U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the Justice Department will avoid charging certain low-level and nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimums. The policy shift will enable certain defendants who do have ties to large scale gangs or cartels, to avoid "draconian mandatory minimum sentences," the Huffington Post reported.
"Some issues are best handled at the state or local level," Holder said in a statement. "And that's why I have directed the United States Attorney community to develop specific, locally-tailored guidelines -- consistent with our national priorities -- for determining when federal charges should be filed, and when they should not."
The plan for "Smart on Crime" hopes to lower the overall federal prison population. Holder announced that elderly prisoners who have not committed violent crimes and served a significant portion of their sentences may also be eligible for release, news reports said.
"Today, a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities. However, many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate this problem, rather than alleviate it," Holder's statement read. "By reserving the most severe penalties for serious, high-level, or violent drug traffickers, we can better promote public safety, deterrence, and rehabilitation -- while making our expenditures smarter and more productive."
The announcement was a result of the Justice Department's review Holder launched earlier this year. Holder said that 17 states directed money away from prison construction and toward progrrams and services such as treatment and supervision that are designed to reduce the problem of repeat offenders, the AP reported.
The AP reported that African Americans and Hispanics will likely benefit the most from this policy shift, as the former makes up about 30 percent of federal drug convictions each year while Hispanics comprise about 40 percent, according to Mark Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a non-profit group involved in research policy reform of the criminal justice system.
