Related: MM COMMUNITY RESPONSE TO AG HOLDER’S SPEECH: CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM, OR INCREASED TENSION?
In a highly anticipated speech to the American Bar Association, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to call for reducing mandatory sentencing guidelines for minor drug offenders. As part of a sweeping prison reform policy, the Justice Department has directed all 94 U.S. attorneys to develop locally tailored guidelines for when federal charges should be filed in drug crimes.
(related: Attourney Holder Mandatory Minimums Memo)
Considering our grossly overcrowded and underfunded prisons, and increased public awareness of the exorbitant costs and ineffectiveness of the war on drugs, this could not have come sooner. The new policies aim to lower prison populations by reducing sentences, finding alternatives for elderly and non-violent criminals, and directing prosecutors to sidestep harsh federal minimum sentencing guidelines.
“Although incarceration has a role to play in our justice system, widespread incarceration at the federal, state and local levels is both ineffective and unsustainable,” Holder is expected to say, “it imposes a significant economic burden — totaling $80 billion in 2010 alone, and it comes with human and moral costs that are impossible to calculate.”
With a clear emphasis on the economic impact of the war on drugs, Holder is hoping to also garner support for a legislative bill that would give federal judges more leniency in sentencing drug offenders. He does not plan on addressing a change of policy towards marijuana which remains classified as a schedule 1 drug.
related: OaklandPress_GovMemoMarijuanaConfusingLocalResidents
