The criminal justice system in this country is a scandalous miscarriage of justice and misuse of resources. By failing to provide decent educational, recreational, and occupational opportunities to young people coming up-especially to minority and inner city youth-our society fails to address the root causes of street crime in poverty and alienation. Instead of more jobs and justice, our government is giving us more cops and jails.

Domestic social policy has been militarized. The U.S. spends $80 billion a year on police, jails, and the criminal justice system-more than twice as much as any other country in the world today spends on its military. The US now incarcerates 2 million people, more than any other country in the world. With 5% of the world's population, the US has 25% of the world's prisoners.

Prisoners are the new slaves in America. As many as 500,000 of these prisoners are working for as little as 20 cents an hour, some as low as 75 cents a day. They work for private corporations like Dell Computers, Boeing, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Jostens Caps and Gowns, and for the government-run Federal Prison Industries. Prisoners make clothing, electrical hardware, aircraft parts, computer circuit boards, mattresses, vehicle parts, Army helmets, body armor, tarps, ammunition cases, and many other things. They shrink wrap Microsoft software packages, telemarket, pack meat, and enter data. Prison labor in America is as cheap as labor under the most repressive governments in Asia, driving down the wages of Americans in the "free" labor market.

The criminal justice system is utterly racist-two-thirds of US prisoners are African American or Latino. One in three African American males between 18 and 30 is under arrest, in jail, or on parole. The penalties for crack cocaine-which is distributed by organized crime in inner city communities of color-are 100 times more severe than the penalties for powder cocaine-which is distributed by organized crime in suburban white communities. The use of cocaine is higher in the white suburbs, but 80% of the cocaine-related arrests are of people of color in the inner city.

The racism is exemplified by "racial profiling" where police officers search people simply for DWB (Driving While Black) and for simply being on the street. The racism is most exemplified by the many beatings and murders of black and Latino people by white police officers who usually face no consequences for these beatings and murders. Rodney King, Jonny Gammage, Amidou Diallo, Max Antoine, Patrick Dorismond, and Tyisha Miller are only a few of the better publicized of hundreds of cases in the last decade.

By failing to make any further public investment in the remediaton of social conditions, the US is forced to make increasing investment-both public and private-in physical security. Nearly 25% of workers today are in "guard labor"-police, armed forces, surveillance, private security, corrections, judiciary, workplace supervision, or arms production. Instead of producing goods and services of value, nearly one-fourth of the workforce is protecting the property of the haves from the have-nots.

Criminal justice has become Big Business-a Prison-Industrial Complex with a vested interest in filling the jails instead of ending crime. Private corporations are running public prisons under contract and some, like General Electric, are building prisons on spec in anticipation of further growth in the prison population.

Instead of a rehabilitative approach that provides educational and training programs that prepare convicts for successful re-entry to civilian society, prisons are becoming pools of cheap forced labor. In an effort to relieve the growing fiscal burdens of the prison system, government is renting the forced labor of convicts to corporations for exploitation in the production of goods and services in competition with labor on the outside. Slavery in a new form is returning to the US

The so-called "war on drugs" is not reducing drug abuse but it is filling the jails. The Prison-Industrial Complex uses its enormous political clout to exploit the legitimate concern about the violent struggles for control of the drug economy that flare up in our communities in order to call for still more jails, longer sentences, and less due process rights for the accused-which means less due process rights for all of us.

Over the last two decades, the federal criminal code has been revised several times in anti-crime and anti-terrorism bills to erode our basic civil liberties and political and legal rights and introduce elements of preventive detention, limits on habeas corpus, and other limitations of due process rights.

Meanwhile, white-collar crime in the form of embezzlement, fraud, and violations of labor and environmental standards costs this country far more than street crime in terms of property loss and violence. White-collar crime costs consumers an estimated $200 billion a year. Over 100,000 workers die every year from on-the-job accidents and occupational diseases. Corporate criminals buy the services of the best lawyers to protect them from prosecution while those accused of street crime are assigned overworked public defenders.

Now the legal standing rights of citizens to sue corporations and the government for compensation for fraud, negligence, and misuse of funds is threatened by tort reform that would put a cap on victim compensation and by other measures corporate lobbyists are pushing.

The Greens support the following policies:

• Abolish the Death Penalty--This penalty is barbaric, cannot be remedied if a mistaken conviction is later proven to be wrong, and has been racially biased in practice against people of color.
• New Trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Clemency for Leonard Peltier
• Mandatory Minimums for White Collar Crime--This is one area where mandatory minimum fines and jail sentences should be introduced given the judiciary's traditionally lenient sentencing of affluent, well-connected corporate criminals.
• Progressive Criminal Code Reform--We favor comprehensive progressive reforms of the criminal code to restore civil liberties and due process rights eroded by the Congress and the courts over the last two decades.
• Restore Legal Aid--Legal aid and public defender programs, never sufficiently funded, have been gutted over the last two decades. We favor restoring funding to levels that enable all people have equal access to legal remedies and protection.
• Rehabilitative Prisons and Alternatives to Incarceration--Federal standards and appropriations for the criminal justice system should be revised to insure that programs of rehabilitative education, training, and counseling are sufficient in size and scope to meet the needs of the prison population and that, where appropriate, nonviolent offenders can make amends for crimes through victim restitution, community service, supervised rehabilitative probation, and other alternatives to incarceration.
• Oppose Tort Reform that Caps Victims' Compensation--The threat of high victim compensation awards by civil juries is an important deterrent to corporate crime and should be maintained.

Community Control of the Police

End Police Brutality

All across America the families of victims of police violence are crying out for justice. Thousands upon thousands of young people of color are being terrorized daily and scores are dying needlessly. This carnage is the legacy of three decades of public polices which have prioritized police and prisons over jobs and justice.

The Greens call upon Congress and the President to recognize the epidemic of police brutality and take the following actions:

• The President should a National Commission to investigate the epidemic of police brutality and misconduct which is afflicting communities of color and poor communities across the nation and make recommendations.
• The Attorney General should issue a Justice Department directive to intensify "patterns and practices" investigations of police departments with high incidences of complaints of police brutality.
• The Attorney General should expedite Justice Department investigations of ongoing civil rights cases and appeals for re-opening cases which may not have received proper consideration.
• The House Judiciary Committee should convene hearings to take testimony on police brutality and misconduct.
• The Congress of the United States should pass legislation to fund data collection on police brutality.
• The Congress of the United States should pass legislation to provide for independent federal prosecutors to investigate and prosecute police officers charged with violating the civil rights of human beings, including causing their injury or death-The Jonny Gammage Law.

The Jonny Gammage Law: Federal Prosecution of Police Brutality

In far too many cases of police brutality and murder, officers of the law are not forcefully prosecuted because their prosecutors are the people they work with on a day to day basis in the local criminal justice system. To effectively hold police officers accountable to the law, federal prosecutors must be appointed who are not tied to the local "old boys networks" in the local justice system.

The Greens support federal legislation to establish a Jonny Gammage Law which would require:

• appointment of a federal prosecutor by the US Attorney General whenever a law officer is charged with violating the civil rights of a human being, including bodily injury or death;
• US Department of Justice investigation of whether prosecution is warranted for all charges of civil rights violations and brutality by police officers by credible public or private sources, such as Citizen Review Boards, Human Rights Commissions, and civil rights organizations;
• removal of jurisdiction over such cases from the local and state justice system, including the grand jury, to the US Department of Justice and the federal courts;
• the immediate suspension of an officer charged until their case is resolved;
• a permanent bar from an officer convicted under the Jonny Gammage Law from ever being employed as a law enforcement officer again;
• federal monitoring to insure fair treatment on the job of police officers who testify against other officers in these cases.

It is unrealistic to expect local and state prosecutors, judges, and police chiefs and officers to vigorously and unequivocally prosecute, judge, and testify against their comrades in law enforcement with whom they work every day and often associate with socially. The Jonny Gammage Law would end this conflict of interest and eliminate the influence of local politics.

The Jonny Gammage Law would break through "Blue Wall of Silence" that is used to intimidate good cops from testifying against rogue cops and results in the cover up of police and official misconduct and corruption. It would disrupt the comfort zone for rogue cop activity by taking away their luxury of being investigated by their own friends. It would protect police officers who believe in the oath they took to protect and serve from being intimidated by their peers and superiors with the "Blue Wall of Silence." It would provide support for the brave and true officers who come forth to testify and expose brutality and corruption. It would tell rogue officers that there will be consequences if they violate, maim, or kill citizens.

Just as it has required federal enforcement of civil rights that local and state justice systems refused to uphold, it also requires federal enforcement of the law against police brutality that local and state justice systems have failed to uphold.

The Jonny Gammage Law is not a panacea for ending police brutality. Effective Citizen Review Boards; elected Police Commissions; community policing; investing more public resources in jobs, education, and recreation instead of police and prisons; prohibiting racial profiling; and hiring more minority police officers are all part of the answer as well. But the Jonny Gammage Law is an indispensable part of the whole program.

The Jonny Gammage Law is named for Jonny Gammage Jr., a young black man who was murdered by five white police officers outside Pittsburgh on October 12, 1995. Gammage was killed during a routine traffic stop, allegedly for driving erratically but likely for "driving while black" at night in the white suburb of Brentwood. He was handcuffed, placed on the pavement, and only then officers beat him with at least 20 blows by nightsticks, a metal flashlight, and a leather blackjack. Bruises were found all over his head. Then the officers pressed down hard on him against the pavement with their knees, causing hemorrhages on his back and preventing his breathing. His face was pushed to the pavement, flattening his nose against his face as blood and mucous filled his throat and mouth. The officers smothered him until he was killed by asphyxiation. His last words to the cops as he begged for his life were, "I'm only 31." The paramedics had to yell at the officers to get off of Gammage when they tried to revive him.

None of the five police officers responsible were convicted of any crime in this killing. The case received national attention because Gammage's cousin was Pittsburgh Steeler defensive tackle, Ray Seals. Seals' father and Gammage's uncle, Tommie Seals, was a member of the Syracuse police force. Jonny Gammage had no criminal record and was known in Syracuse as a positive and generous member of the community.

The inquest jury recommended that all five officers face murder charges. But the prosecutor charged only three of the officers with the lessor charge of involuntary manslaughter. The first trial against two officers ended in a mistrial when the county coroner blurted out improper testimony. The case was thrown out because-of all things-these two officers were "singled out" while two other officers were not charged at all. The second trial of these two officers ended in a hung jury when the sole African American juror refused to vote for acquittal. The District Attorney decided not to pursue a third prosecution of these two officers. The third officer charged was acquitted by an all-white jury and subsequently promoted by his Brentwood PA police department.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request after the trials, activists were able to obtain tape recordings of two phone conversations between the prosecuting District Attorney and the Brentwood Chief of Police in which the prosecutor and police chief strategized on how to get the officers out of the charges they faced. But despite this evidence of misconduct, Clinton's Justice Department declined to pursue a criminal case against the officers under federal civil rights laws.

The murder of Jonny Gammage by police officers is similar to scores of cases around the country. The problem has become epidemic in recent years. There ought to be a law to make sure police brutality and killer cops are prosecuted. That law is the Jonny Gammage Law.

The movement for enactment of the Jonny Gammage Law was initiated by activists in Syracuse NY and has been taken up by around the country by movements against police brutality and for police accountability. The Jonny Gammage Law was one of the four demands of the National Emergency March for Justice Against Police Brutality in Washington DC, April 3, 1999, endorsed by Amnesty International, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Center for Constitutional Rights, Greens/Green Party USA, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, National Action Network, National Black Police Association, National Coalition for Police Accountability, National Conference of Black Lawyers, National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, National Lawyers Guild, Racial Justice Working Group of the National Council of Churches, Southern Organizing Committee for Social and Economic Justice, Women for Justice, and many other organizations.

It is now time to put the Jonny Gammage Law onto the congressional and presidential agenda. We call upon Green federal candidates to champion the Jonny Gammage Law. Justice for Jonny did not come from the justice system. But it will do justice to the memory of Jonny Gammage and all the other victims of police brutality and murder when the Jonny Gammage Law is enacted.

End the War on Drugs: Harm Reduction Policies

Greens view drug usage as a civil liberties, medical, and social issue, not a criminal justice issue. The war on drugs has become a war against the people, not drug abuse, especially against the youth in poor communities of color.

The Greens call for:

• Drug Treatment on Demand--Drug abuse is a health problem, not a criminal problem. We support drug abuse counseling and treatment on demand. State and federal government should treat drug abuse, including alcoholism, as a medical issue instead of as a crime. Immediate treatment for addicts (including tobacco addicts) should be available on request, as should social renovation and self-help programs that seek to improve abusers' relationships to themselves and to society. Most people in jail today are nonviolent drug offenders. They need drug treatment programs, not jail time for their drug habits. However, drug treatment is not available to most drug abusers due to cost and the limited number of places in subsidized programs. Free access to drug treatment should be included as part of a national health plan providing free medical care for all.
• Legalize Medical Marijuana--We support legalization of medical marijuana and legal recognition of not-for-profit buyers' clubs.
• Decriminalize Marijuana Possession--We support decriminalization of recreational marijuana and its possession, use, transportation and cultivation. Imprisoning people for using a substance less harmful than legalized drugs like alcohol and tobacco is the real crime.
• Decriminalize Controlled Substances--We support decriminalization of all controlled substances, i.e., no arrests for personal use amounts of any controlled substance.
• Harm Reduction Policies--We support harm reduction based drug policies, with the degree of control of a given substance commensurate with the amount and type of harm it can cause.
• Support Needle Exchange Programs--We support both roving and stationary publicly funded needle exchanges as an effective harm reduction and anti-AIDS public health measure.
• Stop Using the Drug War to Criminalize Whole Communities--We oppose drug and police policies that disproportionately and adversely affect the poor, communities of color, and youth.
• Release Nonviolent Drug Offenders--We call for the immediate release of all nonviolent drug war prisoners.