03-14-2014, 10:30 AM
Glad to see this announcement; too many prisons filled with people arrested and handed long/life sentences for non-violent marijuana offenses.
Hoping the bi-partisan legislation passes Congress. The National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) is opposing the proposal.
![[Image: Attorney-general-Eric-Holder.jpg]](http://nafusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Attorney-general-Eric-Holder.jpg)
Snip:
Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday endorsed a proposal that would result in shorter prison sentences for many nonviolent drug traffickers, saying the change would rein in runaway federal prison costs and create a fairer criminal justice system.
A November 2013 report by the American Civil Liberties Union says at least 3,279 prisoners in the U.S. are serving life without parole sentences for nonviolent drug and property crimes. Nearly four in every five were convicted of crimes involving drugs.
"This focused reliance on incarceration is not just financially unsustainable - it comes with human and moral costs that are impossible to calculate," Holder said in an appearance before the Sentencing Commission, an independent agency that establishes sentencing policies, on Thursday.
In a country where nearly half of all federal inmates are serving time for drug crimes, the harshest penalties should be reserved for violent drug defendants and criminals with long rap sheets, Holder said.
Holder directed prosecutors in August to stop charging many nonviolent drug defendants with offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences.
He has also said he also wants to divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community-service programs and to expand a prison program to allow the release of some elderly, nonviolent offenders. Bipartisan legislation pending in Congress would give judges more discretion in sentencing defendants for drug crimes.
Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/holder-endor...g-reforms/
Hoping the bi-partisan legislation passes Congress. The National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) is opposing the proposal.
Snip:
Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday endorsed a proposal that would result in shorter prison sentences for many nonviolent drug traffickers, saying the change would rein in runaway federal prison costs and create a fairer criminal justice system.
A November 2013 report by the American Civil Liberties Union says at least 3,279 prisoners in the U.S. are serving life without parole sentences for nonviolent drug and property crimes. Nearly four in every five were convicted of crimes involving drugs.
"This focused reliance on incarceration is not just financially unsustainable - it comes with human and moral costs that are impossible to calculate," Holder said in an appearance before the Sentencing Commission, an independent agency that establishes sentencing policies, on Thursday.
In a country where nearly half of all federal inmates are serving time for drug crimes, the harshest penalties should be reserved for violent drug defendants and criminals with long rap sheets, Holder said.
Holder directed prosecutors in August to stop charging many nonviolent drug defendants with offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences.
He has also said he also wants to divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community-service programs and to expand a prison program to allow the release of some elderly, nonviolent offenders. Bipartisan legislation pending in Congress would give judges more discretion in sentencing defendants for drug crimes.
Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/holder-endor...g-reforms/