Current Events > Attorney General Sessions Orders Tougher Drug Crime Prosecutions

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/attorney-general-sessions-orders-tougher-drug-crime-prosecutions-n758111

Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors this week to seek the maximum punishment for drug offenses, in one of the clearest breaks yet from the policies of the Justice Department under the Obama administration.

The move is an abrupt departure from policy made by President Barack Obama's Attorney General, to reduce the number of people convicted of certain lower-level drug crimes being given long jail terms.

The change, "affirms our responsibility to enforce the law, is moral and just, and produces consistency," Sessions said, in a memo to federal prosecutors written May 10 and made public Friday.

The memo urged prosecutors to file "the most serious, readily provable" charges that carry the most substantial punishment, including mandatory minimum sentences.

t marked a reversal of the policy imposed in 2013 under former Attorney General Eric Holder's "smart on crime" initiative. This directed prosecutors not to report the amount of drugs involved in an arrest if it would trigger mandatory minimums for non-violent offenders who had no ties to drug cartels or gangs and who did not sell to children.

In announcing his policy, Holder said at the time, "With an outsized, unnecessarily large prison population, we need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter, and rehabilitate — not merely to warehouse and forget." Prosecutors were directed instead to focus on the most serious offenses.

Holder's approach included legislation to reduce some mandatory minimum sentences. Although it received bi-partisan support in Congress, it did not pass. One of those against the idea was Jeff Sessions, who did however support the successful move to reduce the disparity between sentences for offenses involving crack, as opposed to powdered cocaine.

Some prosecutors opposed Holder's directive, saying it deprived them of a tool for persuading drug crime defendants to plead guilty. But two years after imposing his policy, Holder said the share of cases in which defendants cooperated remained the same — about 97 percent.

In this week's memo, Sessions said the change was consistent with the Justice Department's responsibility "to fulfill our role in a way that accords with the law, advances public safety, and promotes respect for our legal system."

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christ

One day I hope the libertarian party will be a realistic party.
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What a moron
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Gotta fill up those privately run prisons
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Good. No issue with this

@fenderbender321 posted...

This is horrible. The appointment of Jeff Sessions should be everyone's #1 issue with Trump's presidency.

you expected republicans to go easy on drug users?
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fenderbender321 posted...

Not necessarily, but I wouldn't have expected them to go back in the other direction and try to get tough on crime again when it's clear it doesn't work.

You were really expecting Republicans to actually want to move foward when they could profit instead?
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fenderbender321 posted...

Not necessarily, but I wouldn't have expected them to go back in the other direction

what made you think that stupid thought?
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foreveraIone posted...

fenderbender321 posted...

Not necessarily, but I wouldn't have expected them to go back in the other direction and try to get tough on crime again when it's clear it doesn't work.

You were really expecting Republicans to actually want to move foward when they could profit instead?

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fenderbender321 posted...

Doom_Art posted...

fenderbender321 posted...

Not necessarily, but I wouldn't have expected them to go back in the other direction

what made you think that stupid thought?

fenderbender321 posted...

I don't follow politics too often, though.

clearly
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fenderbender321 posted...

The reason I didn't see this coming is because I feel like it would piss off a lot of people who voted for Trump, while not really gaining anything. There were no loud cries from the ultra conservatives about needing stricter drug enforcement or anything like that at all.

establishment neocon governs like an establishment neocon.

more news at 11
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fenderbender321 posted...

The reason I didn't see this coming is because I feel like it would piss off a lot of people who voted for Trump, while not really gaining anything. There were no loud cries from the ultra conservatives about needing stricter drug enforcement or anything like that at all.

he doesn't care what his voters think, y'all would vote for him again even knowing what you know now
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I wonder if this could inadvertently lead to more states legalizing stuff, especially marijuana. Public consensus is not to lock up small time drug users.
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lilORANG posted...

I wonder if this could inadvertently lead to more states legalizing stuff, especially marijuana. Public consensus is not to lock up small time drug users.

Sessions has in past expressed an interest in enforcing federal law even in states where marijuana is legal.
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Antifar posted...

Sessions has in past expressed an interest in enforcing federal law even in states where marijuana is legal.

A great example of small government, I'm sure.
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