A Worthy Cause, and a great team-up idea: NORML and Prisons Foundation, with an auction at eBay.

NORML Foundation is proud to partner with Prisons Foundation, the nation's leading non-profit organization working with incarcerated persons seeking artistic expression and rehabilitation through visual arts, to present Prisoner Artwork for Auction.

Located two blocks from the White House and open seven days a week, the Prisons Foundation Art Gallery has hundreds of quality and moving pieces of artwork created by the hands of citizens currently incarcerated in US prisons--many of them for 'drug' related offenses including cannabis.

For those who can't visit the Prison Foundation's Art Gallery located at 1600 K St., NW, Suite 501, Washington, DC, the NORML/Prison Foundation's
weekly online art auctions provide citizens the opportunity to view and bid on prisoner-created works of art, with a large portion of the proceeds going to the prisoner-artist for living expenses while incarcerated.

Check it out.

A computer guy explains the danger of proposed legislation that would require computer technicians to report to the authorities any child pornography or other evidence of child abuse they encounter while servicing a customer's computer:

Potentially incriminating material can end up on a computer in any number of ways that have nothing to do with a deliberate request for questionable content. Even worse, the range of expertise among computer technicians varies enough that you could conclusively say that not all such technicians have the skills to distinguish between deliberately accessed content and that which may have found its way onto a system through other means (spam, malware, another user, etc.). It's a recipe for disaster when you consider how being accused of child porn/abuse usually turns into a guilty-until-proven-innocent scenario of the sort that can destroy lives and families.

Teachers, social workers, and health care professionals are typically mandatory reporters of child abuse. But computer technicians?

In the wake of a police shooting of an elderly Atlanta woman, some members of Congress are calling attention to a problem that politicians routinely ignore: the use (or dangerous misuse) of information provided by unreliable informants to justify the issuance of search warrants.

A host of influential House members who are black, like [shooting victim] Johnston, said the case highlights widespread misuse of police informants, and they pledged to address the issue in Congress.

"I see the shooting and killing of Ms. Johnston as one piece of a larger puzzle," said Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat. "We must utilize every means at our disposal ... to ensure that this kind of injustice never, ever happens again."

Before you get too excited, count me in the group (I hope there will be one) that is unimpressed with the action taken last night by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to reduce crack cocaine penalties.

If I understand Law Prof Doug Berman's description (he's excited about the change) the mandatory minimums will stay in place and the reductions are these:

More...

Amnesty International has issued a report with alarming statistics on Native American women and rape.

The figures said more than one in three Native women would be raped in their lifetime, although that figure may in fact be substantially higher because of a traditional reluctance to report sex crimes.

"Native women are brutalized at an alarming rate, and the United States government, a purported champion of women's rights, is unfortunately contributing to the problem," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

Amnesty's press release is here.

More...

The Harvard Crimson praises Massachusetts Gov. Devall Patrick for reevaluating mandatory minimum sentencing laws. So do we.

Mandatory minimum sentences eliminate a judge’s ability to fit the punishment to the crime. ... Furthermore, since the law cannot anticipate every possible situation, in some infamous situations mandatory sentencing requirements can lead to punishments that are wildly disproportionate from the offense. The example most familiar to Harvard students is a Massachusetts law that adds at least two years to a drug sentence if the violation occurred within a 1,000-foot radius of a school property. Ten of Harvard’s houses count as within such an area, as does most of the City of Boston.

The editorial's logic undermines its conclusion that more reasonable mandatory minimums might serve a beneficial purpose. There will inevitably be circumstances under which a mandatory minimum will be widely understood to be unfair. Sentencing judges should always have the freedom to show mercy where mercy is deserved.

When we last checked in with marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal (background here), a federal judge had thrown out added money laundering and tax charges against him finding them based on prosecutorial vindictiveness. That left the Government with a few cultivation charges, on which he had already served his sentence.

Yesterday at a hearing, the Government announced it would stick with the case and re-try Ed even though he couldn't be sent to jail.

The Judge demanded to know who made this decision. It was newly appointed U.S. Attorney Scott Schools. I guess he's one of those U.S. Attorneys who just follow Administration marching orders.

Digby weighs in on this incredible waste of prosecutorial resources.

I tend to get a lot of e-mails from people who have found themselves on the wrong side of the justice system. This one I received today from a woman about to begin serving a 9 year federal sentence for selling 8 pain pills to an undercover operative (snitch) really typifies to me what is wrong with the war on drugs.

In 2 months I have to self-surrender to prison for 9 years, for Conspiracy to distribute drugs, near a school. (You cannot even see the school from my house..) I am a 46 year old single mother of 4, grandmother of 4. I have no prior record. I was a successful business owner and very active in my community for 20 years. I hurt my back, working hard to support my children. The doctor gave me prescribed pain medication and I got addicted. I was entrapped into a drug deal for buying and selling 8 pills, to a snitch. They raided my home and locked me up. I spent a horrible week detoxing in jail. The judge sent me to addiction treatment center, suggested by the prosecution, and I have over 1 year clean.

More....

Unbelievable. When will this insanity stop?

The Florida Department of Corrections says there are fewer and fewer places in Miami-Dade County where sex offenders can live because the county has some of the strongest restrictions against this kind of criminal in the country.

Florida's solution: house the convicted felons under a bridge that forms one part of the causeway. The Julia Tuttle Causeway, which links Miami to Miami Beach, offers no running water, no electricity and little protection from nasty weather. It's not an ideal solution, Department of Corrections Officials told CNN, but at least the state knows where the sex offenders are.

Then there's the rats and rodents that swarm over them.

For those of you who were wondering whether it's okay to smoke pot during Passover, the answer seems to be "no."

Every Sunday school student knows Pessah for its ban on food that rises, but a growing number of Jews are asking whether the holiday also precludes them from getting high.

....Following an inquiry by the Post, a spokeswoman for the party said the [Green Leaf Party] was sending out an e-mail to members warning them about hemp's possible kashrut problems.

"We are warning our people not to eat anything with hemp products if they follow the practice of kitniyot on Pessah," said party spokeswoman Michelle Levine. "We are considering announcing a ban on everything containing hemp just to be on the safe side. We are going with the rabbis on this. People should remove all cannabis and hemp from their homes."

Levine said one of the party's main arguments for cannabis legalization was biblical references to it.

Biblical references to pot?

DEA Administrator Karen Tandy testified before the House Committee on Appropriations regarding DEA's FY2008 budget request, describing DEA's significant "successes" over the past year, and of course, asking for more money.

Her proposed $2.4 billion budget represents an increase of $110 million over the FY2007 President's budget.

You can read her testimony here.

I guess the $205 million seized this week was just a drop in the bucket. $2.4 billion for the war on drugs? I bet there's a ton of pork in that amount.

[hat tip to Paul Armentano of NORML.}

The Drug Enforcement Administration was busy this week. The Bad Guys (a blog of U.S. News & World Reports) reports the DEA seized the most cocaine and most money ever.

So, what does $205 million look like?

What does 42,845 pounds of cocaine look like?