“Justice demands this result.” That’s what Ketanji Brown Jackson said in 2011 after the U.S. Sentencing Commission knocked as much as three years off the prison terms of crack-cocaine convicts. As vice chair of the commission, Jackson believed the nation’s drug laws were overly harsh and especially “unfair” to blacks. A month earlier, Jackson had shrugged off Justice Department warnings that the decision—which made more than 12,000 federal crack inmates eligible for early release—could flood the streets with dangerous criminals who would likely reoffend. “[B]y keeping them in longer, it doesn’t seem to make a difference with regard to whether or not they recidivate,” Jackson reasoned in a June 2011 commission hearing in Washington, according to transcripts reviewed by RealClearInvestigations. Then-U.S. Attorney Stephanie Rose objected: “It does protect the safety of the public, though, when they’re not present to recidivate.” Unpersuaded, Jackson countered: “But the amount of time in jail …
In Depth: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Soft Spot for Drug Dealers, Pedophiles and Terrorists
April 4, 2022
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