for years now.
I was surprised to read that Biden surrendered his law license after his conviction. The bar to remain a licensed attorney is indeed low. One irony is that his father Joe, in his over half century in politics has long championed excessive sentences, criminalization and harsh prison sentences for people accused of drug related crimes and Hunter likely would have long ago wound up in prison but for his politician father. For over 30 years now PLN has advocated for sentence equalization between crack and powder cocaine possession. Originally a 100 to 1 disparity, under the Obama administration it was reduced to 18 to 1. With one gram of crack being equal to 18 grams of powder cocaine for sentencing purposes. The racist stereotype driving this disparity for decades has been that Black people are more prone to use crack cocaine with Whites preferring powder cocaine.
Years ago, the Los Angeles Times did a detailed analysis of federal cocaine prosecutions in the Los Angeles area and discovered that plenty of whites smoked crack cocaine, but they all got diverted to state court prosecutions where they were placed in drug treatment programs or released on probation or got suspended sentences while Black and Hispanic defendants received harsh mandatory minimum sentences in the federal prison system. Hunter has been even luckier in that he has not even been prosecuted for his crack use, only his acquisition of firearms while being a drug addict.
Trump is now the first major presidential candidate to run for president as a convicted felon since Eugene Debs did so nearly a century ago. Hunter Biden is the first presidential family member to be convicted of a felony crime. In a nutshell this illustrates the problems with prison and criminal justice reform in this country. Rather than realizing there are systemic injustices for all Americans, especially the poor ones, the typical response of the wealthy and ruling class is bailing themselves out. This two-tier system of criminal justice, one for the rich and connected, one for the poor and unconnected, is what makes change so elusive and difficult. If the wealthy were subject to the same type of policing, sentencing and harsh prison conditions that the poor receive in this country, change would have happened long ago.
It remains to be seen what sentences are imposed but no one is holding their breath expecting a harsh prison sentence for either Trump or Biden. Which begs the question of what about the hundreds of thousands of Americans who each year are convicted of similar crimes of lying on forms for whatever reason? Or like Hunter Biden, the people who struggle with drug addiction and are convicted of crimes related to that addiction but lack the wealth and power to evade capture and prosecution by the American police state?
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