Pubdate: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 Source: Washington Post (DC) Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company Contact: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ashcroft.htm (Ashcroft, John) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) MISPLACED PRIORITIES ATTORNEY GENERAL John Ashcroft responded to the Justice Department's latest figures on drug prosecutions by claiming that they prove that "federal law enforcement is targeted effectively at convicting major drug traffickers and punishing them with longer lockups in prison." The data the department released show almost the opposite: that the nation's tough drug sentencing regime is, to a great extent, being used to lock up comparatively low-level offenders who could easily be prosecuted in state courts. The data, far from affirming that the federal drug effort is a success, raise real questions about the federal government's prosecutorial priorities in the war on drugs. The growth in federal drug prosecutions over the past two decades has been prodigious. Between 1984 and 1999, the number of suspects referred to federal prosecutors in drug matters tripled, to more than 38,000 -- of whom 84 percent were prosecuted. Drug cases during that time went from 18 percent of the total federal criminal caseload to 32 percent. According to other department data, drug convicts now account for 57 percent of the federal inmate population, in contrast to only 21 percent of the much larger state population. This growth is not, as the attorney general suggests, largely the result of locking up major traffickers. In 1999 only about one-half of 1 percent of criminal referrals were for the most serious drug cases -- those involving what are known as continuing criminal enterprises -- and these led to only 116 actual prison sentences. Two-thirds of drug defendants could not afford to hire their own lawyers, a good indication that they were hardly high-level traffickers. In fact, 38 percent of all convictions involved quantities of drugs small enough that no mandatory minimum sentence could be applied, while only 3 percent resulted in mandatory minimum sentences of longer than 10 years in prison. In 1997 the department reports, 14 percent of federal drug inmates were in prison for drug use, and 42 percent were serving time for dealing -- either at the street level or above. It is simply wrong to argue that the focus of the federal drug effort has been kingpins. Rather, in many jurisdictions, federal drug investigations and prosecutions seem to run parallel with efforts of state prosecutors and local police forces. Another striking feature of the department's data is the disproportionate role that marijuana seems to be playing in federal drug prosecution. Marijuana is hardly the most dangerous of drugs. Yet 31 percent of federal drug referrals involved marijuana offenses in 1999, more than for any other type of drug. And though these referrals ultimately produced shorter sentences, they were actually more likely to result in prosecutions than cases involving powder cocaine, crack cocaine or heroine. Marijuana cases all by themselves now account for a measurable percentage of the entire federal criminal caseload. This hardly seems rational. The unique federal role in the drug war ought to be the prosecution of major interstate trafficking cases involving the most dangerous people -- and the drugs that constitute the greatest threat to the national health. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh