WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department
plans to change how it prosecutes some non-violent drug
offenders, so they would no longer face mandatory minimum prison
sentences, in an overhaul of federal prison policy that Attorney
General Eric Holder will unveil on Monday.
Holder will outline the status of a broad, ongoing project
intended to improve Justice Department sentencing policies
across the country in a speech to the American Bar Association
in San Francisco.
“I have mandated a modification of the Justice Department’s
charging policies so that certain low-level, nonviolent drug
offenders who have no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs,
or cartels, will no longer be charged with offenses that impose
draconian mandatory minimum sentences,” Holder is expected to
say, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks provided by
the Justice Department.
The United States imprisons a higher percentage of its
population than other large countries, largely because of
anti-drug laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s.
Holder will also reveal a plan to create a slate of local
guidelines to determine if cases should be subject to federal
charges.
The attorney general will point to the bipartisan backing of
such goals in Congress, where there is “legislation aimed at
giving federal judges more discretion in applying mandatory
minimums to certain drug offenders.”
The bipartisan backing could be important because the Obama
administration will need Republican support for any major
changes in Congress.
Holder is expected to say that laws like these could save
the United States billions of dollars.
The attorney general will also announce an updated plan for
considering release for “inmates facing extraordinary or
compelling circumstances – and who pose no threat to the
public.”
(Reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Eric Walsh)
