As Pressure Mounts, Holder Acts on Sentencing Reform (FEATURE)

[ProSense]

As Pressure Mounts, Holder Acts on Sentencing Reform (FEATURE)

by Phillip Smith

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday a comprehensive federal sentencing reform package with a strong emphasis on drug sentencing. He said he will direct US Attorneys that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders not tied to gangs or major trafficking organizations should not be charged in ways that trigger lengthy mandatory minimum sentences.

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In a major speech to the American Bar Association in San Francisco Monday morning, Holder laid out Obama administration sentencing reform plans, some of which can be implemented by executive action, but some of which will require action in the Congress. The comprehensive sentencing reform package is designed to reduce the federal prison population not only through sentencing reforms, but also through alternatives to incarceration in the first place.

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"For the past 40 years, the Department of Justice, under both political parties, has promoted mandatory minimum sentencing like a one-way ratchet. Federal prison sentences got longer and longer and no one stopped to consider the costs and benefits," said Julie Stewart, founder and head of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM). "Today, at long last, the politics of criminal sentencing have caught up to the evidence. The changes proposed by the Attorney General are modest but they will make us safer and save taxpayers billions of dollars in the process."

"There's no good reason, of course, why the Obama administration couldn't have done something like this during his first term -- and tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of Americans have suffered unjustly as a result of their delay," said Drug Policy Alliance executive director Ethan Nadelmann in a message to supporters. "But that said, President Obama and Attorney General Holder deserve credit for stepping out now, and for doing so in a fairly decisive way."

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2013/aug/12/pressure_mounts_holder_acts_sent

ACLU: How to Process Eric Holder’s Major Criminal Law Reform Speech
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023451453

[Downwinder]

1. Quit beating around the bush and decriminalize marijuana.

[msongs]

2. the for-profit prison industry would have a sad if that happens nt

[Downwinder]

3. Schools are cheaper than prisons and more effective.

So what do we do? Close schools and open prisons.

[ProSense]

4. Until that happens, this is significant progress. n/t

[MineralMan]

5. That will take action by Congress and

state legislatures. Presidents do not make laws. Social studies 101.

[ProSense]

6. Kick! n/t