Posted on 06/11/2014 8:17:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In a proposal that could have a far-reaching impact on the Black community, Attorney General Eric Holder is urging the U.S. Sentencing Commission to cut the sentences of as many as 20,000 federal prisoners serving time for nonviolent drug offenses.
It is Holder’s latest move to reform the sentencing guidelines that he has said disproportionately affect African-American males.
The Justice Department appealed Tuesday to the U.S. Sentencing Commission to make some prisoners retroactively eligible for reduced sentences. The commission has already approved a measure to reduce drug sentences for future nonviolent offenders. This would apply to offenders already in federal prison — affecting an estimated 9 percent of the 217,000 federal prisoners. The pitch was made by Sally Yates, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and Charles Samuels, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“Not everyone in prison for a drug-related offense would be eligible,” Holder said Tuesday. “Nor would everyone who is eligible be guaranteed a reduced sentence. But this proposal strikes the best balance between protecting public safety and addressing the overcrowding of our prison system that has been exacerbated by unnecessarily long sentences.”
“We believe that the federal drug sentencing structure in place before the amendment resulted in unnecessarily long sentences for some offenders and that has resulted in significant prison overcrowding,” Yates said in prepared remarks for the hearing.
In other Justice Department news, a bipartisan group of 21 senators sent a letter to Holder asking for the department to investigate the Veterans Affairs scandal.
Authored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the letter follows an internal audit by the VA released Monday showing more than 57,000 veterans had been waiting for up to three months for a medical appointment, and that an additional 64,000 who enrolled in the agency’s health care over the past decade may have never been seen by a doctor. This audit came on the heels of an interim inspector general report from the Phoenix VA facility finding that 1,700 veterans were waiting for a primary care appointment but not found on any waiting list. The Phoenix facility is the one that initially made news when it was reported that up to 40 veterans died waiting for care.
“Evidence of secret waiting times, falsification of records, destruction of documents, and other potential criminal wrongdoing has appalled and angered the nation, and imperiled trust and confidence in the Veterans Health Administration,” the senators said in the letter. “While we commend and appreciate the IG’s pursuit of his inquiry, an effective and prompt criminal investigation must inevitably involve the resources of the Department of Justice, including the FBI.”
Confusion is better than surprise ... that’s why flash bangs are so effective
Well, Obama would get a very well trained army. Likely with the “right” religion. 20,000 is only a beginning.
Just Us
They may not take us on that way. They will, for the foreseeable future, keep picking us off a few at a time. The longer I look at this, the more I think whites do not have the stomach to fight this, and the government will never allow a white back lash.
“Allow” you say? When TSHF, there’ll be no such word.
Can we send them all to Washington, D.C.?
word has it that there’s a lot of convertifyin goin on... at Stoney Lonseome
Well, the one thing that the Obama administration does very well is to let criminals out of prison.
Releasing all 20,000 is fine with me.............as long as Holder takes their place. He is more dangerous.
fta... he has said disproportionately affect African-American males.
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Holder fails to mention that most of the drug crimes are done by blacks, so the number of blacks incarcerated are obviously going to be greater.
And how many of these were plea bargins down from more serious crimes?
I suspect that most of H0lders held peeps are sentence challenged.
Most people on this thread don’t have their thinking caps on....
20,000 NON VIOLENT - convicted men. Drug crimes.
Worst case is these guys get back on the street and go right back to selling dope. More dope = more drugged up Americans too stoned to riot or revolt or give 2 shits about voting.
It costs what on average to house a federal inmate? $30k?
So this move saves the US govt. $600million a year! Could it be? Democrats actually about to save money?
The problem isn’t with letting this 20k out... It’s why can’t we let out 40k. For decades now federal sentencing has been inhumanely severe. Virtual life sentences dealt out like candy for non-violent crimes.
As a conservative I’m humiliated that our once proud Nation has put more people in prison than any other country on the planet. China, Russia? Nope - more people locked up and more per capita locked up in the “Land of the Free”. Disgusting.
Non-violent drug dealers, really? Just another asswipe race baiter. Remember the FALN under the rapist Clinton that were released.
Unlike any other nation we literally pay the poverty plantation to generate our prison population.
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