WASHINGTON (AP) — Tens of thousands of federal inmates
serving time for drug crimes may be eligible for early release under a
cost-cutting proposal adopted Friday that would dramatically reduce the
nation’s prison population over time.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which earlier this year
voted to substantially lower recommended sentences for drug-dealing felons,
voted unanimously to retroactively apply that change to prisoners now behind
bars.
More than 46,000 inmates, including many who have already
served a decade or longer in prison, would be eligible to seek early release
under the commission’s decision. A judge would review the case of each prisoner
seeking to get out early to decide if the release would jeopardize public
safety. The releases would start in November 2015 and be phased in over a
period of years.
The commission, an independent panel that sets sentencing
policy, estimates sentences would be cut by an average of 25 months.
“The magnitude of the change, both collectively and for
individual offenders, is significant,” said commission chairwoman Patti Saris,
a federal judge in Massachusetts.
Advocates of the early-release plan say it would cut
prison costs – nearly one-half of the federal prison population is locked up
for drug crimes – and scale back some of the harsh sentences imposed during the
country’s war on drugs. Prisoner advocacy groups immediately trumpeted the
change, calling it a matter of fundamental fairness.
“This vote will change the lives of tens of thousands of
families whose loved ones were given overly long drug sentences,” Julie
Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said in a statement. The sentencing change comes amid a broader rethinking of
criminal justice policy that the Justice Department, under Attorney General
Eric Holder, has embraced.
With an eye toward addressing sentencing disparities
rooted in the 1980′s-era fight against crack cocaine, and cutting a prison
population that’s roughly 32 percent above capacity, the Justice Department has
issued new clemency criteria designed to encourage thousands of additional
inmates to seek an early release. Last year, Holder directed federal
prosecutors to avoid seeking mandatory minimum sentences – which limit the
discretion of judges to impose shorter sentences – for nonviolent drug
offenders.
“This is a milestone in the effort to make more efficient
use of our law enforcement resources and to ease the burden on our overcrowded
prison system,” Holder said in a statement.
The proposal adopted Friday is actually more expansive
than one advanced by Holder last month, which would have applied to roughly
20,000 drug inmates who have limited criminal pasts and who did not use a
weapon during their crime.
Though sentencing guidelines are advisory rather than
mandatory, judges still rely heavily on them in deciding on prison sentences.
The guidelines recommend sentences that factor in the types and quantities of
the drugs. The commission in April voted to lower recommended sentences across
all drug types, meaning, for instance, that a cocaine package of a given size
would now be linked to a shorter range of punishment than before.
Congress has until November to voice opposition to the
commission’s plan, though advocates consider that unlikely. Courts at that
point could begin considering petitions from prisoners seeking to get out of
prison. Early releases wouldn’t begin until a year later.
This is not the first time the sentencing commission has
supported an early release for drug offenders. In 2011, the commission voted to
retroactively apply a law that reduced the sentencing disparity for crack
versus powder cocaine.
Commission members said they believe they have taken
steps to ensure public safety, such as requiring a judge to sign off on a
defendant’s early release. They also voted to delay the release until next year
to give judges enough time to consider whether defendants are good candidates
to be let out early.
Among those attending Friday’s hearing was Adrienne
Willis of Camp Springs, Md., who said her 47-year-old son, Bernard Gibson,
might be among those who benefit. She said he’s already spent 18 years at a
federal prison in Virginia for a drug-dealing conspiracy and still has more
time to serve.
“I thought that prison was supposed to rehabilitate
people,” she said. “If someone’s been in prison for 18 years and they’re not
rehabilitated, whose fault is that?”Some, though not all, judges have joined advocacy groups
in championing the change.
“Even though retroactivity and individualized assessment
for all eligible persons is time intensive and administratively burdensome, it
is the right thing to do so that we can again ensure that our criminal justice
system is fair to all concerned,” U.S District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of
Rhode Island wrote in a letter to the commission.
But some prosecutors, including some within the Justice
Department, have raised public safety concerns. A group of federal prosecutors,
the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, said the move
would lead to higher crime and give defendants little incentive to resolve
their cases through plea deals.
“The strong sentencing scheme that has been in place in
place over the last 25 years in our country has contributed to the lowest crime
rates in more than a generation,” the organization wrote.
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