The proposal is part of a broader rethinking of criminal justice policy within the Obama administration.
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In the latest effort by the Department of Justice to reform the criminal justice system, a project Attorney General Eric Holder has vowed to make his lasting legacy, the DOJ has decided to officially endorse a proposal by the United States Sentencing Commission that could save taxpayers billions by amending the federal sentencing guidelines applicable to drug trafficking offenses both retroactively and for future offenders.
The proposal would go along with the Smarter Sentencing Act in reducing sentences and statutory mandatory minimum penalties for non-violent federal drug offenders currently imprisoned and is consistent with the Attorney General’s “Smart on Crime” initiative which seeks to lower the federal penalties for non-violent offenders without deep criminal ties.
The Attorney General asserted, “Under the Department’s proposal, if your offense was nonviolent, did not involve a weapon, and you do not have a significant criminal history, then you would be eligible to apply for a reduced sentence in accordance with the new rules approved by the Commission in April.”
With 100,000 federal prisoners serving time for non-violent drug crimes, at a cost of nearly $30,000 per prisoner a year, the impact of a reform that would shave an average of two years off the sentences of roughly half the people serving time in the federal prison system for drug crimes comes out to over $2.4 billion in total savings.
“Not everyone in prison for a drug-related offense would be eligible,” Holder continued. “Nor would everyone who is eligible be guaranteed a reduced sentence. But this proposal strikes the best balance between protecting public safety and addressing the overcrowding of our prison system that has been exacerbated by unnecessarily long sentences.”
The proposal is part of a broader rethinking of criminal justice policy within the Obama administration. The Justice Department in April, for instance, also revamped its clemency process to encourage more nonviolent federal prisoners to apply for shorter sentences. And in August, Holder directed prosecutors to stop charging many nonviolent drug defendants with offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences.
The announcement could not come at a more opportune time, given the warning on December 11th, 2013 by the DOJ’s Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz that prison overcrowding poses an “increasingly critical threat” to the safety and security of prisoners and staff, and that the “increasing cost of incarceration… is already having an impact on the Department’s other law enforcement priorities.”
Watch The Full Speech Outlining New Justice Department Drug Sentencing Reforms: