Former NYPD Commish Now Says System Is Broken

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik is out of prison and now has a new perspective on the criminal justice system. The “lock them up and throw away the key” top cop now thinks that mandatory minimum prison sentences are a bad idea.

“These young men, they come into the prison system. First-time, non-violent offense, a low-level drug offense: The system is supposed to help them. Not destroy them,”

Kerik served time on tax fraud and false statement charges. While he was police commissioner he threw hundreds of low level drug offenders in the slammer. But now Kerik admits to NBC’s Matt Laurer that he didn’t even know how much 5 grams of cocaine really was.

Kerik criticized the federal mandatory minimum system for putting people away for 10 years for 5 grams of cocaine, handing NBC’s Matt Lauer a nickel.

“When I came into the system, I didn’t realize it’s a nickel. Hold it. Do you feel the weight of it? Feel it?” Kerik said. “I had no idea that for 5 grams of cocaine, which is what that nickel weighs, you could be sentenced to 10 years in prison. … That’s insane.

By: Mark Quincy Adams

A proud 'pragmatic progressive' Mark Quincy Adams has been a political
talk show host and prolific pontificator since 1992. Find him on Facebook and Twitter @politicalglutton