Burley Mitchell, retired Chief Justice of South Carolina’s Supreme Court, told a lunchtime crowd earlier this week that the drug war is a “total failure” that has filled the state’s prisons.
Like almost every other state, North Carolina is facing a prison population crisis. Apparently there is no such thing as parole in the state, and judges use a “sentencing grid” like the federal judiciary (with different penalties, one would assume). As such, NC politicians have made their own uncomfortable yet extravagant bed.
Congratulations to the NC chapter of Families Against Mandatory Minimums and NC Policy Watch for having AP cover the luncheon!
I doubt that we’d ever get such a bold call for reform, even in retirement, from the mealy-mouthed Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Ronald M. George.
Posted by Nikos Leverenz.
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