alternatives to detention Archives

Smith Statement on Justice Department Decision to End Use of Private Prisons

August 22, 2016

Washington D.C. – Congressman Adam Smith released the following statement in response to the Justice Department announcement that it plans to phase out the use of private prisons: “I applaud the Justice Department’s decision to end its use of private prisons. The recent Justice Department Inspector General findings highlights the safety and efficiency problems common … READ MORE

Op-Ed: Jailing Immigrants Is Inhumane, Costly and Unnecessary

March 30, 2015

Setting detention goals for immigrants is a waste of taxpayer dollars THE Northwest Detention Center is a large, privately operated detention facility in the Tacoma Tideflats that has been in the news a lot this past year. Despite multiple hunger strikes, public protests and the introduction of federal legislation to address issues at the … READ MORE

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Well, you blocked impeachment and have yet to DO ANYTHING to stop him. Talk is cheap and it's all you have to show.

YOU NEED TO IMPEACH THAT DEMENTED CRAZED FOOL. You know he is a danger to our country. YOU KNOW THAT HE IS IN THE POCKET OF PUTIN and gives his love to KIM while trashing our allies... YOU NEED TO IMPEACH HIM. This Iran thing is completely make-believe to make the war contractors rich. That's it. IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH!!!!

It's just too bad we didn't have any kind of agreement in place that would give us the power to exert pressure without, you know, having to use military force. Folks, I know it's easy to criticize them for being reluctant to charge into impeachment. I get it. The Democrats REALLY don't like leading the charge. They like letting citizens lead the charge and follow with the cavalry when things get dicey. It's not cowardice, precisely, though I can see how it can look that way. Democrats really do like to follow the trends rather than going out on a limb themselves. They look for a certain popular threshold before taking what might be seen as controversial stances. I personally think this shows a real interest in representing actual people, but mileage may vary. It's one thing to hold your ideals aloft and run ahead and hope everyone follows you. You get those most convinced of your cause, but you don't get many of the others to join in... unless you're really charismatic, perhaps. As a party, the Democrats are a massive coalition of rather widely disparate groups of citizens with utterly different agendas who happen to tolerate, if not always approve of, each other's agendas. It's through the Democratic Party that classically defined 'feminists' shore up LGBTQ groups, and where LGBTQ groups give aid and comfort to people beset by racism. All without directly investing in everyone else's business. Toss environmentalists in there and you've got a whole different set of priorities. Add animal rights activists, or abortion advocates, and you've got even more threads running back and forth. I find we loosely use the term "ally" these days, but I'm not a fan of it. Not the way it's being used. An ally, technically speaking, is someone engaged in a reciprocal arrangement of mutual aid with another entity. If your ally is attacked, you have an obligation to defend them. But that obligation is mutual. The Democratic Party, whether we like it or not, is the meat and gristle of those alliances. They're where these disparate groups come together. For the most part, the only disparate parties in the Republicans involve those who think money is the most important thing in the universe and those who think it's their faith. Nearly all the conflicts in that side of things stem from those differences. As long as they can figure out how to get the people who like money to stand behind those who claim to love God, they're golden. The schism there is how much of an impact certain behaviors have on commercial entities. They really want nothing to do with obvious racism, sexism, or homophobia because it's like tripping across a minefield. They can't possibly win coming down on the other side of that argument. Not that we're particularly good at exploiting it, but Democrats aren't really in that business. They're really more about responding to the demands of the people than telling them what those demands should be. I know that's not the message sent by the right wing, but if not for projection, I think they'd have a lot less to say.

Your comments on Iran are spot on. His policies or lack of them reinforces his “illegitimacy “ as President. Trump broke what stability we had with Iran. The tragedy is that he is using a crisis of his own making to deflect from his political and legal problems.

So Adam, you support Iran having NUCLEAR WEAPONS? Who's side are you on? You think it's OK to shoot down our drone over international water? You are a traitor who's only goal is to overthrow the legitimate President of the United States!

You mean like handing them Billions of $$$ on the tarmac of some airfield, in the middle of the night? oh and all in cash?

No more "military actions". We haven't finished all the fires we've started around the world. Just left them smoldering....ready to break into flame......while the innocent civilians suffer.

I have yet see any proof Ship owner said hit by projectile. The drone always hasa gps watermark on the video feed .

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You have promised everything under the sun for their vote but have delivered little to them ! Now you want to give reparations when there is not one slave alive today - and have no idea who are actually descendants of actual slaves !!!! Trying to buy votes of people you don’t really care about !!!!

About friggin' time

wheres the justice in that? Nobody from past generations were paid, and since this is a one time thing i assume, no future generations will either, even though they too are affected. If there ever are reparations, they can never go to an ind individual directly, rather they should fund social programs in areas still feeling the impact of slavery to try to repair the damage.

More must be done to ensure an equitable future with opportunity for every American - no matter their racial or ethnic background.

I disagree with this wholeheartedly except if there was a person still around after 150 yrs. who actually was a slave then ok for that person but for all in general, doesn't make much sense to me. Many of us grew up in very poor areas and families but we all made it with hard work, often a lot harder than the avg. person but we did it and these generations have it so much easier than we did. and for sure than their ancesters did. so I'm sorry to disagree. BTW, we're remembering Nov. elections.

Thanks, Adam. Reparations would be one step towards the racial healing that America needs.

I totally agree Adam with ONE stipulation... The receiver must have been a slave or a child of a slave. What about all the Irish that were brought here as slaves?

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Smith Statement on Justice Department Decision to End Use of Private Prisons

Op-Ed: Jailing Immigrants Is Inhumane, Costly and Unnecessary

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