Pubdate: Tue, 13 Aug 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Bob Egelko
Page: A1

BIG SHIFT IN DRUG SENTENCING

In S.F., U.S. Attorney General Calls for Fewer Low-Level Offenders in Jail

The "so-called war on drugs" has needlessly imprisoned thousands of 
Americans for relatively minor crimes, Attorney General Eric Holder 
said Monday in a San Francisco speech announcing Obama administration 
policy changes that will reduce or possibly eliminate federal 
sentences for some low-level drug offenders.

While Holder ordered federal prosecutors to reduce their use of 
mandatory sentencing laws in drug cases, the impact of his order will 
depend on such unpredictable factors as how prosecutors interpret the 
new rules and whether Congress decides to add flexibility to rigid 
sentencing laws.

"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for 
no truly good law enforcement reason," Holder told delegates to the 
annual meeting of the American Bar Association at Moscone West.

The United States, he noted, has 5 percent of the world's population 
but about 25 percent of its prisoners. And the federal prison 
population has soared by nearly 800 percent since 1980, to more than 
219,000 inmates - nearly half serving time for drug-related crimes.

Holder said the nation's criminal justice system is "in too many 
respects broken" and singled out various aspects for criticism - the 
"coldly efficient" drive to increase incarceration, the 
"school-toprison pipeline" in which students can be jailed for 
disciplinary offenses, and "shameful" racial disparities in sentencing.

Mandatory sentences

But the principal change he announced was in prosecutions that lead 
to mandatory sentences - often at least 10 years in prison - for the 
possession and sale of certain quantities of illegal drugs regardless 
of the circumstances of the case. Tens of thousands of federal 
inmates have been sentenced under those laws, and the sentences have 
occasionally drawn protests from the federal judges who are legally 
required to impose them.

"Because they oftentimes generate unfairly long sentences, (mandatory 
minimums for drugs) breed disrespect for the system," Holder said. 
"When applied indiscriminately, they do not serve public safety."

He said he has ordered the nation's federal prosecutors to stop 
seeking mandatory minimum sentences for "certain low-level, 
nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to large-scale 
organizations, gangs or cartels." Charges against those defendants 
would not specify the amount of dugs involved, leaving judges free to 
choose their sentences.

Neither Holder's speech nor a Justice Department summary of the 
changes defined such terms as "low-level" and "large-scale 
organizations," decisions that apparently will be left to the 
regional U.S. attorney's offices - and may determine the scope of the 
new policy.

Prosecutors' discretion

"At least hundreds and arguably thousands of new criminal cases will 
be affected. It may be up to individual prosecutors whether it's 
hundreds or thousands," said Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio 
State University and a specialist in criminal sentencing. He noted 
that Holder's policy applied only to new prosecutions and not to 
inmates already sentenced.

Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy 
Alliance, said Holder "made a very bold speech, but the impact will 
depend on how the Department of Justice implements it and how Congress reacts."

One bill that Holder endorsed, sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy, 
D-Vt., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., would give judges some flexibility to 
impose lesser drug sentences. Another, by Sens. Dick Durbin, DIll., 
and Mike Lee, R-Utah, would reduce some current mandatory minimum 
sentences. Their prospects of passage are uncertain.

"It's time for Congress to act," said Julie Stewart, president of the 
advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums. She said Holder's 
announcement was a welcome change after 40 years of support for such 
sentences from administrations of both parties.

Favoring treatment

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said the federal 
government was "following the San Francisco model," which has 
de-emphasized drug prosecutions in favor of treatment programs 
imposed in neighborhood courts. Narcotics prosecutions in the city 
have declined by 69 percent in the past three to four years, with no 
loss in public safety, he said.

Still, the Obama administration has declared new directions in 
criminal justice policy before, only to seemingly reverse course 
during state-by-state implementation. Most prominently, the 
administration's early announcement that it would defer to state 
policies on medical marijuana has been followed by the Justice 
Department's shutdowns of hundreds of pot dispensaries in California.

On another topic, Holder said his department was expanding its 
criteria for "compassionate release" of medically disabled prisoners 
to include "elderly inmates who did not commit violent crimes and who 
have served significant portions of their sentences."

His announcement came three days after the administration persuaded a 
federal judge to deny such release for 73-year-old Lynne Stewart, a 
terminally ill former New York attorney who was sentenced to 10 years 
in prison for helping a client pass messages to his followers after 
he was convicted of a terrorist plot.
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