Americas Failed Federal Criminal Justice System   Dateline   July  est Washington DC USA    Americas Failed Federal Criminal Justice System    By  Mark A Varca Chief Information Officer FedCURE  FedCURE is the worlds leading advocate for Americas 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 postincarceration supervision via parole or supervised release Over  people were released from federal prison in the United States last year  On this day the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons houses  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 worlds leading experts in matters relating to federal inmates  Collectively five of FedCUREs  board members have over  years of in prison experiencebehind the fenceas former federal inmates   Each holding JDs two holding LLMs and two holding Ph Ds  Our lifetime members include the best criminal attorneys in the United States    Martha Stewarts incarceration has made her the DIVA of federal criminal justice reform in the United States  Mrs Stewart wrote from prison in a December  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 firsttime offenders and for those involved in drugtaking  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 whats 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 todays 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 reentry opportunities for people being released from prison   To that end FedCURE is feverishly advocating in favor of  HR  former HR  as amended a bill to Revive the System of Parole for Federal Prisoners that was introduced in the th Congress by the Honorable US Representative Danny K Davis D of Illinois on  June      Parole of federal offenders began after enactment of legislation on June    Under the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of  the United States Parole Commission retained jurisdiction over defendants who committed their offenses prior to November    At the same time the Act provided for the abolition of the Parole Commission on November    The phase out of the Commission has been extended by statute several times The status of the Commission beyond November   remains unresolved despite the Commission having taken over supervision of all DC offenders in addition to the remaining  Old Law offenders  Presently the Commission has over  employees and a budget of over  million   HR  introduced on  June  seeks To extend the existence of the US Parole Commission  When the U S Sentencing Guidelines were imposed for federal defendants whose criminal activities took place subsequent to November   parole was eliminated  Early release was limited to approximately  days of good time each year and the sentences themselves were increased appreciably  The majority of federal inmates are nonviolent lowlevel 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 nonviolent offenses without the possibility of parole  The vast majority of these people are also first time offenders    Ni