
On Monday, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., announced major changes to the federal criminal justice system, which included eliminating laws that require low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to gangs or large-scale drug organizations to serve mandatory minimum sentences.
In his speech, which was delivered at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Holder said, “While I have the utmost faith in — and dedication to — America’s legal system, we must face the reality that, as it stands, our system is in too many respects broken.”
Holder’s announcement was part of a broader, nationwide effort to reform the criminal justice system in the U.S., which in addition to doing away with mandatory minimum sentence structures for non-violent offenders, will allow for the early release of elderly and ill inmates who are no longer seen as a danger to society, but require a plethora of taxpayer dollars to care for.
In addition to outlining new sentencing and enforcement strategies in the U.S., Holder also made some statements that sounded promising to many medical marijuana advocates.
During his speech, Holder said, “As the so-called ‘war on drugs’ enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it, and the approaches that comprise it, have been truly effective — and build on the Administration’s efforts, led by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, to usher in a new approach. And 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.
“Today, a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities. And many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate these problems, rather than alleviate them.
“It’s clear — as we come together today — that too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason.”
According to reports from the U.S. Justice Department, Holder said the cost of incarceration in the U.S. was nearly $80 billion in 2010. And while the U.S. population has only increased by about a third since the 1980s, the federal prison population has grown by about 800 percent, resulting in most federal prisons having to operate at nearly 40 percent over capacity.
And as NBC News reported last week, the Supreme Court had ordered California to release about 10,000 inmates in order to relieve some of the overcrowding in the state’s prisons.
As Mint Press News previously reported, the U.S. incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world. The nation with the second-highest incarceration rate is Rwanda, followed by Cuba and Russia. Though the U.S. is home to less than 5 percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population are in the U.S.
And as opponents of the private prison industry have continually stressed, most people behind bars have committed low-level, non-violent crimes, particularly drug and property offenses. In 1980, there were about 5,000 drug offenders behind bars, which amounted to about 20 percent of the total prison population. In 2010, however, there were about 100,000 drug offenders in federal prison, which was about 50 percent of the prison population.
Coming soon: End of medical marijuana raids?
One part of Holder’s speech that caught the attention of many marijuana advocates, was when the Attorney General said the DOJ reform “will start by fundamentally rethinking the notion of mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes…
“This is why I have today mandated a modification of the Justice Department’s charging policies so that certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs, or cartels will no longer be charged with offenses that impose draconian mandatory minimum sentences. They now will be charged with offenses for which the accompanying sentences are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins.
“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. We’ve seen that this approach has bipartisan support in Congress — where a number of leaders, including Senators Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul have introduced what I think is promising legislation aimed at giving federal judges more discretion in applying mandatory minimums to certain drug offenders. Such legislation will ultimately save our country billions of dollars while keeping us safe And the President and I look forward to working with members of both parties to refine and advance these proposals.”
In a press release, Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group applauded the sentiment of Holder’s speech, and said they were “cautiously optimistic that the announcement will bring about the compassionate release of federal medical marijuana prisoners.” The group also pointed out that during his speech, Holder said that the DOJ is “considering compassionate release for inmates facing extraordinary or compelling circumstances.”
In an interview with Mint Press News earlier this May, Kris Hermes, media liaison for ASA, said that since President Obama took office, there have been more than 200 medical marijuana raids — higher than the rate George W. Bush’s administration logged during his eight years in office. Hermes said of those patients, more than 100 people who were indicted were living in states that had legalized medical marijuana, and said most, if not all, were in compliance with state law.
According to ASA, there are currently more than 24 medical marijuana patients serving sentences for violating federal marijuana laws, including some from states where medical marijuana is legal.
One of those prisoners, Jerry Duval — a kidney-pancreas transplant patient, who has a slew of other medical conditions including glaucoma, diabetes and coronary artery disease — is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for cultivating medical marijuana, even though Duval was following Michigan state law.
Due to marijuana’s illegal federal status and classification as a Schedule 1 drug, medical marijuana patients are not able to defend themselves on the grounds that medical marijuana was a medical necessity or allowed by state law.
According to a press release from Americans for Safe Access, in addition to his prison sentence, the Justice Department is trying to take Jerry Duval’s home and farmland, which is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since he is in federal prison, Duval has not been able to use medical marijuana to help him with his medical conditions. He has filed a “compassionate release,” asking the Bureau of Prisons to reconsider his sentence given his medical condition, but has not yet received a response.
Steph Sherer is the executive director of ASA. She said, “The human and financial cost of imprisoning a nonviolent medical marijuana patients such as Jerry Duval is one of the greatest travesties of the Justice Department’s current enforcement and sentencing strategy. We look forward to Attorney General Holder bringing about the compassionate release of Mr. Duval and reconsideration of all the other nonviolent federal medical marijuana prisoners.”
As Mint Press News previously reported, of concern to many medical marijuana advocates is the amount of resources the DOJ has spent going after medical marijuana patients in states where medical marijuana has been legalized.
Each year, the Drug Enforcement Agency spends about $40 billion on marijuana raids alone, despite the fact that no one has ever died from consuming or smoking too much marijuana. According to the ASA, each raid costs taxpayers around $17,000.
Congressional response
Since excerpts of Holder’s speech were floating around prior to the actual speech, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) released the following statement, applauding Holder’s efforts to reform the DOJ.
“I am encouraged that the President and Attorney General agree with me that mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders promote injustice and do not serve public safety. I look forward to working with them to advance my bipartisan legislation, the Justice Safety Valve Act, to permanently restore justice and preserve judicial discretion in federal cases. I introduced this legislation in March with Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy as a legislative fix to the very problem Attorney General Holder discussed today.
“The Administration’s involvement in this bipartisan issue is a welcome development. Now the hard work begins to change the law to permanently address this injustice.”
While Holder will be able to enact some of the DOJ reform himself, he said that he will need “Members of Congress from both parties — as well as governors, mayors, and other leaders — to build on the great work being done across the country to reduce violent crime and reform our criminal justice system.
“We need to keep taking steps to make sure people feel safe and secure in their homes and communities. And part of that means doing something about the lives being harmed, not helped, by a criminal justice system that doesn’t serve the American people as well as it should.”
Holder ended his speech by saying the DOJ reformation is America’s chance to define our time “as one of progress and innovation,” and is “our promise — to gore a more just society.” He said that even though the reforms will not transpire overnight and there will be resistance and opposition to the plans he announced, he added that “if we keep moving forward together – knowing that the need for this work will outlast us, but determined to make the difference that we seek – then I know we can all be confident in where these efforts will lead us.
“I look forward to everything that we will undoubtedly achieve. And I will always be proud to stand alongside you in building the brighter, more just, and more prosperous future that all of our citizens deserve.”