Justice Dept. considering clemency after 10 years for federal inmates

[IDemo]

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

Washington • The Justice Department will begin considering clemency applications from nonviolent federal inmates who have behaved in prison, have no significant criminal history and have already served more than 10 years behind bars, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The initiative is part of a broader Obama administration effort to trim the nation’s prison population and ease sentencing disparities arising from drug possession crimes. The goal of the new criteria, which were to be detailed Wednesday, is to create a broader pool of eligible prisoners the Justice Department can recommend to the president to consider for shorter sentences.

The department Wednesday was to lay out a half-dozen criteria that it will consider in evaluating future clemency applications from inmates, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement had not yet been made. Deputy Attorney General James Cole was expected to discuss the clemency changes at a news conference.

The announcement is aimed primarily at drug prisoners, especially those sentenced under old guidelines that resulted in significantly harsher penalties for people caught with crack cocaine than for those who possessed the powder form of the drug. But it also applies to federal inmates imprisoned for other crimes, provided they meet the same criteria for clemency.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/57854846-68/clemency-inmates-sentences-department.html.csp

[randys1]

1. About damn time

Wall street should be empty, prisons should be full of them and that aint no joke or exaggeration

[olddad56]

2. congress should be empty as well.

[Hoppy]

3. This may be the first useful thing Holder has done.

Can anyone list another of his accomplishments that improved anything for anyone but Wall Street?

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "Can anyone list another of his accomplishments that improved anything for anyone but Wall Street?"

Fighting to restore Voting Rights for non-whites using Sect. 2 of the VRA after provisions of Sect. 4 & 5 were thrown out by the SCOTUS last year - and doing it state by state, starting with Texas - http://nation.time.com/2013/07/27/eric-holder-takes-the-fight-for-voting-rights-to-texas/ and hitting NC - http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/politics&id=9267123

This is part of an overall strategy - http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/19/justice-department-plans-offensive-in-voting-rights-mission/6625173/

But knee-jerk amnesia is rampant on DU of late where single issues and personal hatred abounds and blinds some folks to anything that doesn't fit that single-issue criteria.

[randys1]

6. I agree about the knee jerk amnesia

The list of Obama's accomplishments is overwhelming considering he faced the greatest obstruction in American political history...

Holder hasnt been a slouch either, and no I hate that he wrote the "Holder Memo" and is so Wall sTreet friendly, but it is what it is.

[Bobbi5]

5. All punishment is irrevocable.

It's good that these people may get out, but no one can give back the 10 years they served. Opponents of the death penalty often criticize it because it is "irrevocable." But 10 years in the slammer is irrevocable, too.