Attending were General Barry McCaffrey, CASA Director Joseph Califano, Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney of Brooklyn, New York, and Charles Colson. They stated a commitment to a different approach to drug policy in this country. They did everything but admit that the Drug War has been a complete failure. That's the size of the U.S. Air Force.
Prisons are monuments to failure.
The press conference even included a call to reform the criminal justice system. We need a complete revolution in our criminal justice system. Mr. Califano, General McCaffery, and Charles Colson and Mr. Hynes all expressed their complete dismay at the sheer waste of mandatory sentencing policies. I could not conceive of a more ill advised strategy than mandatory sentencing. Mr. Colson went on to state that mandatory sentences are the most counterproductive policy possible, and that violent criminals are being released in order to jail nonviolent people on mandatory sentences.