America s Failed Federal Criminal Justice System Dateline 21 July 2005 23 45est Washington DC USA America s Failed Federal Criminal Justice System By Mark A Varca Chief Information Officer FedCURE FedCURE is the world s leading advocate for America s ever growing federal inmate population On behalf of the Board of Directors we would like to extend an invitation to each of you to join us in our efforts to reform the federal criminal justice system in the United States Federal CURE Incorporated is a nonprofit organization that inter alia deals largely with the issues faced by federal inmates and their loved ones We are working to reinstate parole increase good time allowances provide for compassionate releases restore PELL grants and opportunities for successful reentry into the community for all federal offenders and promote a system that incarcerates fewer people and provides humane conditions for those who are incarcerated or under post incarceration supervision via parole or supervised release Over 45 000 people were released from federal prison in the United States last year On this day the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons houses 185 100 people Most serving long non parolable sentences for non violent offenses Please consider if you have not already joining and contributing to FedCURE We are the world s leading experts in matters relating to federal inmates Collectively five of FedCURE s 14 board members have over 50 years of in prison experiencebehind the fenceas former federal inmates Each holding J D s two holding LL M s and two holding Ph D s Our lifetime members include the best criminal attorneys in the United States Martha Stewart s incarceration has made her the DIVA of federal criminal justice reform in the United States Mrs Stewart wrote from prison in a December 2004 letter posted on her Web site I beseech you all to think about these inmates to encourage the American people to ask for reforms both in sentencing guidelines in length of incarceration for nonviolent first time offenders and for those involved in drug taking The synergies behind that have yet to unfold However we can state with confidence that when all the discussions settle on the table concluding that the federal criminal justice system in the United States is undoubtedly broken and in need of reform and that after all of the discussion about what s wrong with the system and what can be done to fix it comes to rest in the end it always comes down to one important reform issue To reduce federal prison sentences In today s political environment however there is only one possible hope that would best accomplish this reform Enact federal legislation to revive our former system of parole for federal prisoners and to provide new re entry opportunities for people being released from prison To that end FedCURE is feverishly advocating in favor of H R 3072 former H R 4036 as amended a bill to Revive the System of Parole for Federal Prisoners that was introduced in the 109th Congress by the Honorable U S Representative Danny K Davis D of Illinois on 27 June 2005 Parole of federal offenders began after enactment of legislation on June 25 1910 Under the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 the United States Parole Commission retained jurisdiction over defendants who committed their offenses prior to November 1 1987 At the same time the Act provided for the abolition of the Parole Commission on November 1 1992 The phase out of the Commission has been extended by statute several times The status of the Commission beyond November 1 2005 remains unresolved despite the Commission having taken over supervision of all DC offenders in addition to the remaining 4 000 Old Law offenders Presently the Commission has over 100 employees and a budget of over 10 million H R 3020 introduced on 22 June 2005 seeks To extend the existence of the U S Parole Commission When the U S Sentencing Guidelines were imposed for federal defendants whose criminal activities took place subsequent to November 1 1987 parole was eliminated Early release was limited to approximately 47 days of good time each year and the sentences themselves were increased appreciably The majority of federal inmates are non violent low level drug offenders with very long sentences Moreover the majority of this segment of the federal inmate population is being incarcerated for the first time Thousands of people in prison are serving life sentences for non violent offenses without the possibility of parole The vast majority of these people are also first time offenders Ni