Published on Aug 12, 2013
AG Holder Address the ABA on Prison Sentences
Attorney
General Eric Holder addresses the American Bar Association's annual
meeting in San Francisco where he is expected to discuss drug offenses
and prison sentencing. Founded in 1878, the national association of
lawyers includes 410,000 members.***************************************************************
This coming from an Administration that raids and prosecutes LEGAL Marijuana Dispensaries in States where Marijuana has been LEGALIZED!
While totally at peace with the concept of gun running to drug dealers via the DEA.
How hypocritical can you get ?
~Desert Rose~***************************************************************
Holder seeks to avert mandatory minimum sentences for some low-level drug offenders
Graphic
Drug offenses account for 17%, or nearly one in five, of those in state prisons, according to national incarceration data.
“We must face the reality that, as it stands, our system is, in too many ways, broken,” Holder said. “And with an outsized, unnecessarily large prison population, we need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, to deter and to rehabilitate — not merely to warehouse and to forget.”
“A vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities,” Holder said Monday. (Excerpts of his prepared remarks were provided Sunday to The Washington Post.) He added that “many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate these problems rather than alleviate them.”
It is clear that “too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no truly good law enforcement reason,” Holder said. “We cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation,” he added later in the speech.
Holder is calling for a change in Justice Department policies to reserve the most severe penalties for drug offenses for serious, high-level or violent drug traffickers. He has directed his 94 U.S. attorneys across the country to develop specific, locally tailored guidelines for determining when federal charges should be filed and when they should not.
Read More Here
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Holder’s move on mandatory minimums a boon to Rand Paul
Sen.
Rand Paul (R-Ky.) gestures as he speaks at a forum on immigration
organized by the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles and the
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Wednesday, June 12,
2013, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn
Martin/Associated Press)
A Paul staffer said the potential 2016 presidential candidate, who has already proposed a bill giving judges more leeway in sentencing drug offenders below the mandatory minimums, will work with the Obama administration on the issue.
“This is already a bipartisan issue, led in the Senate by Sens. Paul, [Patrick] Leahy, [Mike] Lee and [Richard] Durbin,” said the staffer, granted anonymity to discuss strategy. “Senator Paul believes strongly in this issue and that we must find a solution. He is pleased to work with all who agree and want to push forward.”
The aide also said that there has been contact between Paul and the administration.
Update 1:17 p.m.: Paul has released the following statement: “I look forward to working with them to advance my bipartisan legislation, the Justice Safety Valve Act, to permanently restore justice and preserve judicial discretion in federal cases. … The Administration’s involvement in this bipartisan issue is a welcome development. Now the hard work begins to change the law to permanently address this injustice.”
Read More Here
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