Eric Holder- Shrinking govt and expanding freedom by attacking drug laws/sentencing

[bucs90]

Lots of stuff I agree and disagree with in Washington these days. This is one I agree with.

Eric Holder is trying to get rid of mandatory minimum sentences in our drug laws. Its a good thing. We are in a time in society where police budgets are being slashed all over the country. So are jails, which are often run by sheriffs departments. And so are federal jails and agencies.

This will result in fewer prisoners, meaning less money needed for jails and jail officers.

This will result in less money and time being spent on the drug war, meaning the smaller than before police departments can focus their limited resources on other more violent crimes.

This will result in both more free people, while enabling smaller budgets for PD's and jails to be adequate for their new, smaller mission.

Good move.

 

[TheOldSchool]

I agree. This is a good move in the midst of a government that hasn't done much good at all in 2 or so years.

Let's focus on what really matters.

 

[bucs90]

I agree. This is a good move in the midst of a government that hasn't done much good at all in 2 or so years.

Let's focus on what really matters.

Yep. Our war on drugs is screwed up. Cops are dying over freakin' weed. And people selling freakin' weed are being put in prison.

Weed vs Tobacco: Two plants that grow from the ground and can hurt your health.

No difference.

Let our cops work on shit that really matters. And let people smoke and trade stupid plants like weed...or tobacco...at their own risk.

This is a good first step to some sanity in our drug laws.

 

[waltky]

Since Bernie Madoff was a non-violent offender, wouldn't he qualify?...

House bill would cut prison time for some offenders
Oct. 8, 2015 | WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare move for the bitterly partisan House, Republicans and Democrats have come together to propose major legislation that would reduce prison sentences for some nonviolent drug offenders.

The House bill comes just a week after a bipartisan coalition of senators introduced a similar bill to give judges the discretion to give sentences that are less than federal mandatory minimums. While the House bill is not as broad as the Senate legislation, the two bills may foreshadow some of the most sweeping changes to sentencing guidelines in decades. Conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee planned to announce the legislation at a news conference Thursday. Supporters include House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., Michigan Rep. John Conyers, who is the panel's top Democrat, and Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee.

Like the Senate bill, the House legislation would eliminate mandatory life sentences for three-time, nonviolent offenders, reducing those mandatory minimum sentences to 25 years. It would apply those sentencing reductions retroactively, except for offenders who have prior serious violent felony convictions that resulted in a prison sentence of greater than 13 months. The House legislation will deal only with sentencing reform, but Goodlatte and Conyers said in a joint statement they plan to introduce additional bills soon on other criminal justice issues, including prison and re-entry reform and youth and juvenile justice issues. They did not offer specifics on those bills.

The legislation comes as about 6,000 federal inmates serving sentences for drug crimes are set for early release next month under a cost-cutting measure intended to reduce the nation's prison population. The releases scheduled for November are among the first of what could eventually be tens of thousands of eligible releases. The U.S. Sentencing Commission voted last year to retroactively apply substantially lower recommended sentences for those convicted of drug-related felonies. It also comes as disparate voices — from President Barack Obama and the ACLU to the conservative Koch Industries — agree the current system is broken. At the same time, national attention has focused on how police and the criminal justice system treat minorities after several high-profile deaths of black men at the hands of police in Missouri, Maryland, New York and elsewhere.

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