Pubdate: Tue, 13 Aug 2013
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2013 The Washington Post
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Authors: Sari Horwitz and Matt Zapotosky, The Washington Post

HOLDER AIMS TO REDUCE PRISON POPULATION

Bipartisan Support Seen on Attorney General's Effort to Reform 
Mandatory Sentencing

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder's proposed prison reforms 
drew praise from criminal justice experts Monday, but some critics 
said the proposals do not go far enough to begin overhauling a costly 
and broken law enforcement system.

In an effort to reduce the population of the nation's overflowing 
federal prisons, Holder directed his 94 U.S. attorneys across the 
country to stop charging low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with 
offenses that impose severe mandatory sentences.

The disparities in the criminal justice system unfairly hit poor and 
minority communities the hardest, Holder said in a speech at the 
annual meeting of the American Bar Association in San Francisco. 
Holder cited a recent "deeply troubling report" that indicates that 
black male offenders have received sentences nearly 20 percent longer 
than those imposed on white males convicted of similar crimes.

"This isn't just unacceptable," Holder said. "It is shameful."

Many of Holder's proposals, which are aimed at saving tens of 
millions in prison costs, have bipartisan support, and the Obama 
administration does not expect them to be politically controversial. 
In fact, there is strong conservative backing for reforming prisons 
and mandatory minimum laws, and Republican governors in some of the 
most conservative states have led the way on prison reform.

In Congress, both Republican and Democratic leaders have introduced 
legislation aimed at giving federal judges more discretion in 
applying mandatory minimums to certain drug offenders.

Laura Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's 
Washington Legislative Office, said the ACLU is "thrilled" by Holder's actions.

"These policies will make it more likely that wasteful and harmful 
federal prison overcrowding will end," Murphy said.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he was heartened by the Obama 
administration's willingness to review mandatory minimum sentencing. 
But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the law should be changed 
only in conjunction with Congress.

"The overreach by the administration to unilaterally decide which 
laws to enforce and which laws to ignore is a disturbing trend," Grassley said.

Holder cited figures that show the federal prison population has 
grown almost 800 percent since 1980. "With an outsized, unnecessarily 
large prison population, we need to ensure that incarceration is used 
to punish, deter and rehabilitate, not merely to warehouse and 
forget," he said.

There are currently more than 219,000 federal inmates, and the 
prisons are operating at nearly 40 percent above capacity.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom