Judge Compares Drug War to Slavery, Bravely Refuses to Put Convicted Drug Felon in PrisonBy Justin Gardner In the face of inaction, one New York judge is stepping outside the box to breathe life into a much-needed national debate. Judge Frederick Block of the Federal District Court chose not to send a woman to prison who was convicted of felony drug charges, instead sentencing her to probation. Block said that the plethora of collateral consequences that people face after being convictedamounting to 50,000 federal and state statutesserve no useful function other than to further punish criminal defendants after they have completed their court-imposed sentences. In other words, people like Chevelle Nesbeth, who was arrested at Kennedy International Airport after 600 grams of cocaine were found in her luggage, face enough punishment through collateral consequences. There is no reason to send this nonviolent offender to jail. According to the New York Times: He noted that the inability to obtain housing and employment stemming from a conviction often results in further disastrous consequences, such as losing child custody or going homeless, and leads to many ex-convicts becoming recidivists and restarting the criminal cycle. Block is doing what someone called a judge is supposed to do by applying factual information and rationality to the situation. Instead of going to prison for 33-41 months, Nesbethwho said that friends gave her the suitcase and she was unaware of the contentswas sentenced by Block to one year of probation, to include six months of home confinement and 100 hours of community service. While the larger issue of the unjust War on Drugs remains, it is heartening to see that some within the system understand the draconian nature of the existing criminal justice system. And theyre doing something about it. Judge Blocks extraordinary act comes just after U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher admitted that he used medical cannabis to treat his arthritis. It is increasingly obvious that the American governments approach to drugs, whether medicinal or not, is completely irrational and greatly contributes to mass incarceration. In his 42-page opinion which also called for reform, Block quoted legal scholar Michelle Alexander, who authored The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. From the book: Today a criminal freed from prison has scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a freed slave or a black person living free in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow. Blocks groundbreaking opinion was hailed by Gabriel J. Chin, a professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, as the most careful and thorough judicial examination of collateral consequences in sentencing. Its going to generate debate on a critical issue in the criminal justice system the ability of people convicted of crimes to get on with their lives, said Chin, whom Block also quoted in his opinion. Naturally, the U.S. attorneys office is intent on perpetuating the status quo of swelling jails with nonviolent drug offenders. They insist that collateral consequences are meant to promote public safety, by limiting an individuals access to certain jobs or sensitive areas, and to ensure that government resources are being spent on those who obey the law. When the law is unjust and the punishment unwarranted, it is the duty of free thinkers to resist. Lets hope that Frederick Block, along with countless others bravely pushing back against state tyranny, can begin to undo the burden of mass incarceration. Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. I saw that the old my friend put the coke in the suitcase trick. Prisons drain society, community service supports society. A judge with common sense, what a novel concept. Smart judge The war on drugs is hugely successful putting some woman away for a nonviolent crime (sarc). Wow. The for-profit policing and prison industry isnt going to like this. Luke 3: The ideal thus held aloft by both religion and science, of the present time, is pure selfishness. Self-preservation is regarded as the First Law of Life. The result is Materialism in the strictest and broadest sense, and this has paralyzed where it has not utterly destroyed, all higher ideals. What are the results? We have a pure materialism. Man for himself, while the Law teaches us to give life and thereby win it. 333 