Marc Mauer: Bipartisan Criminal Justice Reform Efforts Likely to Suffer Under Trump

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

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Bipartisan Criminal Justice Reform Efforts Likely to Suffer Under Trump

Posted Feb. 1, 2017

Interview with Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

Criminal justice issues have so far taken a back seat to the Trump administration’s early executive orders restricting the entry of immigrants and refugees, building the Mexican border wall – and the president’s nomination of conservative judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But, starting with the fact that candidate Trump supported the death penalty and torture - and called himself the “law and order candidate,” – those working to reform the U.S. criminal justice system and reduce the prison and jail population of 2.2 million are very concerned. Their worry is focused on what issues may be addressed in future executive orders, or new legislation from the Republican-controlled Congress.

Marc Mauer is executive director of the Sentencing Project, a group which researches alternatives to the nation’s prison-industrial complex. He notes that in 1970 the U.S. held 300,000 prisoners, but that number grew in 2016 to 2.2 million, a seven-fold increase. In recent years, the number of inmates has declined slightly as a result of changes at the federal level and in some states. But despite the reductions, the U.S. still holds more prisoners than any other country in the world. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Marc Mauer, who lays out some of the likely changes in direction on criminal justice from policies carried out under the Obama administration these past eight years.

MARC MAUER: We don't really know yet what the criminal justice agenda is going to look like. On the one hand, we've had several years of building bipartisan support in Congress for sentencing reform. Sen. Grassley chairs the Judiciary Committee, long-time Republican conservative, had been a leading sponsor and proud to be sponsoring a sentencing reform bill, and we saw related bills in the House. The new president, though, to the extent he has any history on these issues, you know he announced on the campaign trail he's the law and order candidate; he's made some fairly vicious statements in the past advocating for a death penalty and other harsh punishments. So we don't know how that conflict will be resolved.

The other issue of course is the next attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions having been nominated. Sen. Sessions, in addition to all his beliefs and policies regarding immigration, other issues on criminal justice policy, he's been a very much tough on crime advocate for a long time. He was an opponent of the sentencing reform legislation in Congress when it passed through the Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan vote. He was one of a number of Republicans who voted against it. He hasn't said much about what his priorities will be, but we're not terribly optimistic at that level, either.

As well, the civil rights division of the Justice Department has been very aggressive and responding broadly to the tensions between law enforcement and African American communities, developed consent degrees, been involved in Ferguson, Baltimore, Chicago, many other cities. Sen. Sessions has made it pretty clear he's not very interested in pursuing that line of action and is essentially a law enforcement supporter and doesn't seem like he's terribly interested in dealing with tensions in any other kinds of ways right now.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Marc Mauer, I've been hearing mention of Trump's support for private prisons. This with the backdrop of the federal government, at least, announcing last year that it is moving away from private prisons. What can you say about that move, and about Trump's plans, if any, in this regard?

MARC MAUER: The federal government's been a major contractor with private prisons, but as a result of a very critical report by the Inspector General of the Justice Department regarding what happens in private prisons, and also the fact that the federal prison population has been declining, there's less need for them to contract out for those beds. Following that announcement, the stock of the major private prison companies went down 35 percent the next day, then the day after the election in November, the stock of the private prison companies went up 40 percent. Numerous studies have documented higher levels of abuse, poor training of staff, high turnover, poor management, not to mention that they generally don't save any significant amount of money, either. Having said that, that doesn't suggest that public prisons, whether they are federal or state, are necessarily doing a good job or avoiding those issues.

Now, we haven't heard specific policy recommendations from Sen. Sessions or the White House so far, but everything in the past suggests they would be much more favorably inclined to look toward private prison operators – just part of their general belief in the private sector. So this is a very troubling development. Unless they have plans to dramatically increase the federal prison population, it’s really uncalled for, because with the population declining they can handle the number of people they have in prison through the regular federal prisons, so it's partly a question of ideology versus practicality and money and how they come out on all these issues.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So, give me a temperature check on the issue of criminal justice reform as you see it right now.

MARC MAUER: You know, nearly 90 percent of the people behind bars are at the state or local level. There's some reason for hope there. A good number of states have enacted policy reforms in recent years, specifically for lower-level drug offenses, also around community supervision and how people are re-entering the community, and most of those states are relatively pleased with the results they’ve seen so far. So, I think there’s a pretty big gap between what goes on in Washington and what happens at the state level. So, regardless of the rhetoric or policy at the federal level, I think there’s good reason to believe that much of that reform momentum at the state level can continue in the next several years.

Learn more about the criminal justice reform work of the project by visiting the Sentencing Project website at sentencingproject.org.