Congress is making a welcomed major step forward in drug sentencing reform.
The Senate Judiciary Committee recently approved the Smarter Sentencing Act, a measure that would cut the mandatory minimum sentence in half for some drug offenses and expand the category of defendants eligible for sentencing below the mandatory minimums.
The measure would also make retroactive the provisions of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. It would also reduce by half the length of mandatory minimum drug sentences.
The legislation has rare bipartisan support. It was introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah.
The Smart Sentencing Act is needed because it would reduce excessive, expensive, unnecessary and in many cases, counterproductive incarcerations which studies have shown have had a detrimental effect on African Americans and Hispanics, even though others show drug usage is about the same between whites and minorities.
It is time for Congress to make a sweeping overhaul of federal sentencing guidelines.
Mandatory minimum sentencing has led to a sharp increase in the number of Americans in prison.
There are more than 218,000 federal prisoners, a number that has grown from about 25,000 in the 1980s, when many mandatory penalties were put in place.
A welcomed change in mandatory minimum sentencing has been growing among both liberal and conservative lawmakers. Many conservatives are seeking a change in policy because it could save money by reducing the prison population, and it fits into conservative efforts to curb the federal government’s size and budget.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has been in the forefront of the battle for smarter sentencing. The Justice Department recently announced a new policy of not pursuing mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses and other nonviolent crimes.
Holder points out that the change can actually improve public safety.
“By reserving the most severe prison terms for serious, high-level or violent drug traffickers or kingpins, we better enhance public safety,” he said. “We can increase our focus on proven strategies for deterrence and rehabilitation. And we can do so while making our expenditures smarter and more productive.”
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)