Eliot Spitzer’s downfall spotlights a recurring question of crime policy: whether prostitution, the simple agreement to exchange compensation for sex, is a victimless crime that does not merit prosecution. In two columns this week, Nicholas Kristof assures us that Spitzer’s date, Kristen, is “dangerously unrepresentative” of American prostitutes. Surely at $1,000 per hour, Kristen is in the elite company of high end sex providers, but she is not alone in that league, as an article in today’s local section of Kristof’s newspaper demonstrates. Perhaps it would be dangerous to think of Kristen as “representing” any other prostitute, but it equally dangerous to logic to dismiss Kristen and other sex workers who freely choose their work, simply because they belie the belief that an act of prostitution always has a victim.

A provider quoted in the Times article provides a counterpoint to Kristof’s concern about viewing prostitution as a victimless crime:

Ms. Anderson complained that news coverage of the Spitzer scandal had made prostitutes seem like damaged, depraved rag dolls. “Sex workers are people like you and me,” she said. “I’m against trafficking, but in all the years I’ve worked in the business, I’ve never met a woman who was coerced.”

Kristof’s focus on the trading of women as sexual servants highlights a crime that clearly victimizes women. So does his discussion of pimps who abuse women. Kidnapping, physical coercion and abuse are never acceptable, and society has a genuine interest in protecting potential victims from those crimes. That does not mean society should pretend that an uncoerced sex act between two consenting adults, if criminalized simply because something of tangible value is exchanged for the sex, is anything other than a victimless crime. [more...]

Beware of zealots. Today's zealot is Greg Gambril, the district attorney in rural Covington County, Alabama, who is making a name for himself by prosecuting women who use drugs during their pregnancies.

Over an 18-month period, at least eight women have been prosecuted for using drugs while pregnant in this rural jurisdiction of barely 37,000, a tally without any recent parallel that women’s advocates have been able to find.

Gambril's prosections are likely to convince drug using women to avoid seeking medical care during their pregnancies, lest they face imprisonment. Physician-patient privilege assures that won't happen, you think?

Police affidavits make it clear that local doctors are cooperating in these investigations.

Separating women from their newborn children doesn't promote "family values" -- it simply prevents mother and child from bonding during the child's critical formative years. Sensible alternatives would focus on helping women, not sending them to prison.

It isn't at all clear that the prosecutions are consistent with the law upon which Gambril relies: [more...]

A British writer makes the case for legalizing cocaine.

Anyone disagree? The war on drugs has been an abysmal failure.

The new sentencing guidelines with reductions in crack cocaine sentences went into effect two days ago.

In two days, the courts have granted 400 motions for sentence reductions. A few inmates have been able to leave jail immediately.

These reductions are modest in size, don't apply to everyone and should be heralded by everyone concerned about justice and fairness. The exceptions, not surprisingly, are the Bush Administration and Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who continue to criticize the reductions.

Sentencing Law and Policy has much more on how the implementation of the reductions is progressing.

I'm looking forward to a Democratic President in November who will provide Congress with an impetus to move on legislation that will eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder once and for all, and also reduce or eliminate the true cancer on the criminal justice system -- mandatory minimum drug sentences.

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Filip has been confirmed as Deputy Attorney General, the #2 spot.

A conversation earlier in the day between White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., led to Filip's confirmation, according to a Senate Democratic aide. The two pledged to make progress on stalled nominations, said the official, who requested anonymity because the details were private.

I find it curious that a federal judge would give up a lifetime appointment for a position that lasts until the new President, whoever it is, names a new Attorney General. That's a year from now.

It makes me think he was planning on leaving the bench anyway. He's only 41.

One more thing: Why would the Dems confirm any more of Bush's appointments now? And same question as to his nominees for U.S. Attorney. Who would take a U.S. Attorney position for a year? The new President will name his or her own U.S. Attorneys.

The Bush Justice Department at work again.

Lyglenson Lemorin, age 33, came to the U.S. from Haiti as a child. He is a legal resident of the U.S. He hasn't been to Haiti in 20 years.

He was acquitted by a federal jury of any wrongdoing in the Justice Department's hyped prosecution of the Miami Liberty 7 -- another case that went after a bunch of sad sacks who may have been bumbling terror wannabes but had no ability to carry out a terror threat even if that was their desire.

The Justice Department is now trying to deport Lemorin back to Haiti -- for the same conduct for which he was acquitted. In other words, a legal resident who grew up here and was acquitted by a jury after the Government had its chance to take its best shot and failed is now facing removal from the United States. He never even saw a day of freedom after the acquittal.

That's the Republican way of doing things and why it must end in November. [More...]

Immigrants in general, and undocumented immigrants in particular, are less likely to commit serious crime than native-born citizens, according to a report (pdf) released yesterday by the Public Policy Institute of California.

"Crime, Corrections, and California: What Does Immigration Have to Do with It?" ... aims to dispel the perception that cities with large foreign-born populations are criminal hot beds, with several California cities showing a dip in police activity amid recent immigration waves.

The findings won't play well with those who prefer stereotypes to reality, but they make sense. As explained by Kristen Butcher, one of the report's authors:

"The type of people who are immigrating are less likely to commit crimes because they're here for jobs," said Butcher, a professor at Wellesley College and a fellow for the nonpartisan policy research group.

Salvador Bustamante explains why reality-based thinking about immigration is important: [more...]

As Attorney General, John Ashcroft gained valuable experience testifying before congressional committees. He'll put that experience to use when he testifies in his new role as a highly paid contractor for the Justice Department he once headed.

The former attorney general is considered a key witness in the inquiry into lucrative federal monitoring contracts awarded by federal prosecutors to hand-picked monitors to oversee deferred prosecutions.

The House hearing was prompted, in part, by complaints from two New Jersey congressmen, Reps. Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell, after Christopher Christie, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, awarded a contract said to be worth $27 million or more to Ashcroft to monitor a medical device maker that had entered a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors. ...

Christie, who has defended the practice as a method to correct corporate misbehavior while preserving jobs, was once Ashcroft's subordinate.

Ashcroft agreed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee subcommittee without a subpoena. He will undoubtedly be ready to explain why the services his firm contracted to provide are worth a paycheck that may exceed $27 million. [more...]

Tomorrow morning, the ACLU will hold a rally in Washington on the unfairness of mandatory minimum sentences, and specifically, the need to repair the 100:1 crack to powder cocaine sentencing disparity.(Received by e-mail, no link yet.)

Speakers at the rally include:

• Dorothy Gaines, who was charged with conspiracy to deliver crack cocaine due to her then-boyfriend’s alleged participation in a large-scale drug operation as a driver. Ms. Gaines served 6 years of a 19½ year sentence before being granted clemency by President Clinton in 2000.

• Karen Garrison, whose sons are currently serving 15+ years in federal prison for non-violent crack cocaine offenses.

• Kemba Smith, who was convicted in 1994 and sentenced to 24.5 years on charges of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and related charges after a failed relationship, despite her lack of involvement in any drug dealing operation.

The ACLU's written testimony on the need to reform these draconian, unfair penalties is here.

Several bills to reduce the injustice are pending in Congress. I outlined them here. A hearing is scheduled on them tomorrow before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. [More...]

Excellent news...Congress cut funding for Byrne Grants and local cops say the war on drugs will suffer.

Congress in January cut funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant by two-thirds, from $520 million to $170 million for fiscal 2008. Local agencies say that's a threat to the officers who do much of the law enforcement spadework.

One of the results of Byrne Grants: Tulia, Texas.

Best-known is a case in Tulia, Texas, where a 1999 Byrne-funded investigation led to the cocaine arrests of 46 people, most of them black, on evidence so flimsy that 38 were pardoned by Gov. Rick Perry in 2003. The undercover agent responsible for the arrests was convicted of perjury and the defendants got a $5 million settlement from the state.

The Texas ACLU has identified more than a dozen other Byrne-funded operations it says were abusive and several other states have investigated similar complaints. Texas has imposed strict limits on Byrne-funded drug task forces.

The meth busters are upset. They probably don't need to worry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will help them out. They support Byrne Grants. Here's record on anti-meth bills. Of course, the problem with these meth bills is they end up increasing the supply from Mexico. [More...]

Universities represent intellectual freedom for those who can afford to attend them. For everyone else, public libraries symbolize the opportunity to acquire knowledge free from governmental interference. That's why a New Bedford proposal to require library users to show ID before entering the library is so offensive.

The proposal is a knee-jerk response to a sexual assault that occurred in a New Bedford library. Its efficacy depends on the dubious assumption that sex offenders won't show ID. It would not, as the mayor suggests, "let people know they're completely safe." It would, however, cause people to wonder whether they are safe from governmental monitoring of their reading habits, and might deprive those who don't have ID from using the library altogether. Like most knee-jerk responses to the tragedy of crime, this is a proposal that is likely to cause more problems than it will solve.

The 124,000 members of the American College of Physicians, the largest organization of internal medicine physicians in the country, are calling on the feds to ease the ban on medical marijuana by reclassifying it and also to engage in more research to prove its benefits.

The American College of Physicians, the nation's largest organization of doctors of internal medicine, with 124,000 members, contends that the long and rancorous debate over marijuana legalization has obscured good science that has demonstrated the benefits and medicinal promise of cannabis.

In a 13-page position paper approved by the college's governing board of regents and posted today on the group's website, the group calls on the government to drop marijuana from Schedule I, a classification it shares with illegal drugs such as heroin and LSD that are considered to have no medicinal value and a high likelihood of abuse.

Pot is now a Schedule I controlled substance, same as heroin.

The American College of Physicians' position paper calls for protection of both doctors and patients from criminal and civil penalties in states that have adopted medical-marijuana laws.

More...