Pubdate: Mon, 12 Aug 2013
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2013 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/mVLAxQfA
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau

POLICY SHIFT FOR DRUG OFFENDERS

Holder to Tout End of 'Mandatory Minimum' Sentences

SAN FRANCISCO - Federal prosecutors will no longer seek "mandatory 
minimum" sentences for many low-level, nonviolent drug offenders in a 
major policy shift aimed at turning around decades of explosive 
growth in the federal prison population, Attorney General Eric Holder 
plans to announce Monday.

"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for 
no good law enforcement reason," Holder plans to tell the American 
Bar Association meeting in San Francisco, according to an advance 
text of his remarks. "While the aggressive enforcement of federal 
criminal statutes remains necessary, we cannot simply prosecute or 
incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation."

Under the new policy, prosecutors would send fewer drug offenders to 
federal prisons for long terms, opting for drug treatment centers and 
community service instead. A Justice Department spokesman said 
officials had no estimate of how many future prosecutions would be affected.

The change responds to a major goal of civil rights groups, which say 
long prison sentences have disproportionately hurt low-income and 
minority communities.

In his speech, Holder is expected to say: "A vicious cycle of 
poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too many Americans and 
weakens too many communities."

"Many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate 
this problem, rather than alleviate it."

But he will also note that prominent conservatives have embraced the 
idea of cutting sentences and reducing prison populations.

Conservative groups whose leaders include former House Speaker Newt 
Gingrich, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and former Florida Gov. 
Jeb Bush have called for changing crime and prison policies, Justice 
Department officials note.

Support from conservatives has come in part because of the enormous 
prison costs in state budgets.

Beginning with the "war on drugs" in the 1980s, many states and the 
federal government adopted laws that required judges to impose long 
sentences on anyone caught with certain amounts of illegal drugs, 
regardless of circumstances. More recently, as crime rates have 
dropped sharply in most major urban areas, public demand for lengthy 
prison terms has waned, and liberal and conservative states have 
changed their laws to incarcerate fewer people.

Advocates of reform point to Texas and New York as leaders in the 
effort to reduce sentences, particularly for lower-level drug crimes.

Congress has moved more slowly than state legislatures. But 
conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats have called for 
pulling back on the use of mandatory minimum prison terms.

In his speech, Holder plans to cite proposals by Sens. Dick Durbin, 
D-Ill., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., two of the Senate's leading 
liberals, and Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., two tea 
party favorites, that would give judges more leeway in sentencing 
drug offenders.

"By reserving the most severe penalties for serious, high-level or 
violent drug traffickers, we can better promote public safety, 
deterrence and rehabilitation, while making our expenditures smarter 
and more productive," Holder will say.

How big a role mass incarceration has played in cutting crime rates 
remains a hotly debated topic among criminal justice experts. But 
there's no disagreement that mandatory minimum sentences helped cause 
explosive growth in prison populations. At the federal level, nearly 
half the 219,000 inmates are serving time for drug-related crimes.

"While the entire U.S. (prison) population has increased by about a 
third since 1980, the federal population has grown at an astonishing 
rate - by almost 800 percent," Holder will say. "It's still growing, 
despite the fact that federal prisons are operating at nearly 40 
percent above capacity. Even though this country comprises just 5 
percent of the world's population, we incarcerate almost a quarter of 
the world's prisoners."

Under the new federal policies, which stemmed from a review Holder 
ordered this year, U.S. attorneys will no longer bring charges that 
include lengthy mandatory minimum prison terms in cases of 
"low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to large-scale 
organizations, gangs or cartels," Holder plans to announce.

Those low-level offenders now "will be charged with offenses for 
which the accompanying sentences are better suited to their individual conduct."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom