Federal Prosecutions Hit Record High in Fiscal 2009
OPS_admin | Dec 22, 2009 | Comments 0
Federal prosecutions soared in the 2009 fiscal year, reaching a record high of 169,612.
The 9 percent increase over the previous year was driven by cases filed against immigration violators, according to Justice Department data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Immigration prosecutions shot up 15.7 percent, and amounted to more than half of all criminal cases brought by the federal government.
Meanwhile, drug, weapons and white-collar cases were up only slightly or declined.
Experts told The New York Times the jump stems from efforts during the Bush administration to step up immigration enforcement and expedite prosecutions. In addition to increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, the Bush administration launched Operation Streamline, which promoted mass processing of plea deals in immigrant cases. The Obama administration has continued the policy. The Obama administration was in power for more than two-thirds of fiscal 2009.
Immigration cases are disposed of in an average of two days, and they are rarely turned down by prosecutors. White-collar cases typically linger for about 460 days, and prosecutors reject about half those referred to them by law enforcement agencies.
Full Story Federal Prosecutions Hit Record High in Fiscal 2009 – Main Justice.
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If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
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