Word: reformations
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...there is a movement afoot in the U.S., in the legislatures of New York State, California and Massachusetts, to reconsider our overly punitive drug laws. Recently, Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Specter proposed that Congress create a national commission, not unlike Portugal's, to deal with prison reform and overhaul drug-sentencing policy. As Webb noted, the U.S. is home to 5% of the global population but 25% of its prisoners...
...rida plan provides hardware like helicopters and intelligence technology. But only a third of the cash is directed at the more important software of police reform. It is police officers, not soldiers, who staff the kind of investigative bodies that bring down organized crime. Says Payan: "This effort is doomed to fail if it's not accompanied by effective [Mexican] cops, and Washington isn't treating that as a large enough piece of the puzzle yet." Reyes agrees. "The U.S. needs to assure that police forces along the border are sufficiently robust," he says, "precisely so they...
Juárez civic leaders like Vargas have long called for the kind of Mexican police and judicial reform that both countries are only now starting to make a priority. Meanwhile, Americans like El Paso County sheriff Richard Wiles want the U.S. to renew the assault-weapons ban that George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress allowed to expire in 2004. If it doesn't, they fear, the few Black Hawk helicopters that Washington ships to Mexico's antidrug warriors won't make up for the thousands of AK-47 rifles and even rocket-propelled grenades pouring into the hands...
American officials say privately they're waiting to see whether reform programs like that of Reyes are serious and whether other Mexican mayors and governors will finally join the effort. Juárez's mayor, who is shadowed by six assault-rifle-toting bodyguards, has ousted half his old police force through drug tests, polygraphs and other "confidence exams." Under his pact with Calderón, Reyes now has to recruit more than 2,000 new cops, who, he says, will be among Mexico's best paid and educated. (Aside from a starting annual salary of $9,000 - twice the usual...
...city has long been a Mexican forerunner: it was the site of the Mexican Revolution's first military victory, the nation's first maquiladoras and the first opposition mayor during the PRI's long rule. Can it now take a lead in the drug wars by pioneering police reform? "This is our opportunity," says Rojas, who is thinking of returning to Juárez soon. "I think we're taking the right road...