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Justice Department Aims To Cut Short Racially Biased Drug Sentences
Justice Department Aims To Cut Short Racially Biased Drug Sentences
By Nicole Flatow
The Department of Justice is aiming to cut short the prison terms of some offenders who were handed sentences 100 times more severe because of an outdated racially discriminatory drug disparity, Deputy Attorney General James Cole announced Thursday.
Last month, President Obama shortened the sentences of eight crack offenders punished under the discriminatory regime, using his power under the Constitution to issue pardons (which erase the sentence) and commutations (which cut the sentences short). Cole said Thursday before a New York gathering of lawyers that those commutations were just a “first step” and that it is the Justice Department’s goal to “find additional candidates” and recommend them to the president for clemency.
<...>
Cole described the initiative in a speech that lamented the exploding U.S. prison population, driven largely by drug sentences. Echoing remarks by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder this summer as he announced Justice Department plans to curb over-criminalization of drugs and move toward “smarter sentencing,” Cole noted that federal prisons are now operating at 33 percent over capacity, and more than half of the offenders are there for drug offenses.
Cole’s announcement comes on the same day the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would make retroactive the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the ratio between crack cocaine sentences (associated with African Americans) and powder cocaine sentences (associated with whites) from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1. The bipartisan Smarter Sentencing Act, which was voted out of committee 13-5, would also roll back draconian mandatory minimum sentences.
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/30/3228061/justice-department-plans-shorten-racist-drug-sentences/
By Nicole Flatow
The Department of Justice is aiming to cut short the prison terms of some offenders who were handed sentences 100 times more severe because of an outdated racially discriminatory drug disparity, Deputy Attorney General James Cole announced Thursday.
Last month, President Obama shortened the sentences of eight crack offenders punished under the discriminatory regime, using his power under the Constitution to issue pardons (which erase the sentence) and commutations (which cut the sentences short). Cole said Thursday before a New York gathering of lawyers that those commutations were just a “first step” and that it is the Justice Department’s goal to “find additional candidates” and recommend them to the president for clemency.
<...>
Cole described the initiative in a speech that lamented the exploding U.S. prison population, driven largely by drug sentences. Echoing remarks by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder this summer as he announced Justice Department plans to curb over-criminalization of drugs and move toward “smarter sentencing,” Cole noted that federal prisons are now operating at 33 percent over capacity, and more than half of the offenders are there for drug offenses.
Cole’s announcement comes on the same day the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would make retroactive the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the ratio between crack cocaine sentences (associated with African Americans) and powder cocaine sentences (associated with whites) from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1. The bipartisan Smarter Sentencing Act, which was voted out of committee 13-5, would also roll back draconian mandatory minimum sentences.
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/30/3228061/justice-department-plans-shorten-racist-drug-sentences/
17 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]And while you're at it, purge their records!
prison system often seek guarantees that their prisons will supplied with enough prisoners to be kept chuck-full? 
