Candidates' positions are categorized as Pro (Yes), Con (No), Not Clearly Pro or Con, or None Found. Candidates who have changed their positions are listed as Now their most recent position.
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by party; black & white photos indicate candidates who have withdrawn or who no longer meet our criteria.)
Chuck Baldwin, Founder and Minister of the Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, FL, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Mary Starrett, in an Aug. 18 2008 email to ProCon.org:
"Determinations of appropriate punishment should be made at the state and local level." Aug. 18, 2008 Chuck Baldwin
Cynthia McKinney, former US House Representative (D-GA), stated in a Jan. 8, 2008 article titled "Reconstruction Renaissance: An Interview with Cynthia McKinney" on the All Things Cynthia McKinney website:
"U.S. prosecution of 'the drug war' is pitiful. The victims are thrown into prisons, while the wealthy users and the big drug dealers get off scot-free. The rich who own stock in the prison-industrial complex, or the corporations that hire prison labor, are reaping hefty sums while everyone else is impoverished or families are ripped apart by imprisonment.This situation is intolerable and must be turned around! We need money for detoxification, rehabilitation, education -- not incarceration." Jan. 8, 2008 Cynthia McKinney
Ralph Nader, attorney, author, and political activist, in a Mar. 15, 2001 Nader.org article titled "The Tough on Crime Party," stated:
"Clearly, there needs to be a saner, fairer, better administered and less costly criminal justice system focused on treatment and rehabilitation and prevention. Filling more expensive taxpayer-financed prisons with drug users and other non-violent offenders serves no one but the politicians who want to posture as 'tough on crime' while doing nothing to reduce root causes of crime." Mar. 15, 2001 Ralph Nader
Barack Obama, US Senator (D-IL), stated in an article titled "Civil Rights" on his official candidate website (accessed July 3, 2008):
"Obama will give first-time, non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior." July 3, 2008 Barack Obama
INACTIVE CANDIDATES
(Candidates who have withdrawn or who no longer meet our criteria appear
below in black and white and in alphabetical order by party.)