National News
Drug Offenders Get Retroactive Sentence Reductions
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – In a major
move last week, the U.S. Sentencing Com-
mission voted unanimously to moderate
federal sentencing guidelines for drug
offenses, and apply the guidelines retroac-
tively. Consequently, more than 46,000
currently incarcerated drug offenders – 73
percent of whom are Black or Latino – will
now be eligible for a reduction in their sen-
tences.
“This amendment [to the guidelines]
received unanimous support from Commis-
sioners because it is a measured approach,”
said Judge Patti B. Saris, chair of the com-
mission. “It reduces prison costs and
populations and responds to statutory and
guidelines changes since the drug guide-
lines were initially developed, while
safeguarding public safety.”
The Sentencing Commission is an inde-
pendent agency in the federal court system
tasked with creating federal prison sentenc-
ing policy. Though the amendment is aimed
at reducing overcrowding (another of the
agency’s responsibilities), there are also
implications for the legacy of the war on
drugs. The Commission reports that federal
prisons are over capacity by 32 percent. In
the long run, the amendment could save
nearly 80,000 “bed years.”.
“We think [the amendment] represents
really an historic step forward in terms of
making changes to the war on drugs, which
has been waged for three decades – and has-
n’t really reduced the amount of drugs that
are available, and hasn’t done that much
about drug abuse, but has filled half our fed-
PHOTO COURTESY USSC
By Jazelle Hunt
NNPA Washington Correspondent
The u.S. Drug Sentencing Commission. On July 18, the panel voted
unanimously to apply a reduction in the sentencing guideline levels
applicable to most federal drug trafficking offenders retroactively. unless
Congress disapproves the amendment, beginning Nov. 1, 2014, eligible
offenders can ask courts to reduce their sentences. Offenders whose requests
are granted by the courts can be released no earlier than Nov. 1, 2015.
sentences reduced. The courts will review
to determine whether reducing the sentence
poses a public threat. Motions will be decid-
ed on a rolling basis—but actual releases
won’t begin until November 1, 2015.
The time allows for a smooth transition.
Judges will be able to carefully review each
of the eligible 46,290 cases, and prosecutors
will have time to object, if desired. Federal
probation professionals will have time to
prepare to supervise those being released
low-level drug offenders to treatment as
opposed to incarceration, has increased
each year since 2012.
Additionally, there has been some traction
and effective collaboration on drug reform
in recent years. In 2008, for example, Pres-
ident George W. Bush signed the Second
Chance Act into law, which gave subsidies
to companies that hired ex-offenders. Even
the Commission’s vote has been a collabo-
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‘It reduces prison costs and populations and
responds to statutory and guidelines changes
since the drug guidelines were initially
developed’
eral prison cells with people with drug
offenses,” says Jeremy Haile, federal advo-
cacy counsel for the Sentencing Project, a
national incarceration research, reform, and
advocacy organization.
“It’s been a particularly devastating
blow—the war on drugs—to communities
of color. So even though people of all races
use and sell drugs at roughly the same rates,
Blacks and Latinos are far more likely to be
incarcerated for drug offenses.”
The amendment works by raising the drug
quantity thresholds that trigger mandatory
minimum sentences. Sentencing for federal
rative process, eliciting more than 60,000
mostly-favorable letters from elected offi-
cials, organizations, citizens, and legal
professionals during a public comment peri-
od.
However, social, executive, and judicial
interventions alone are not enough to
address the lingering effects of the drug war.
For example, the scope of the Sentencing
Commission’s vote only affects those serv-
ing time in federal facilities; meanwhile, the
bulk of the nation’s drug offenders are con-
victed at the state level.
Without Congressional action, some drug
policy problems—particularly the mandato-
ry minimum guidelines that impose
sentences based on the amount and drug
involved, regardless of the case facts and/or
judge’s assessment—will remain in effect.
Several elected officials have made
attempts at legislation to address these
issues. Most recently, the Smarter Sentenc-
ing Act, introduced in the Senate last year,
and again in March, seeks to allow the court
to disregard the mandatory minimum guide-
lines in cases involving low-level,
nonviolent offenders.
“The Sentencing Commission did about
as well as it could, given the constraints
with mandatory minimum [sentencing
guidelines], which can only be repealed or
reduced by Congress,” says Haile. “Some
people might be tempted to think that…this
[vote] means the problem is solved, but
really it’s going to continue to be a problem
even when all these reforms are carried out.
We’ll still need to heal the problems from
mandatory minimums, and we’ll still need
Congressional action.”
is as easy as
earlier than expected, and the Federal
Bureau of Prisons will have time to set-up
reentry provisions for them.
The commission estimates that those
approved will receive a reduction of about
two years, on average. Because the eligible
cases span a few decades, these early releas-
es will take place over many years. Though
there are a few thousand offenders whose
resentencing would allow them to be
released immediately on the November
date.
This amendment is another step in a slow,
but sweeping effort to get a handle on inef-
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‘Even though people of all races use and sell
drugs at roughly the same rates, Blacks and
Latinos are far more likely to be incarcerated
for drug offenses’
drug offenses moving forward will use this
new threshold, but the amendment is also
retroactive. Many offenders’ cases would no
longer meet those thresholds.
Offenders must meet seven criteria to be
eligible for a revised (and likely reduced)
sentence, including: an original sentence
longer than the mandatory minimum; no
convictions under career criminal guide-
lines; and no alterations to the original
mandatory-minimum sentence through spe-
cial leniency or assisting authorities.
Starting now, eligible offenders can file a
motion to have their cases reviewed and
fective drug policy. In 2010, the Obama
administration released its first plan for
drug policy reform, a holistic strategy to
address drugs as an international and public
health issue. And according to independent
political fact-checking project, Politifact,
President Barack Obama has kept most of
his drug reform promises.
In 2010, he signed the Fair Sentencing
Act, which reduced the mandatory mini-
mum sentencing guidelines that had created
a decades-long 100-to-1 sentencing dispari-
ty between crack and cocaine offenses.
Funding to state drug courts, which funnel
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July 30, 2014 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 9