Réforme des prisons: Obama va-t-il libérer un autre Willie Horton?

C'est aujourd'hui que sera complétée la libération de 6000 prisonniers de prisons fédérales. Le Président croit agir pour le bien commun ainsi que pour épargner aux contribuables des dépenses importantes. Des républicains et des démocrates appuient son initiative. L'ombre au tableau? Je vous laisse cette vieille pub de la campagne électorale qui opposait Mike Dukakis à George Bush père. Un autre Willie Horton?

 

 "But the mass release set to be completed Monday will test the resolve of this new consensus heading into an election year. The infamous Willie Horton ad is on the minds of activists on both sides: They haven’t forgotten how the grainy, black-and-white mug shot of a bearded black man helped sink Michael Dukakis’s 1988 presidential campaign. As Massachusetts governor, “he allowed first degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison,” says a narrator, before describing how Horton kidnapped a couple and raped the woman while out on furlough.

The people released between Friday and Monday are not first degree murderers – they’re low-level drug offenders, and almost a third are immigrants just headed for a different type of pre-deportation detention -- but opponents of sentencing reform are already looking for the next Horton.

“We’re fooling the public when we tell them we’re releasing nonviolent drug offenders,” said Steven Cook, head of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, who says downward trends in crime are thanks to the current system of tough sentences. Advocates are on guard, but hope their momentum is irreversible."

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/obama-prisoner-release-215431