Pubdate: Tue, 13 Aug 2013
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2013 The Washington Post
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Authors: Sari Horwitz and Matt Zapotosky, The Washington Post

HOLDER PRISON PLANS DRAW PRAISE FROM LEFT AND RIGHT

Some Critics Say Sentencing Changes Don't Go Far Enough

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder's prison proposals 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 men convicted of similar crimes.

Many of Holder's proposals, which are aimed at saving tens of 
millions of dollars 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 changes.

In Congress, 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.

Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said 
Holder's proposals are a "great step in the right direction" but 
added that "what's being proposed here is very modest."

"These are minor tweaks compared to the major overhauls we've seen 
enacted at the state level," Stewart said.

Indeed, Holder pointed to recent state initiatives as models for 
significant national prison reform.

Investments in drug treatment for nonviolent offenders and changes to 
parole policies in Texas reduced the prison population by more than 
5,000 inmates last year. Similar efforts helped Arkansas reduce its 
prison population by more than 1,400 last year.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom