FACTS, a grassroots movement is made up of families whose loved ones are serving mandatory sentences ranging from 25 years to life for non-violent crimes. stream Kucinich audio

Run time 14:25

“Three-strike has sacrificed the lives of 4300 people. First we change the law…”

D. Kucinich

Donald E. DeNicola, a deputy attorney general for California, told the Supreme Court that the three-strikes law reflected the state's choice to move from a theory of punishment in which the goal was rehabilitating offenders, to one in which the chief goal was their "incapacitation."

In 1997, Dennis "flip-flop" Kucinich:

"voted in favor of a juvenile justice bill (HR 3) that would allow children as young as 13 to be tried in adult courts and sent to jail in adult prisons. He also introduced an amendment to another juvenile justice bill in 1999 (he ultimately voted against the bill, which passed) that called for expanding record keeping and broad dissemination of information about juvenile offenders. The amendment–which was strongly opposed by the ACLU and other human rights and civil liberty groups but supported by the Fraternal Order of Police–instituted statewide computer systems for compiling and sharing youth offenders’ records. The new system helped spread youth offenders’ records to federal and state officials including the FBI, the National Crime Information Center, courts, police and schools around the country–including schools to which offenders sought admission."

http://www.isreview.org/issues/32/kucinich.shtml

One problem with DJK is, while he talks a good talk, he's more of a politician than anything else.

Ralph Nader is a professional liberal pain-in-the-ass, and knows the ins and outs of law and business.

Peter Camejo is a longtime peace activist, in addition to being a fiscal manager (I think he's a fund manager), and a general critic of corporate capitalism.

DJK is a political player, not a grassroots organizer. He is responsive to any and all votes, not necessarily to a national base of progressives who demand specific goals. Despite his support of FACTS, which is a good group, People say he's spent too much time courting Hollywood, and ignoring the popular base. If he doesn't get it together to win working class votes in Ohio (his state) he can't win.