Incomplete Sentence
Carlson, Tucker
Incomplete Sentence by Tucker Carlson Earlier this month, A little-known Washington advocacy group called the Sentencing Project released a report with an unassuming title: "Young Black Americans...
...The general political direction of the country has been moving to the right in recent years," he declares, by way of explaining why so many black men are behind bars, "and I think it's going in a more racist direction, in a direction that says, 'We're not very concerned about people in inner-city areas.'" It's a theme Mauer has been exploring since his days as a prison-reform worker at the American Friends Service Committee in the mid-1970s...
...Sorry, this week's quota has been met...
...Mission accomplished...
...Coming as it did less than 24 hours after the verdict in the O.J...
...It's been "a terrific response," he said...
...Simpson trial, the report dovetailed perfectly with the countless editorials and news stories being pasted together by frantic editors looking for something to say about race and justice...
...The 30-page study began with a simple but disturbing claim: "Almost one in three (32.2 percent) young black men in the age group 20-29 is under criminal justice supervision on any given day-in prison or jail, on probation or parole...
...I have better things to do than keep talking to you...
...In other words, yes...
...How does a group like this find itself described in the press simply as a "non-profit organization...
...In another section of the same report, Sentencing Project staffers scoff at the idea of "setting bond to assure the safety of an alleged spouse abuse victim...
...In his newest report, Mauer takes the notion a step further, implying that a racist conspiracy to put more blacks in prison is afoot among lawmakers...
...The next morning, the Sentencing Project's study found its way into nearly every paper and news broadcast in America...
...And so multiculturalism reaches its inevitable conclusion: race-norming for felons...
...Although many of the key data in the study were rough estimates, hardly anybody seemed to question the Sentencing Project's numbers, or the conclusion it drew from them...
...Asked the same question again later, Mauer explodes: "I'm not going to answer your question...
...Who foots the bill for all this "technical assistance...
...Despite the Reverend's fears, virtually no one came out in favor of blaming "the children"-that is, the criminals whose crimes have landed them in state custody...
...But, true to his role, he doesn't let exhaustion dim his intensity...
...Over the past several years, the Sentencing Project has advised officials in places like New York's Dutchess County and New Jersey's Essex County on issues related to criminal justice...
...Incomplete Sentence by Tucker Carlson Earlier this month, A little-known Washington advocacy group called the Sentencing Project released a report with an unassuming title: "Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System...
...The most interesting question, however, is not, Where does the Sentencing Project get its money...
...Another rapist of color...
...Mauer himself is the most antiquated of the exhibits...
...Back at the Sentencing Project's headquarters in a seedy part of downtown Washington, Marc Mauer, the group's assistant director and the primary author of its latest report, appeared pleased with the press coverage...
...Officials at the Sentencing Project are curiously touchy about the question...
...If this were basically white youth in this dilemma or sentenced at this level," Jackson said, "we would assume something is wrong with the system, not something wrong with the children...
...Rather than 'overriding' the judge's initial sentence," counsels the report, "the conditional release process often seems to uncover information that may not have been known or predictable prior to sentencing...
...They also live in neighborhoods that are targeted for drug arrests...
...but, Where did it get its moderate reputation...
...Reaction was swift and almost perfectly uniform...
...Conservative radio host Armstrong Williams agreed, accusing bigoted cops of singling out black kids, and exhorting his listeners to "change this racist system...
...Asked if his organization receives federal funds, Marc Mauer claims it does not...
...At a news conference, Jesse Jackson worked himself into a rhyming frenzy over the news, declaring the government's practice of sending so many black men away a "genocidal formula...
...Or, apparently, about much else...
...The collar of his oxford shirt is soiled...
...Loss of the manufacturing economy," says Mauer, firmly- that's what's behind the crime problem...
...Imagine the possibilities: Too many blacks getting arrested for car theft...
...Never mind that the theory that unemployment causes crime has been debunked by just about every reputable researcher who has considered it...
...We're viewed as a credible source...
...In a report to administrators in Ulster County, New York, for instance, the Sentencing Project suggests ways to let criminals out of jail early without rousing the suspicions of local judges or the public...
...Decriminalize it...
...When the subject turns to race, Mauer really gets going...
...The Sentencing Project has indeed hitched itself to the federal gravy train, though it's obviously considered bad form to admit it...
...It may sound kooky, but dozens of state and local governments don't think so...
...Mauer is an aging radical straight from Central Casting...
...Talking with Mauer, or his boss, Project director Malcolm Young, is like going back in time, to a period when experts told us there really was no such thing as a criminal in America, only misguided victims of capitalist oppression...
...Mauer sticks to the old canard with the doggedness of a flat-earther...
...Instead, the System took all the heat...
...Instead, they recommend that judges not set bail at all, and find "means other than incarceration for providing community safety...
...Some of the recommendations the Project has come up with are as dated as the group's ideology...
...Release proposals which highlight these changes may alter the court and community perception" of the need to send an offender to jail...
...For example, a mental disability not identified at sentencing, a new job opening, or a change in the defendant's attitude...
...In cases where a criminal absolutely must fork over money to the state, the Sentencing Project endorses a socialist payment plan in which the fine imposed would be "proportional to the ability of an offender to pay...
...Even the group's offices feel like the Museum of Discredited Ideas, complete with a musty smell and faded clippings espousing failed lefty causes taped to the walls...
...Many young black men are engaged in drug dealing as a form of moonlighting to supplement low-wage jobs," explained the New York Times in an editorial...
...For the answer, just ask Marc Mauer...
...Memo to crack dealers: location, location, location...
...Luckily, the Sentencing Project has a solution: "Legislatures should be required," writes Mauer, "to prepare racial/ethnic impact statements for any sentencing policy legislation and to consider any adverse or unanticipated consequences that would affect minorities disproportionately...
...The Project regularly receives grants from the National Institute of Corrections, one of the flabbier arms of the Justice Department...
...Miffed by questions about how the Sentencing Project operates, Mauer responds, "I have a stack of news clippings this high from reporters covering our report, and not a single one of them asked about our funding sources...
...he looks like he hasn't slept in a week...
Vol. 1 • October 1995 • No. 6
