India Commits A Big No-No-- Holds Elites Responsible For Something; West Virginia, On The Other Hand...

Personal responsibility is a cornerstone of conservative thinking, right? Well, yes-- for anyone not in the club. If you're part of the 1% the laws and mores of society dictate that you will almost never be held responsible for anything you do. That's just the way it works. And we're asked to suck it up. While demonstrators were marching in Moscow and New York City yesterday, protesting the one percenters stealing democracy in Russia and the U.S., India was actually doing something extraordinary: holding elites to account.

Six directors of a private hospital in Calcutta have appeared in court over a fire on Friday which killed 90 people.

The six face charges of culpable homicide and were refused bail. Officials have suggested the hospital did not meet safety regulations.

Most of the dead were patients trapped in the building, with many suffocated by smoke.

The fire is thought to have started in the hospital basement, where flammable materials were stored.

...Authorities had warned the hospital over inadequate safety standards in the hospital's basement in September, but no action was taken, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told AP.

The license of the six-storey hospital, considered one of Calcutta's most prestigious, had been cancelled, Ms Banerjee said.

She has said those responsible will receive the harshest punishment.

The hospital also did not have adequate firefighting equipment, despite being ordered to upgrade six months ago, Calcutta Joint Police Commissioner Damyani Sen told AP.

Here's what the David Uhlman, Bush's chief of the environmental crimes section at the Justice Department from 2000 to 2007, wrote in the NY Times yesterday about a similar case to the Calcutta one-- in West Virginia. Although in West Virginia there will be no justice, no personal responsibility whatsoever.

Early on April 5, 2010, in the heart of West Virginia coal country, a huge explosion killed 29 workers at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine. Later that day, President Obama directed Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis to conduct “the most thorough and comprehensive investigation possible” and to work with the Justice Department to investigate any criminal violations.

On Tuesday, the Labor Department issued a 972-page report on the calamity-- the nation’s worst mining disaster in 40 years. It concluded that Massey’s “unlawful policies and practices” were the “root cause of this tragedy.” It identified over 300 violations of the Mine Safety and Health Act, including nine flagrant violations that contributed to the explosion.

The scathing findings probably came as no surprise in West Virginia, where Massey had a well-earned reputation for putting miners at risk, breaking unions and polluting the environment.

However, what jumped off the pages for me, as a former federal prosecutor, was the revelation that Massey had kept two sets of books at the mine: one for internal use, which recorded hazards, and a second for Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors, which did not. In addition, Massey routinely gave its facilities advance notice of inspections, which is a crime under federal law, and intimidated its workers so that they would not report safety and health violations.

Based on the Labor Department’s investigation, the Justice Department could have criminally prosecuted Massey under the Mine Safety and Health Act for the violations that caused the explosion. Prosecutors also could have charged the company with conspiracy and obstruction of justice for the ways it thwarted regulation.

Instead, on the same day the devastating report was released, the Justice Department announced that it would not criminally prosecute Massey. The news release issued by the United States attorney misleadingly described its nonprosecution agreement with Massey’s new owners as “the largest ever criminal resolution in a mining investigation.”

Let’s be clear: this is not a criminal resolution. Massey will not be charged with any crimes and will not plead guilty before a federal judge. Nor will there be a sentencing hearing where Massey apologizes to the families of the victims and is punished for its crimes.

The deal with Massey continues a disturbing trend whereby corporations can avoid criminal prosecution by entering deferred prosecution or nonprosecution agreements. Often the terms of these agreements are no better than what could have been achieved in a criminal case; worse, they create the appearance that justice can be bought.

Moreover, there is less to this settlement than meets the eye. The $209 million settlement requires payment of $35 million in previously assessed administrative penalties, but that sum includes just $10.8 million for the Upper Big Branch Mine tragedy. The remaining $174 million is likely to be tax deductible, including $80 million for investments in safety and infrastructure at Massey mines and an additional $48 million to establish a mine health and safety trust fund.

Even the most laudable aspect of the deal-- the agreement to pay $46.5 million in restitution to the families of the victims-- is illusory. Massey already had agreed to pay $16.5 million to settle lawsuits brought by the families. The remaining $30 million will be paid into a fund for future settlements, which effectively caps the amount the families can recover. And, to add insult to injury, the Justice Department agreed that Massey would admit no wrongdoing.

So why did the Justice Department respond so timidly?

Perhaps it felt hamstrung by the weakness of the criminal provisions of the Mine Safety and Health Act, which are misdemeanors and cover only willful violations of health and safety standards. It is long past time for Congress to update our mine safety laws so that violations can be prosecuted as felonies, particularly in cases where miners are killed.

Maybe the Justice Department wanted to reward the new owners, who appear to have made a greater commitment to safety. It may also have felt it would be enough to criminally prosecute Massey officials, which it can and should do if there is sufficient evidence.

We should not underestimate, however, the difficulty of prosecuting high-ranking officials in large corporations. This case may be an exception, but senior corporate officers rarely have sufficient personal involvement to be charged with crimes. To reach the boardroom, where policies are formed that can lead to tragedy, we must be willing to hold corporations criminally responsible.

During my 17 years at the Justice Department, we prosecuted corporations criminally in hundreds of cases that, while serious, did not involve the tragic loss of life at the Upper Big Branch Mine. The Justice Department did not live up to its name in agreeing not to prosecute Massey for its crimes. We can only hope that when it comes to the other unfathomable disaster that took place in April 2010, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, justice will be better served.

Bernie Sanders, like many Americans without the voice he has, is aware that it's time-- past time-- to start holding corporations responsible for their crimes and time to treat them the way the Founding Fathers demanded they be treated, as servants of the people, not masters over the people. Bernie's just introduced Saving American Democracy Amendment would make clear that corporations are not entitled to the same constitutional rights as people and that corporations may be regulated by Congress and state legislatures.