Pubdate: Mon, 12 Aug 2013
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: David G. Savage

TOUGH FEDERAL DRUG PENALTIES TO EASE

Many Nonviolent Offenders Will No Longer Face Long Prison Terms, the 
Attorney General Says.

SAN FRANCISCO - Federal prosecutors will no longer seek long, 
"mandatory minimum" sentences for many low-level, nonviolent drug 
offenders, under a major shift in policy aimed at turning around 
decades of explosive growth in the federal prison population, Atty. 
Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. planned to announce Monday. Brendan Smialowski

"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for 
no good law enforcement reason," Holder planned to tell the American 
Bar Assn. meeting here, 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 prison for long terms and send more of them to drug treatment 
and community service. 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 endorses that point of view, saying that "a 
vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too 
many Americans and weakens too many communities" and that "many 
aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate this 
problem, rather than alleviate it."

He also notes that prominent conservatives have embraced the idea of 
cutting sentences and reducing prison populations.

Conservative groups with leaders including former House Speaker Newt 
Gingrich, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and former Florida Gov. 
Jeb Bush have called for changing U.S. crime and prison policies, 
Justice Department officials note. Support from conservatives has 
come in part because of the enormous bite that prison costs take out 
of state budgets.

Beginning with the "war on drugs" of 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 the circumstances.

More recently, as crime rates have dropped sharply in most major 
urban areas, public demand for lengthy prison terms has waned, and 
both liberal and conservative states have changed their laws to 
incarcerate fewer people.

Advocates of change point to Texas and New York as leaders in the 
effort to reduce sentences, particularly for lower-level drug crimes. 
Although California has modified its strict "three strikes" 
sentencing laws, the state has made fewer changes than many others. 
The state's prisons currently are under court order to reduce the 
number of inmates by nearly 10,000 this year to cope with overcrowding.

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

In his speech, Holder plans to cite proposals by Sens. Richard J. 
Durbin (DIll.) and Patrick J. Leahy (DVt.), 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 says in his speech.

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 of 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%," Holder's speech says. "It's still growing, 
despite the fact that federal prisons are operating at nearly 40% 
above capacity. Even though this country comprises just 5% of the 
world's population, we incarcerate almost a quarter of the world's prisoners."

Under the new federal policy, which stems 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 planned to announce.

Those low-level offenders instead "will be charged with offenses for 
which the accompanying sentences are better suited to their 
individual conduct."

Meting out long sentences to low-level criminals "breeds disrespect 
for the system" and does not serve public safety, the speech says.

In addition, according to the remarks, the federal Bureau of Prisons 
will revise its guidelines to allow the early release of more inmates 
who are elderly or who seek "compassionate release" for medical reasons.

The department is also looking into new ways to identify drug 
offenders who can be sent to drug treatment or required to do 
community service as an alternative to prison.

"Clearly, these strategies can work," Holder's speech says, citing 
recent efforts in Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, 
Pennsylvania and Hawaii. "They've attracted overwhelming, bipartisan 
support in 'red states' as well as 'blue states.' And it's past time 
for others to take notice."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom