Joseph Tanfani
Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions
has ordered federal prosecutors to return to tough policies against
drug abusers, ending a push by the Obama administration to clear prisons
of lower-level criminals serving long, mandatory minimum sentences.
He rescinded two policy memos signed by a predecessor, former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., that told prosecutors to be cautious in their use of methods that can produce dramatically harsher jail terms.
In a memo released Friday, Sessions instructed Justice Department lawyers to “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense."
By
definition, he added, the most serious offenses “carry the most
substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences.”
Sessions long has been aggressive on drug crimes, starting
in 1975 when he became a federal prosecutor, and later when he served as
U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama from 1981 to 1993.
During
his four terms in the Senate, Sessions supported a law that reduced the
difference in sentences for crack cocaine and the powdered form of the
drug, a disparity that had disproportionately penalized African
Americans.
But Sessions has strongly condemned marijuana
use, and helped block a 2016 bill that would have eased federal
sentencing for using it.
With
the rise of federal mandatory sentencing laws in the 1980s and 1990s,
judges were stripped of much of their discretion on how to sentence drug
users.
Decisions made by prosecutors often effectively determine how long offenders will spend in prison.
For
example, if federal prosecutors include the amount of drugs in their
written charges, that can trigger a mandatory minimum sentence.
They
also have the discretion to file motions for so-called sentence
“enhancements,” which can effectively double drug sentences for repeat
offenders.
Some prosecutors use these tough tools as a hammer in plea negotiations, or to force offenders to cooperate.
Starting
in 2013, Holder instructed federal prosecutors to use that power more
sparingly and to reserve the toughest charges for high-level traffickers
and violent criminals.
“As a nation, we are coldly
efficient in our incarceration efforts,” Holder said in a speech
decrying the growth in America’s prison population.
The
Obama-era policies led to a sharp decline in the number of drug
offenders hit with mandatory minimum sentences, from 62% in 2013 to 44%
last year, according to U.S. Sentencing Commission data compiled by a
sentencing reform group, Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
“Those
numbers will go up when you are telling prosecutors to charge the
harshest crimes they can get,” said Molly Gill, FAMM’s director of
federal legislative affairs.
“It’s really ironic,” she
added. "Jeff Sessions touts himself as a champion of public safety, and
they want to waste taxpayers’ money on people who aren’t that much of a
threat.”
Gill said the crackdown ordered by Sessions and
President Trump probably signals an end to efforts in Congress to reduce
mandatory sentences.
“I think right now that’s probably dead,” she said.
In
his memo, Sessions said prosecutors must disclose “all facts” relevant
to a sentence, like drug amounts. He canceled a Holder policy that said
prosecutors should not use sentencing enhancement motions to coerce
guilty pleas.
If prosecutors decide to deviate from the
tough policies, they have to get a supervisor’s approval, Sessions said.
Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein will be responsible for overseeing the
new guidelines.
“Our responsibility is to fulfill our
role in a way that accords with the law, advances public safety, and
promotes respect for our legal system,” Sessions’ memo says, saying his
goal is to “fully utilize the tools Congress has given us.”
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