Senator Jim Webb introduces legislation to reform America's prisons
O n March 26, 2009, U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia) introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009. This legislative act is designed to create a blue-ribbon national commission that will undertake an 18-month review of all aspects of America’s criminal justice system in order to restructure the entire system. Webb envisions that the Commission would be a bipartisan effort. The legislation recommends that the Commission seek policy changes that would decrease prison violence, improve treatment of the mentally ill, and improve responses to international & domestic criminal activity by cartels & gangs, and other major reforms. The necessity for restructuring the system is dire. With a population of 307 million the United States has 5% of the world’s population; however, the U.S. houses 25% of the world’s reported prison population. Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than are in mental health hospitals. Senator Webb has presented his resear