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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>No, I don’t think sentencing biases based on gender or race are acceptable, but the facts (as far as I’m concerned) are that both exist, and I disagree with both. Thanks, though, for the opportunity to include another snip from the ACLU link I provided:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><a href="http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/bittersweet-victory-patricia-spottedcrows-release">http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/bittersweet-victory-patricia-spottedcrows-release</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span lang=EN style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Spottedcrow’s incarceration also drew attention to Oklahoma’s increasingly crowded women’s prisons. <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2044089,00.html">Oklahoma imprisons women at a higher rate than any other state</a>, in a nation that incarcerates the most<a href="http://www.nccdglobal.org/sites/default/files/publication_pdf/factsheet-us-incarceration.pdf"> women</a> – in fact, the state’s female incarceration rate is almost twice the national average, leaving its prisons at capacity. Because women account for slightly less than 7 percent of the overall jail and prison population, the discourse on criminal justice reform is dominated by men’s incarceration rates, particularly men of color, who are egregiously overrepresented in jails and prisons. Yet, women are the <a href="http://www.wpaonline.org/institute/hardhit/index.htm">fastest-growing segment of the prison population</a>. Between 1977 and 2005, the female prison population grew by 757 percent. The war on drugs had a heavy hand in that increase—more than half of these women are incarcerated for nonviolent or victimless crimes such as drug possession, like Spottedcrow. As with our male prison population, <a href="http://www.aclu.org/womens-rights/facts-about-over-incarceration-women-united-states">women of color are significantly overrepresented</a> in the criminal justice system—Black women represent 30 percent of incarcerated women in the U.S, even though they represent 13 percent of the general female population</span><span lang=EN style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I wish I could provide you with a direct link to <i>Tulsa World’s</i> excellent series, but I don’t think it’s available anymore. However, you can find the individual articles at Oklahoma Watch by searching for “Women in Prison.” Here’s a taste for you, but please do take time to learn more by doing the search:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><a href="http://oklahomawatch.org/2011/01/30/oklahoma-laws-foster-incarceration-rates/">http://oklahomawatch.org/2011/01/30/oklahoma-laws-foster-incarceration-rates/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>The “hockey-stick” pattern is not unique to Oklahoma’s female prison population, or to the state. Between 1987 and 2007, the number of prisoners in the U.S. nearly tripled; in 2008, there were more than 2.3 million adults in prison, more by sheer number, as well as per capita rate, than any country in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>The same factors that criminologists point to as having contributed to the growth in prison populations are present in Oklahoma: decades of “tough on crime,” politics, the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, the war on drugs and a federally financed prison construction boom.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>What the graphs don’t explain, however, is why those factors have operated so severely on women. The nation’s female prison population grew by 832 percent between 1997 and 2007, while the male population grew only half as much. Nor do they explain why Oklahoma women, in particular, are so much more likely to go to prison. In 2004, the state imprisoned more than 10 times as many women per capita as Massachusetts or Rhode Island.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Overly simplistic views & solutions of the proximate issues that contribute to non-violent crime especially, and overly simplistic sentencing that lead to things like a 12-year sentence for a first time non-violent offense like selling $30 of weed cause problems that we can’t rightly just shrug our shoulders about and say “let them clean up their own mess.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Saundra<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Wayne Price [mailto:bear@moscow.com] <br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, August 13, 2013 12:10 PM<br><b>To:</b> Saundra Lund<br><b>Cc:</b> 'Moscow Vision 2020'<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Vision2020] It's Time for an Honest Conversation About Marijuana . . .<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>And Saundra, based on what you wrote, the "</span><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>insane sentencing of women", do you think there should be sentencing based on gender? And if it's OK to sentence those convicted of a crime based on gender, why not race? There is a reason that justice is depicted wearing a blindfold. Neither race, nor gender, nor religion, nor socio-economic status is a valid reason for a sentence to be varied one way or the other. The law should be the law for all.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>I personally think the original sentence she got was ridiculous, BUT, that was the sentencing she was given, by law, within the jurisdiction she lived.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>IF the people of Oklahoma don't like the laws, then THEY should change them, and vote accordingly when their elected representatives come up for re-election at the polls.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>And if you're wondering, I don't vote based on party affiliation, especially with the incumbents. I base my vote on what they have done, or not done while in office.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>A current example that was in todays paper are the new baseball fields that the tax payers are going to foot the 3 million dollar bill for. First, do I think we can use proper </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>baseball fields here in Moscow? Yes, I do. Can we afford them right now? No, I don't think so. What this action tells me as a tax payer, is that both the City Council, and the School Board give those fields a 3 million dollar priority, and that THE BEST use of 3 million dollars is for sports fields. That's fine, as I believe that is what they seriously think. I don't however think that THE BEST use of 3 million dollars, given the state of the school buildings here in Moscow. So, based on that, when the School Board comes looking for a rate increase, I'll vote no, and will not vote for the members of either the City Council nor the School Board that think the number one priority is sports fields over school buildings.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Wayne</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>