"We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy.... --ML King "Beyond Vietnam" (Courtesy of Gooserock)
Saki Knafo of Huffington Post writes that This Drug Sentencing Reform Could Save Taxpayers Billions, by changing the scoring system used to determine sentencing guidelines in federal courts, according to a report by the United States Sentencing Commission.
The commission studied the impact of a reform proposal that would reduce the average jail time served by drug offenders by two years, a plan that turns out could save the government the expense of 83,525 "bed years." This study looks at sentencing reform almost entirely through the lens of taking pressure off of the overly strained federal prison system which currently houses 40% more prisoners than it was designed for, which is also draining funds from other functions.
With about 100,000 federal prisoners doing time for drugs, at the cost of nearly $30,000 per prisoner a year, that comes out to more than $2.4 billion in total savings. ... inspector general has warned that prison overcrowding poses an "increasingly critical threat" to the safety and security of prisoners and staff.
The cost of keeping federal prisoners in jail makes up one third of the Department of Justice's budget.
Last month, the seven-member Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to adopt a change to the sentencing guidelines that would reduce drug sentences by an average of about 11 months per prisoner. Unless Congress rejects the change, it will go into effect on Nov. 1. Tuesday's report considers what would happen if the reform were applied to prisoners who are already behind bars. The commission says it will decide by July 18 whether to make the change retroactive.
Prisoner advocates are obviously hoping that the commission will apply retroactively. Our current sentencing guideline system was implemented in 1986, during a "wave of concern about crack cocaine. Maybe that sentence should read a "hysterical wave of panic."
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act specified a system of scoring different levels of crime, for possession of specific quantities of drugs, and attached a stiff and escalating set of jail times for each level. This reform would lower the sentences by two levels across the board. This article provides several detailed examples of crimes at level 18.
This reform would only apply to about half of the 100,888 federal prisoners convicted of drug offenses because the others were sentenced under a different mandatory sentencing statues that specify a fixed minimum time in prison. These should be reformed as well, however, this would require legislative action.
The reform is just one measure that could allow the Department of Justice to trim its bloated prison budget. Congress is considering a bipartisan bill that would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for those convicted of nonviolent drug crimes, and the Justice Department recently announced a huge expansion of its clemency process, which could lead to hundreds of drug prisoners going free before their sentences are up.
I favor this legislation as a first step we should take in a much larger reform of our sentencing system. Perhaps, this explains why this study's entire justification is explained in terms of how much money it would save the federal government. Which is OK with me as long as we get substantial reform.
The United States has the largest prison population in the world, measured both in terms of actual numbers, and as a fraction of our total population, largely due to excessively harsh sentencing for drug offenses.
We should also be studying sentencing reform in human terms, and from the perspective of justice, "letting the punishment" fit the "crime." In my opinion, many drug users are not criminals at all. Many are self medicating for depression, or other mental illness, and others were just unlucky, poor, or minorities at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Last week I covered an article on a 19 year old Texas kid, who used hash oil instead of marijuana to make a pound and a half of pot brownies. Because of the Texas state sentencing guidelines, the DA can use the weight of the sugar, butter, and flour and count these as if they are hash oil. Those writing the sentencing guidelines figured the only people with a pound and a half of has oil would be international drug smugglers so the sentence is 30 years to life.
This is absurd. In some states judges are helpless to do anything because hysterical lawmakers made these sentences mandatory. My opinion is that this as cruel and unusual way to treat people, many of who are in jail because we lack adequate mental health treatment. Do you remember in elementary school when we were taught how much more "advanced" we are now, in terms of civilization, because people in the savage and ignorant days of the past burned the mentally ill as witches, and mistreated them?
So we sit here doing nothing but watch as our "justice system" mows through our population like a farm combine through a wheat field.