{"id":5110,"date":"2013-08-12T10:01:46","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T14:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=5110"},"modified":"2013-08-12T10:02:35","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T14:02:35","slug":"avoid-charging-low-level-and-nonviolent-drug-offenders-u-s-doj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/avoid-charging-low-level-and-nonviolent-drug-offenders-u-s-doj.html","title":{"rendered":"Avoid charging low-level and nonviolent drug offenders –U.S. DoJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nIt’s about time!\r\nThe War on Drugs has failed, admits the U.S. Department of Justice,\r\nby saying it will “avoid charging certain low-level and nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimums”.\r\n

\r\nRyan J. Reilly wrote for Huffpo today,\r\n\r\nEric Holder Outlining New Justice Department Drug Sentencing Reforms<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe Justice Department will avoid charging certain low-level and\r\nnonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimums,\r\nAttorney General Eric Holder will announce Monday. The policy shift\r\nwill allow certain defendants — those without ties to\r\nlarge-scale organizations, gangs or cartels — to avoid what\r\nHolder called “draconian mandatory minimum sentences.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nHolder, in a speech before the American Bar Association in San\r\nFrancisco on Monday, will also announce that the Justice Department\r\nis giving U.S. Attorneys throughout the country a greater amount of\r\nprosecutorial discretion.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“Some issues are best handled at the state or local level,” Holder\r\nwill say, according to prepared remarks provided by the Justice\r\nDepartment. “And that’s why I have directed the United States\r\nAttorney community to develop specific, locally-tailored guidelines\r\n— consistent with our national priorities — for\r\ndetermining when federal charges should be filed, and when they\r\nshould not.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe “Smart On Crime” plan that Holder is announcing intends to lower\r\nthe overall federal prison population. As part of that measure,\r\nHolder will announce, elderly prisoners who committed no violent\r\ncrimes and served a significant portion of their sentences may be\r\neligible for early release.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n“Today, a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration\r\ntraps too many Americans and weakens too many communities,” Holder\r\nwill say. “However, many aspects of our criminal justice system may\r\nactually exacerbate this problem, rather than alleviate it.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWhat will you do now, CCA?\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s about time! The War on Drugs has failed, admits the U.S. Department of Justice, by saying it will “avoid charging certain low-level and nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimums”. Ryan J. Reilly wrote for Huffpo today, Eric Holder Outlining New Justice Department Drug Sentencing Reforms, The Justice Department will avoid charging […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,2,41,19,72,20],"tags":[1298,1902,8704,6798,8701,8699,8718,8709,8730,8702,8710,6799,12,7,6800,839,2867,6,82],"class_list":["post-5110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-government","category-health-care","category-history","category-incarceration","category-law","tag-crime","tag-department-of-justice","tag-economy","tag-eric-holder","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-health-care","tag-history","tag-incarceration","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-low-level","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nonviolent","tag-poverty","tag-sentencing","tag-valdosta","tag-war-on-drugs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1kq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5113,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5110\/revisions\/5113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}