Pubdate: Mon, 23 Feb 2015
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2015 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37

CAN HOLDER'S REFORMS LAST?

Liberal-Conservative Coalition Could Solidify Changes to Drug Sentencing

For decades, federal prosecutors pushed for long, mandatory prison 
sentences for defendants convicted of drug crimes, regardless of 
whether the offenders were big-time narcotics kingpins or low-level 
dealers peddling loose joints on the street.

The result was an explosion in the nation's prison population that 
has left authorities scrambling to build new prisons fast enough to 
keep up. With some 2 million people behind bars, the U.S. 
incarcerates a greater proportion of its citizens than any other 
nation on earth.

Yet the country remains as far as ever from being able to claim 
victory in the vaunted "war on drugs."

Since taking office six years ago, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. 
Holder Jr. has made it his mission to change federal policy toward 
drug offenders in a way that balances the seriousness of their crimes 
against the enormous costs society pays to maintain a criminal 
justice system based on mass incarceration. Last week, he announced 
impressive progress in that regard.

The number of cases in which prosecutors pursued mandatory minimum 
sentences fell by nearly a quarter in 2014, and all federal drug 
prosecutions dropped more than 6 percent.

Yet the average sentence for those convicted actually increased, 
which Mr. Holder attributed to the fact that "we prosecuted cases 
more smartly last year, doing fewer cases overall, but doing more 
serious crimes."

In departing from the zero-tolerance approach to concentrate on 
larger-scale drug conspiracies and violent offenders, Mr. Holder 
hopes not only to relieve the crisis of overcrowding in the nation's 
prisons but to reduce the impact of a criminal conviction on the 
lives of people sentenced for low-level, nonviolent drug offenses. 
He's previously pushed to change laws that punish possession of crack 
cocaine far more harshly than possession of the drug in powder form, 
a policy that disproportionately affects African-American 
communities. The Justice Department's current focus on going after 
major drug kingpins and violent gangs reflects a similar realignment 
of federal priorities.

But Mr. Holder's successes aren't enough.

While we have faith that Loretta Lynch would follow Mr. Holder's lead 
if confirmed as his successor, all bets are off when a new 
administration takes office in 2017. And even now, there's no 
assurance that all federal prosecutors will implement the policy 
changes Mr. Holder has set in motion.

The head of the federal public defender's office in Maryland, James 
Wyda, says there's been little change in the tactics of federal 
prosecutors here despite Mr. Holder's efforts and that "there seems 
to be a great deal of reluctance on the part of the U.S. attorney's 
office to give up the control over sentencing that mandatory minimums 
give them."

Moreover, most drug cases are brought by state prosecutors in state 
courts, which are not necessarily bound by federal sentencing 
policies. In 2013, only about 860 of the 49,000 drug arrests in 
Maryland were prosecuted by the federal government. The Justice 
Department can set an example for how such cases should be handled, 
but there's no guarantee local prosecutors and judges will follow its lead.

The real solution is for Congress to reform federal sentencing 
policies through legislation and for state legislatures to follow 
suit. That might seem like a long shot given the political gridlock 
in Washington, but criminal justice reform has emerged as a rare 
issue uniting interest groups on the right and the left. The New York 
Times reported last week on the new Coalition for Public Safety, an 
odd bedfellows conglomeration of the Koch brothers, the Center for 
American Progress, the ACLU, Americans for Tax Reform and others, 
dedicated to reducing prison populations. It's an issue that has the 
potential to unite liberals, libertarians and fiscal conservatives 
and has already led to several bi-partisan legislative efforts.

If they eventually succeed and help the nation reverse a generation 
of damaging and ineffective policies, Mr. Holder's advocacy will have 
a lot to do with it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom