Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jul 2015
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Timothy M. Phelps

PUSH TO REFORM DRUG LAWS GAINING GROUND

There Is Bipartisan Interest in Congress, but Advocates for 
Sentencing Changes May Be Disappointed.

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan push to reduce the number of low-level drug 
offenders in prison is gaining momentum in Congress, but proposals 
may disappoint advocates hoping to slash the mandatory minimum 
sentences that are seen as chiefly responsible for overcrowding in 
the nation's detention facilities.

House Speaker John A. Boehner( R- Ohio) surprised advocates Thursday 
by saying he strongly supported holding a vote on a prison reform 
bill similar to one sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a moderate 
Republican from Wisconsin. The measure has been languishing in the 
House Judiciary Committee.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is nearing completion of a compromise 
bill that, like Sensenbrenner's, would change the way drug offenders 
are sentenced and provide a pathway to early release for those in prison.

Under both proposals, thousands of prisoners serving long terms 
because of a disparity in the nation's cocaine laws-including many 
African Americans-would be eligible to apply for immediate release on 
a case-by-case basis. Many more drug offenders would be eligible for 
early release if they completed educational and drug treatment 
programs, according to lawmakers and aides familiar with the bills.

The bills, in part, seek to correct perceived injustices of past 
tough-on-crime laws under which those convicted of possessing crack 
cocaine, whose use was more common among African Americans, were 
subject to sentences far longer than those for possession of the 
drug's powder form, favored more by whites.

But some advocates are disappointed at the approach to mandatory 
minimums emerging in the Senate, where Judiciary Committee Chairman 
Charles E. Grassley ( R- Iowa) has dug in his heels against the 
sweeping changes approved by the committee when it was controlled by 
Democrats last year.

The committee had voted to cut 10- year mandatory minimums for drug 
offenses in half and five-year mandatories to two, but the bill 
failed on the Senate floor.

"I don't think we need to stick with what we did 30 years ago, but 
those sentences cut down on crime quite a bit," Grassley said in an interview.

Grassley and other senators outlined what one called an "arcane, 
complex" approach being developed at Grassley's insistence that would 
seek to match mandatory minimum sentences to the particular 
circumstances of each crime or combination of crimes.

"Grassley does not want to be rolled on this," said one senator 
involved in the negotiations.

Julie Stewart, president of Washington-based Families Against 
Mandatory Minimums, said the Grassley approach was shortsighted and 
would continue to take discretion out of the hands of judges.

"Because of a generational shift in attitudes to these issues, we 
have the best opportunity in over two decades to do something, and it 
shouldn't be thrown away on something that's not significant enough 
to have a major impact on the number of people going to prison and 
the length of time each one of those is serving," Stewart said.

Senators involved in the back room negotiations had mixed views of 
what the end result would be.

"We have lost some ground," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin ( D- Ill.), a 
sponsor of the more sweeping approach approved in committee last 
year. "It's a negotiation with Sen. Grassley."

Other senators were more positive.

"I think we will reform mandatory minimums in a significant way," 
said Sen. Mike Lee ( R- Utah), the other chief sponsor of the bill 
the panel approved last year.

"It is a necessary compromise," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse ( D- R. 
I.). "It's too early to say that what we are trying to do on 
mandatory minimums will be watered down."

Both bills would expand the number of situations in which a judge 
could override a mandatory minimum requirement.

Stewart said the Sensenbrenner approach to mandatory minimums was 
more to her liking. It would narrow the number of offenses eligible 
for mandatory minimums and would cut mandatory life sentences for 
drug crimes to 35 years.

"The bill is brilliant in its simplicity," she said. "Even though it 
doesn't repeal mandatory minimum sentences, it lets courts give 
longer sentences to violent kingpins and shorter sentences to addicts 
and low level offenders."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom