Senator Cory Booker, as usual, did an exceptional job in describing the inequity in the past laws of the USA in sentencing people of color. He stated there was a strong disparity in the way Caucasians were sentenced and that of people of color. From his statement last night I take it that it is not only a social issue but at the time of the sentence, it was an economic issue.
He needs to write a grant and attach it to a Senate bill, any Senate bill would be honored to carry it. The grant needs to ask PhD level scientists, both social and mathematical, to find a way to move forward with changing the outcomes of the adversely affected prisoners. In other words, it might be a math equation and it might not, but, my guess is it will be.
MIT would have such people when it comes to deriving a far easier and faster method of identifying adversely affected populations of prisoners. I am assuming it is not just those in prison under the "Three Strikes and In" laws, but, also others that would fall under that paradigm.
Economics can be quantified. Ages, sentence length and year of incarceration for the first offense (the first offense is when the clock started to run on their life sentence) can be averaged. If MIT can quantify the difference between the Caucasian population of prisoners and that of those of color there can be a quick way to actually quantify the injustice and how best to bring about a far fairer sentence and quite possibly prisoner release.
I do believe once such determinations can be made the prisoners first be moved off the life sentence and given a chance to decompress and prepare for release. That period of preparedness would fall to the warden who knows the inmate and his/her prison record.
I wish Senator Booker the best. As I said when he first announced his candidacy, he is a really incredible person, a unique personality with unique insight and he never disappoints.
