Posted by Loulou on Jun 22, 2015 | 0 comments

Israel Abel Torres and family

Our amazing president has allowed people who were accused of a crime and incarcerated from 10 years to life imprisonment for selling or dealing in miniscule amounts of crack cocaine, for example, to appeal for a pardon and get out of prison for good.  Without this pardon, these people could die in prison.

A wonderful story is that of Israel Torres, who appealed for a pardon and was liberated today. It is a very moving story, and let’s hope that there will be others.

So many young people of all colors are sentenced to long prison terms for selling or distributing or being in possession of an amount of drugs that is less in weight than a candy bar (this, from a lawyer who has been fighting the laws on drug sentencing for years), and for this, I salute Mr. Obama.

HERO.

Perhaps this will be the start of a new process for people who are not hardened criminals but who got caught up in the criminal justice (!) system without realizing that the punishment often does not fit the crime.

Let us hope that our incarceration system will be reformed by this act of Mr. Obama and that our prisons, so over-populated with petty criminals, will again only be places that contain criminals who have committed serious crimes. But let us also strive to have prisons that realize that rehabilitation for criminals has to be reformed also. Hardened criminals, with few exceptions, only get harder in prison and generate new waves of criminals influenced by them in their prison lives.

Those who are in for petty crime and minimal amounts of drugs should have a second chance at changing their lives, not be pulled away from their families and loved ones just because of a single mistake.

Yes, there is crime, and yes, it must be punished, but the distinction between serious crime and petty crime has to be established by law. Mr. Obama is working on this and more power to him. You probably won’t see Jeb Bush or Donald Trump taking action on these issues!

I, personally, have only the habit of catnip, but it absolutely does not lead to greater dependence on nip or anything stronger.

Is there anything better than nip?  I don’t think so…only snuggles.