Sen. Jim Webb hosts drug war panel today

by Matt Kelley · 2008-10-15 05:40:00 UTC
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From Sentencing Law & Policy we learn that Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) is holding a symposium today at George Mason University to examine, among other things, the "punitive vs. public health responses to drug abuse."

Webb has been a consistent critic of the war on drugs and the U.S. recipe of mass incarceration. Sentencing Law blogger Doug Berman, a professor at Ohio State University, writes:

As regular readers know, I have frequently praised Senator Jim Webb for being one of the few national politicians giving serious (and much-needed) attention to mass incarceration and criminal justice policies connected to the "war on drugs." ... I continue to hope that the next president might try a different kind of surge in the drug war — a surge focused on public health realities rather than criminal justice rhetoric.  I also hope that Senator Webb can and will be committed to leading a new battalion of troops in this seemingly never-ending war.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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